Movecube ala Tetris

[Guest]

Just sharing my experience with Sevenseas and the Movecube so far. It has arrived in the UK and although they quoted me for door-to-door, and it states this on my invoice that I paid before leaving Oz, they have just charged me an extra 40% to transfer it from the hub/port to my address. Not exactly door-to-door - very misleading. I was going to fight it but it's in the small print on their website only (they did not confirm this extra charge on the phone or in any email I have from them). I wanted to flag this so others aren't caught out like we were. Door-to-door is door to port and they will charge you an additional amount of approx $550 once it arrives in the UK.

 

Also, the move cube remains in the delivery truck when you are packing it and there is no lift or step - I struggled to help my husband as I couldn't lift the heavier items that high so he had to carry heavy or fairly large items while climbing into a high-level truck. It was a struggle to fill the crate for this reason since we struggled to reach and Sevenseas provided no equipment to help. Make sure you have some helping hands (but having little advance notice of the delivery time makes this difficult during working hours) and have a step ladder ready.

 

I've been really disappointed in the service so far. I still have another two weeks to wait before they deliver it - I received an email yesterday stating it was ready for delivery but this was the earliest date I could get.

 

Sorry to sound so negative but I want to share my experience so people can make an informed decision. If I knew what I know now I would have used an alternative service.

 

Do you live in a remote area or somewhere difficult to get to? If you live in a major city or large town with easy access I'm surprised to hear they are charging excess to deliver. And 40% is steep.

 

Door to door was exactly that for us when we used one going from Bristol area in the UK to Adelaide in Aus. We were told that if we lived too far out in the UK, ie small village in countryside somewhere or hard to access down a muddy dirt track then they could not provide a service. And that once it arrived in Adelaide they only covered the Adelaide area, not out rural anywhere. But we lived in a decent sized town not far from Bristol so wasn't an issue and the other end we were in the Adelaide metropolitan area. We also knew we would have a cost to pay once the Movecube arrived in Aus but did not know the amount. This was for customs check. However, it wasn't a hidden cost or sprung on us just no one could tell us how much it would be till the check was done.

 

Re the cube staying in a trailer, I thought this was pretty clear and they never said otherwise. You watch the video and you can clearly see that it will be a step up and the box stays in the trailer. We were told during our quote it would remain in the trailer, but already knew this would be the case also from reading the website, so had planned for this. It wasn't a normal step up thats for sure, bit more than that height wise but we had no issues loading our furniture into it but we were both fully able to lift and load. Same with boxes. We had one of those little trolleys to wheel a number of boxes to the back of the trailer and then one of us lifted them onto the back of the trailer, the other was already in there and lifted and stacked them in. Same for furniture, we carried it out, got it to the back of the trailer and then one hopped up, the other stayed on the ground.

 

I'm sorry you had a crappy experience. It does happen to people when shipping (can happen with any company I guess) and its never nice. Hope your stuff arrives soon.

 

ETA - Is the charge you have had added on called a 'Destination charge'? I just looked on their website and this is what the customs fees etc fall into. Which is the charge we paid once our cube arrived in Aus, was checked at customs and before we could have it delivered. From the MoveCube site

 

The Destination Charge is for the examination of the goods and processing of the documentation to obtain ‘goods entry clearance’ but excludes any custom duties or quarantine treatment charges if any.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Guest
eta

[Catlady2014]

@kevsan, @snifter, did you use your own boxes or order from Movecube? Is there any reason not to use whatever secondhand boxes/containers I already have?  For instance, I still have the original boxes that things like my printer, coffee-maker etc came in?  And I have other cartons donated by various people in anticipation of my move.  

[Guest]

22 minutes ago, Catlady2014 said:

@kevsan, @snifter, did you use your own boxes or order from Movecube? Is there any reason not to use whatever secondhand boxes/containers I already have?  For instance, I still have the original boxes that things like my printer, coffee-maker etc came in?  And I have other cartons donated by various people in anticipation of my move.  

I ordered a heap of tea chest sized and book box sized from a company (not Movecube, too expensive) to ensure they were all the same dimensions for stacking inside the cube. I didn't want some boxes being bigger than others and therefore not stacking properly. Every inch of space counts when loading it. So 2 box sizes was all and I knew where I stood then and could measure dimensions exactly and pack it to fit. 

I don't see much point using the original boxes items came in if you are then packing them within a packing box. Having so many different sized boxes stacked loose in a cube will just eat into space and time to load it all. Personally I'd go with putting all that stuff inside packing boxes, not using the original boxes, to save time and room when loading. Or if you want to keep the original boxes, then packing those into the shipping cartons. 

 

 

 

[Catlady2014]

2 minutes ago, snifter said:

I ordered a heap of tea chest sized and book box sized from a company (not Movecube, too expensive) to ensure they were all the same dimensions for stacking inside the cube. I didn't want some boxes being bigger than others and therefore not stacking properly. Every inch of space counts when loading it. So 2 box sizes was all and I knew where I stood then and could measure dimensions exactly and pack it to fit. 

I don't see much point using the original boxes items came in if you are then packing them within a packing box. Having so many different sized boxes stacked loose in a cube will just eat into space and time to load it all. Personally I'd go with putting all that stuff inside packing boxes, not using the original boxes, to save time and room when loading. Or if you want to keep the original boxes, then packing those into the shipping cartons. 

 

 

 

Thank you.  I was thinking of the original equipment boxes because they also have the polystyrene packing inside them to protect the equipment.  But I take the point about putting them inside shipping cartons.   

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Catlady2014 said:

Thank you.  I was thinking of the original equipment boxes because they also have the polystyrene packing inside them to protect the equipment.  But I take the point about putting them inside shipping cartons.   

If they are not going to be taking up masses of room it's fine. We didn't put anything back in the original boxes, just packed round them carefully with other things. Nothing got damaged. Bubble wrapped the computer was all. 

[kevsan]

 

8 hours ago, Catlady2014 said:

Thank you.  I was thinking of the original equipment boxes because they also have the polystyrene packing inside them to protect the equipment.  But I take the point about putting them inside shipping cartons.   

This was pretty much the approach we took - and used what we had. We did have a number of similar sized box from our previous house move, but that was more luck than judgement, the tv went in its own box, my bike went in a bike box i borrowed from a friend etc. The sofa and other items were just bubblewrapped and shoved it. if you plan in advance and have the luxury of a movecube sized space to pre stack you can make it worth your while.

[Cegor]

Does anyone know of any Canadians that have moved a shipping container to Australia? It seems this thread is for UK folks. Am I wrong in thinking this? I'm new to this forum. Still learning to navigate the site and absorb all the info you guys have to offer

 

cheers