WARNING: shipping furniture?

[Baldyin38]

Please be advised. If you are thinking of shipping your furniture across to OZ...it can take a minimum of 12 weeks. yes..12 weeks..dont beleive the hype from those taking thousands from you to get it here in 8 weeks.

It is unfortunate that they forget to tell you it will detour to other countries where it may be held up...and when this happens...its too late.... they have your money and you can do nothing about it.

So please plan for a 12 week wait. Dont be dissapointed. DONT BELEIVE THE REMOVERS!!!

[Guest sheena]

it depends if you have a full container or share!!!

ours took 17 weeks! so your 12 is nothing!!!! :biglaugh:

 

 

sheena :wubclub:

[Guest Working to fish]

We were told 8 weeks it took about 14 weeks . Most of all make sure you have all your stuff insured.

 

I would no way in the world send your things with out insurance.

 

eddie

[Guest The Baggo's]

Our belongings took 9 weeks and arrived before us - although that was the plan as we were living at my mum and dads! We used DAP in Kent who we couldn't fault! I just wished we had of put everything in the container!!

[Baldyin38]

Would be intereresting to see what companies lived up to their names and what companies let everyone down. Nice wee hobby for data freaks...lol. You could sell your info back to the companies...bet they would pay a fortune for it not to be posted!!!:yes:

[Herbster]

Please be advised. If you are thinking of shipping your furniture across to OZ...it can take a minimum of 12 weeks. yes...dont beleive the hype from those taking thousands from you to get it here in 8 weeks...they forget to tell you it will detour to other countries where it may be held up...and when this happens...its too late.... they have your money and you can do nothing about it...please plan for a 12 week wait. Dont be dissapointed. DONT BELEIVE THE REMOVERS!!!

 

OK, I think it's a good idea to allow a couple extra weeks, but you generally actually can't blame the Removal Companies!! Our furniture was collected April 25th, & our removal guys were hustling, running with furniture to fill the container as quickly as possible - it was our container, if you are sharing one, then obviously that's a different story! - It was loaded in less than 3 hours, some of those guys were then driving down to Coventry from Newcastle-upon-Tyne - to load another shipment :arghh: ! Our driver was under starters orders: he had to get that container down to the railhead where it had a designated slot on the rails in order to meet our boat, which was at sea Monday. So nothing there to fault Doree Bonners/Kelly Removals... our container is on a vessel with hundreds of others, there was an ETA, which really is BEST CASE SCENARIO! which was June 8th in Tas...

I agree that the removalists could be more open with how ones container makes it's way round the world,(& some do offer tracking) but I suspect not everyone wants to know this info. (A bit scary!) As it transpired, our boat had problems and suffered a mechanical delay. This meant missing it's allocated connection in Singapore & having to wait its turn for a new boat going to Hobart - not all of them do! And of course this was via the East coast of Australia! Actual days on the ocean are around 40, which is pretty quick - but where the time can be lost is at port, loading/unloading & glitches, such as our mechanical one, and that doesn't even factor in the unpredictable weather roaming the High Seas... Also with the current fuel crises, I believe boats are sailing slower to ecconomise - so eventually our shipment arrived at our home 8:59 June 30th, so unfortunately 3-weeks late, but really pretty quick when you think how many miles it's covered... And over a week of that was on TasRail...

 

Again, Grace's this side did everyting they could to rush it through Customs, as our rep knew we were desperate for it! So it wasn't their faults at all that our shipment was delayed, & the rail here in Tassie is diabolical; it wouldn't have been so bad, if it weren't for the fact that we were staying with dear people that had endured a succession of visitors the previous seven months & we'd only expected to stay a week. :huh: In a nutshell, allow an extra 2 weeks anyway, & I think you'll find most removers offer some free days storage which would cover an early arrival... Also should you have paid your agent all the Customs fees, & you receive a bill from Customs & Quarrantine - don't pay it, take it to your agents & they'll pay it!

Hope this helps you plan ahead,

 

[Baldyin38]

Thanks Herbster. Its good to read there is an exception to the rule. Glad it all worked out well for you.

We had tracking with our removal also, it said the same thing from day 1 to the final day which was today and still said it was docking today...however, i doubt the removal companies sataelite must have been looking the other way as we are about 2 weeks late in docking and this wasnt picked up...maybe its the 7 hour difference thingy!!!

The point i was getting across was there appears to be an acceptance that when you pay thousands of pounds of hard earned cash to company which promisses you something then the least you expect is to be informed of any changes of arrival date...anyone can put the name of a ship on a site and say when its due to land...doesnt mean its being tracked as my case obviously proves. But there does appear to be an awful amount of displeased people who are sitting in houses without furniture due to incorrect estimates..surely the experts as they say they are can improve on this...might cut back on the amount of disgruntled customers...mind you...when your over here..what can u do about it?

Take it on the chin when the companies say there is nothing they can do about it..it's not their fault!!

I think they should be made more accountable, it may put pressure on them to ensure that who does cause the problems .. fixes it

[Guest kdal]

Hi, This is another thing that we have not adventured into yet. Wanted to get the garage cleared before we get the shippers in for a quote. By what your saying I think we better move ourselves sharpish to get this side of things organised.

I do agree with you though, if they know the shipment is going to be late then they should contact you the client to keep you updated of the situation.

 

Can anyone tell me how long you can keep your belongings in the storage if you need to? Say we were not ready to have it all delivered what would happen?

 

Thank you and regards

Kim

[Herbster]

Hi All:

Yes, but it's probably not really the Removal Co's fault! The container belongs to a shipping company & is virtually rented by the minute and NOT by the people who pick up your furniture & load it into the container... Have you ever been to a hub like Singapore, the amount of containers & ships coming in & out at any moment in time is enormous, mind boggling, the logistics of getting a container from the back & beyond in England to the Back & Beyond in Tassie is incredible, and all the Removal company's can really do is get your stuff on board, asap & hope, like their client's, that everything proceeds as planned, they've got no more influence over Events than we have, & believe it will arrive at it's Customs destination more or less at planned, when again they can begin handling it for you. Logistically I'm quite amazed ours only took 65 days to do the 12,000 miles... and again, you're talking oceans to cross - it's not airfreight, that could clearly do the same journey in 48 hours or less. AND heaven knows BA are really great at handling that one!

 

Also think about it from a retailer/wholesalers view point; these are just our personal effects - imagine the container is full of Product coming from China, which can be sitting on the dockside at destination for weeks & weeks getting old & manky, until Customs get round to inspecting it, & your customers are having fits because their stock has not arrived & the Season is passing... So far as I know Hobart has only 1 or 2 Inspectors to do this job - imagine how long it takes them to get through 1 shipment from Singapore? The Removers don't know when our container will be inspected until they are notified by Customs & as with ours, Customs wanted to spread it out over the weekend into Monday, & Grace said NO! can we have it now, which fortunately they agreed to.

The Removal companies have little to do with the shipping process once it's in that container, other than try & choose the most reliable shipper & that might not be the quickest, & again, you have to factor in this fuel crises, ships are not steaming full ahead as they were a few months ago, & there are so many things that can influence a journey, even if it's tracked, I don't know how much that would help us, ours certainly wasn't, for it can be sitting in a massive pile on some dock somewhere & I don't know who prioritizes one container over another.. and there ain't nothing we could do anyways!. Certainly not Crown, or Boners, etc., either!

When other Removers (Crown, etc.) asked me how much I was paying, they were amazed, as they told me it costs at least £3k to physically move a container across the oceans whether empty or full, it cost us a third+ of that just to move 500 miles in UK... With the best will in the world the Removers want to get your stuff to you as quickly as possible, & clearly there are some Agents that are more on the ball than others, and also, if like me you're phoning them twice a week to find out where it is, that motivates them too! But they can't actually give you your stuff until it clears customs & quarrantine, so you could have had it earlier, but not once the Government gets involved... :biglaugh: So from our experiences: an extra 14-20 days over a 6-wk ETA seems reasonable (You need to check with the removal agents in Oz how many free days you are permitted once it's cleared C&Q, for us it could have been 14), but check out the many threads that have been posted @ PIO to weigh up who might give you the best service to suit your circumstances. BUT, you do have to give a lot of consideration as to how you will spend the time while your belongings are at sea - if only to keep your friends & family sweet... :spinny:

Hope our experiences help... Cheers,

[Baldyin38]

Thanks again herbster,

you know, no one doubs the difficulties in moving furniture or items from one country to another. My god, you only have to order something from MFI in brittain to realise how difficulties can turn up, but what were saying is that the companies like you have mentioned and many more have a duty to the customer to be honest from the offset. This is not the case. There have been too many complaints of the nature i have made to prove this.

As for accountability, well, sure many companies are concerned in the removal from one country to another but accountability liaes with the company you parted your thousands too. It is far too easy for companies to pass the buck and say..'it wasn't me'. They took the money therefor they accept responsibility when things go wrong. We as customers cant go chasing around the world trying to find out where your furniture is.

I suppose all i am saying is when a company makes a promise, they are accountable when that promise is broken. I nhave spoken to several families now who have suffered as we are going to and the problems this causes are massive.

A few days outwith the delivery date after customs is acceptable...not 4, 6 or 8 weeks.

[Herbster]

Thanks again herbster,

you know, no one doubs the difficulties in moving furniture or items from one country to another. My god, you only have to order something from MFI in brittain to realise how difficulties can turn up, but what were saying is that the companies like you have mentioned and many more have a duty to the customer to be honest from the offset. This is not the case. There have been too many complaints of the nature i have made to prove this...As for accountability, well, sure many companies are concerned in the removal from one country to another but accountability liaes with the company you parted your thousands too. It is far too easy for companies to pass the buck and say..'it wasn't me'. They took the money therefor they accept responsibility when things go wrong. We as customers cant go chasing around the world trying to find out where your furniture is...I suppose all i am saying is when a company makes a promise, they are accountable when that promise is broken. I nhave spoken to several families now who have suffered as we are going to and the problems this causes are massive.

A few days outwith the delivery date after customs is acceptable...not 4, 6 or 8 weeks.

Sorry Baldyin38 for your Problems, :wacko: waiting the extra 3 weeks was bad enough, under the circumstances, but I can't understand the delay in your situation.

I hate to ask, but did your furniture arrive in tact & properly Export Wrapped, and was it escorted through Customs & Quarantine & passed OK?

 

So are you saying it took those weeks post Q&C to arrive at your door??? In other words, once it was in the Aussie Removers domain? Also have you expressed your dissatisfaction to the company's involved & given them the opportunity to make restitution, as per your contract terms?

I think it would be helpful for others reading this Thread if you identified the Movers & whether they offered a real explanation for the delay & what the nature of the delay was - was there an explanation, also what had they promised you, precisely? I still believe caveat emptor rules: customers must read the fine print before they commit and don't be afraid to ask what happens IF....???? If in doubt, ask for references of recent removals that you can call up if needs be. Clearly there are as many varying experiences out there as there are shippers, and it's probably a crap-shot as to whether yours get delivered close to the ETA, or not... But the detail is in the packing, does the company know what they are doing, do they Export Pack, have they got reliable Agents to see your shipment through C&Q are they completely familiar & comfortable shipping your belongings to Oz & where's the proof? Do they belong to recognised international moving quality assured trade groups?? They don't all belong...

 

Also, unlike us, don't hope it'll be early because clearly it can't be & plan on having at least an extra 15/20 days without your furniture. Also, the hundreds of members here have access to all our experiences for the asking - which is why it's good to share yours, including naming the miscreants in your particularly unfortunate experience.

Hope Life gets better from here, wherever that is.

 

All the Best,

 

[Baldyin38]

Hi kdel...sorry it so long to answer you. When your furniture eventualy gets here they can store it for you untill you are rweady to receive it. Dont know how much it costs. As far as sendingit to Oz, well we sent it almost 4 weeks before we left. We then had rental accomodation here till it was time to go. You could do it the other weay round and send it when you but you have to have furnished rental accom here waiting for it. I prefered to have my own stuff..but that doesnt always work out as i'm sure you have read. Good luck with the move..hope it all goes smoothly for you.

A

[Baldyin38]

No, it hasnt arrived atall yet....was due to land 15th but got told it was not due now for another 2 weeks and then we wait on customs. Hopefully all will be intact but we resrve judgement on that. Beleive it or not i did have great trust in the company even though i had read some scary stories, but that was obviously my keenness to get to oz i think. Still, a small blip on what should be a much better life for us all here...once we get our stuff and settle..all will probably be forgotten..then the fun begins.

Cheers

A

[Guest kdal]

HI A

Thanks for your answer ile phone around some shippers and see. As would like our stuff to be there for when we arrive even if it means being without here in the UK for a while. BUt if we are delayed in finding a rental then I just wondered how much it would cost us for them to hang it on to it for a while.

Thanks Kim

[Guest Deacon]

Hi Kim Just a quick reply to your question on how much to store over oz,we have been quoted $40 a week and we dont have to let them know until if arrives in case you dont need as long as you think.Thought this was a pretty good price really.Hope this helps ali

[Guest kdal]

Ali, Thank you for that bit of info it is very much appreciated. Not bad price either!

Cheers Kim

[Guest whitts]

Hi Herbster

 

Can i be cheeky and ask how much did you pay for a 2oft container packed and unloaded and who did you go with.

 

Many thanks

 

Yvonne

[Baldyin38]

Hi Yvonne

we also hired a 20 ft container...i trhink in total we will have paid around £4010 but that included insurance as well. Mind you i think that if were more than 30 miles from freemantle then we pay extra for the removals at this end.

We went with Anglo Pacific.

Good luck with everything

 

Arthur and Angela

[ali]

Our removal company (John Mason) actually told us 12 weeks and that's what it took exactly.

 

Ali

[Guest Deacon]

Your welcome Kim we were going to store it this end but its twice the price.We are lucky in the fact that we are going to stay with my Dad when we get there but if we cant get a house when we want we wanted to know if it was going to be expensive and complicated to store that end but its not.Best wishes ali

[Herbster]

Hi Yvonne: :

 

Happy to help! As you may recall we had our home, 2br cottage, out in the sticks, packed up over 2 days, and the container was sealed before our eyes & left our house around 3pm Fri April 25th (if that's a Friday) ETA was in Tas (not at our home) June 8th, so foolishly we arrived May 30, as we wanted to do stuff, clean the house, get ourselves sorted, but we could have waited till the 8th, as apart from the cleaning you can tie up your legal commitments in 2 days - as it was the container took just 65 days arriving at our door Monday, June 30, 8:59!

 

Being in the Corbridge area of Northumberland we eventually choose a Newcastle company (having interviewed everyone from Crown to Excess International - seemed good - very computer orientated... but I didn't feel we'd have gotten as much in our 20' & about £900+). The company we used was Kelly's Int Movers, aka Doree Bonner, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who have other outlets around the country - the sign of the cat. I've been told that to just hire the container is around £3K - now prices will have changed, but we paid £4K for door-to-door for wrap & EXPORT PACK & Unpack, + £1K Insurance, there were also the local Custom & Quarantine fees of around $400.00. (Which could be more should anything untoward occur!) :goofy:

 

The main things to question about are they familiar with shipping to Oz! Do they belong to recognized Trade Group (FIDI) and do they EXPORT WRAP/PACK - which means every item encased! I even found one of those pesky bean shredders encased in bubble wrap! AND do they remove the rubbish...??! As we're moving again soon we've kept a mountain of it! Ummmmmm???

 

Now, the 2nd day we had a lad who I don't think was savvy in the ways of Export Wrapping as most of my pictures & photos were just stashed in boxes that I would never have packed like that to ship in the car home, let alone 12,000 miles on an Ocean voyage rattling round in an iso! So watch that - also that they have decent agent's this side - We had Grace in Hobart, who were very friendly & efficient - yes, they didn't exactly tell us what we wanted to know, but that was only because they didn't know either! But they hustled our stuff through Customs as they knew we were keen for it!

 

PS: Also factor in copious amounts of teas & coffees & cookies & a tip appropriate to the effort... I forgot about the Ts&Cs really & the fact you need a kettle & mugs to make it IN...!!! There's stuff like that where good neighbors or nearby rellies or just keeping the rubbish for that purpose to then junk it instead of washing up that you have to remember... AGhhhh! And as we took our fridge/freezer & stove.... microwave, all have to be devoid of crumbs, grease, mice...!

 

Obviously all your outdoor stuff has to be sanitized in disinfectant (so they can smell it!) & painted - NO dirt of any kind on outerwear, or anything, - shoes, pots, garden furniture, etc... I have a feeling they might even have new rules about fishing rods, wet suits & surf boards, although mine got through ok. Check that they will pack voids & flat pack difficult things like tables. Also what you can dismantle & what they expect you to do ahead of time (Clearly this saves them time & you ££) ... That was a big project for us, & again days ahead of time we had to dismantle our wardrobe (where to put the clothes??)book & cd cases, etc (FIND somewhere to stash the sounds & books) & spend the next week falling over planks of lumber & dictionary's... Also this sounds logical to ME, but... always pack your screws & bits in baggies & tape to the base of a shelf or other integral part of dismantled furniture... Don't put them all together in some pot, cos you'll never find them when you want them & be cursing cos you can't eat your dinner on the table, as the screws are in some pot that you can't remember/know where it was packed, or C&Q confiscated it!! Also make sure they'll pack your mattresses properly & any antiques will be properly cared for.

Helpful Hint: You can take some useful cleaning/bathroom, Body Shop items, etc. we just packed all liquids together in those clear plastic boxes, & put an inventory on the outside - obviously nothing flammable or combustible or items that shouldn't mix... Shippers will then encase in their wrapping media - you can also do this with personal items that you don't want to get damp, letters, photos, etc & request loads of desiccant... I think we had a couple dozen all told, Xmas decs - no pine cones, straw, lambs or donkey! We filled a Hope Chest with duvets & there was no problem with down pillows, etc. They let us pack drawers with clothing, soft toys, if they won't let you do that you'll soon be up to a larger container... :jiggy:

I think that's enuf info for another post!!

Hope it helps,

Cheers,

[Ross 1982]

hi all i was just wondering if anyone had any ideas on how much it would cost to ship my tool box with all my tool out to perth , i will need them as i am a mechanic .

Thanks

Ross

[Guest claire&fred]

We went with Pickfords. They advised 7-9 weeks it arrived in 4. Left on 5 July and arrived 5 August. That is quick!

 

Claire

[Guest wardy]

The first of our shippers salesman has just left he told us a maximum of 15 weeks and that includes tansporting by road from Brisbane to cairns. we have another 2 coming next week so will see what they say.

[Guest dave&donna]

I was just wondering if Baldy had got his container yet??? We've not heard anything from you Arthur come on tell us...

 

Well I blame the salesman!!! We used Robinsons and the chap who came out to quote gave us all the right answers and was soooooooo charming and told us he knew what our priorities were (time and price) and assured us it would cost about £3500 I think from memory and that it would take 9 weeks.

We had booked for our stuff to leave us 2 1/2 weeks before we flew out and camped out on blow up beds and begged and borrowed stuff from everybody and just about coped and then we had booked rental for 6 weeks this end so thought we had got it all covered and planned it all carefully.

Our house sale was going through at the same time as sorting the removal out so it was totally chaotic and I had paperwork coming out of my ears so didn't realise until it was too late that I had signed and returned a contract to robinsons with a different lead time on (I had received different contracts already by email so presumed the one in the post was just a copy so they had a hard copy for their records). The night before we were due to be packed up I had to ring Robinsons as I had no contact from them and only then was I told that it wouldn't arrive until 4 weeks after we were originally told and when I said we had booked a rental for 6 weeks she said that was my fault cos I should have spoken to her first!!!!! I told her I had planned and organised everything before cos wanted to be sure it was all sorted and she just said it was my fault for not reading the contract and said 9 weeks was not really realistic anyway and also said the charming salesman had not told her time was a priority so we were booked on a slower shipping line!!! I asked why it had changed suddenly and I wasn't made aware and she just said I had signed and that was it.

 

I asked why the price had suddenly shot up from that quoted and she said the charming salesman should have explained that some element of the insurance (can't remember now) was always added on to the price??? but we were never told that.

 

The charming salesman!!! was a con artist as far as I'm concerned because everything he said was complete rubbish - our coordinator was a real cow and was a not bit sympathetic to us neither.

 

I've got to say the Robinsons packers were fantastic and did it all in 1 1/2 days and really took care with everything so we felt very confident with them. On the other end Wridgeways were brilliant and in the end we did getting our stuff in about 9 weeks I think as Wrideways delivered it a lot earlier than we had been told by them as customs must have checked it earlier so we were really lucky but at the most crucial time when you want all your planning to go smoothly it was a nightmare and stress levels were high!!!!

 

So the moral of the story is ...... a salesman is a salesman through and through and will tell you what you want to hear to get you to buy!!!

 

Ross we brought Dave's tool box which is huge and heavy as part of our 20ft container but had it invoiced separately as the company paid and I think with insurance it was about £500.

 

Donna xx