Guest cbms Posted August 18, 2010 Share Posted August 18, 2010 No prob - will respond here (hope no-one else minds) as it may help others too :wink:. It took 7 weeks and 2 days door to door! Packers were in on 9th and 10th June and the container sailed on the 15th June. The container arrived at the docks on 22nd July and was available for delivery in Brissy from 28th July. we booked it to arrive on 30th July. We found it tricky to book accommodation as we wanted to be near the city but not in an apartment. We had an original budget of $400-$500 a week but found we were way off track for what we wanted. We found most of the properties that interested us on Stayz! Feel free to Pm me if you want any specific info on anything else. :biggrin: Thanks myrtle - might have to take you up on the offer of the PM if that is okay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daffod1lly Posted August 18, 2010 Share Posted August 18, 2010 Thanks myrtle - might have to take you up on the offer of the PM if that is okay Happy to help - 'bout time I gave back some of the help others have given me :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daffod1lly Posted August 18, 2010 Share Posted August 18, 2010 Hi,I got 3 shipping companies to quote for a 20ft container, sole use, and got 3 very similar prices: Crown-£4170 (includes AQIS fee, around $440) Doree Bonner - £4100 (included 8wks free storage) PSS - $4050 I was expecting prices of around £3600 based on other posters quotes. Does this sound reasonable, and how do you get them down if you dont have a cheap quote to play them off with? I ruled out PSS, and its between Crown and DB, would prefer DB. They said they had lots of 'other' offers, like putting $200 into your account if you open it with their recommended bank, pick up from the airport, half day orientation around Brisbane, and more to be confirmed. I would prefer money off the shipping though! Crown said they couldnt come down on the shipping price but could offer something on the insurance. Any haggling advice gratefully appreciated! Shaz Just wondered how you've been getting on with the haggling ? :wink: It's all good practice for when you get here - if you need to buy any extra bits of furniture! They all love a bit of haggling over here! I'm getting quite good at it - OH dies of embarrassment every time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest CDTE Posted August 18, 2010 Share Posted August 18, 2010 Hi, just wanted to recommend John Mason. We used them last year from Teesside to Perth. I don't know what we paid as it was part of the relocation package but they were excellent & we had no problems with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaz36 Posted August 18, 2010 Author Share Posted August 18, 2010 Just wondered how you've been getting on with the haggling ? :wink:It's all good practice for when you get here - if you need to buy any extra bits of furniture! They all love a bit of haggling over here! I'm getting quite good at it - OH dies of embarrassment every time! Hi Myrtle, Not so good! I decided to get a quote from John Mason, hoping it'd be more reasonable and could use it to get the others down. It was the same! I told them that it was too high and was looking for nearer £3500 as others on here were quoted that, but they said that perhaps being in Scotland made it more as they dont have a base in Scotland. Soooo, they didnt come down, but recommended a local company they deal with. I contacted them, and their quote was £3700, much better, but they use Overseas Shippers (OSS?) or Kent Removals in Brisbane, and I've not heard many good things about them. I am going to go back to Crown and Doree Bonner now this week armed with my cheaper quote to see if they will reconsider. Wish me luck....I am rubbish at haggling! I die of embarrassment when my dad haggles car dealers down but he always gets a good deal. Shaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kid Kutz Posted August 18, 2010 Share Posted August 18, 2010 Hi Myrtle,Not so good! I decided to get a quote from John Mason, hoping it'd be more reasonable and could use it to get the others down. It was the same! I told them that it was too high and was looking for nearer £3500 as others on here were quoted that, but they said that perhaps being in Scotland made it more as they dont have a base in Scotland. Soooo, they didnt come down, but recommended a local company they deal with. I contacted them, and their quote was £3700, much better, but they use Overseas Shippers (OSS?) or Kent Removals in Brisbane, and I've not heard many good things about them. I am going to go back to Crown and Doree Bonner now this week armed with my cheaper quote to see if they will reconsider. Wish me luck....I am rubbish at haggling! I die of embarrassment when my dad haggles car dealers down but he always gets a good deal. Shaz Sounds like you should get him to speak to them then:biggrin: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kid Kutz Posted August 18, 2010 Share Posted August 18, 2010 :jiggy:Could anyone PM me contact details for John Mason please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blobby1000 Posted August 18, 2010 Share Posted August 18, 2010 Whats wrong with the company called kent? White and Co use them ane we are interested in their quote so would be interested in feedback Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daffod1lly Posted August 18, 2010 Share Posted August 18, 2010 Hi Myrtle,Not so good! I decided to get a quote from John Mason, hoping it'd be more reasonable and could use it to get the others down. It was the same! I told them that it was too high and was looking for nearer £3500 as others on here were quoted that, but they said that perhaps being in Scotland made it more as they dont have a base in Scotland. Soooo, they didnt come down, but recommended a local company they deal with. I contacted them, and their quote was £3700, much better, but they use Overseas Shippers (OSS?) or Kent Removals in Brisbane, and I've not heard many good things about them. I am going to go back to Crown and Doree Bonner now this week armed with my cheaper quote to see if they will reconsider. Wish me luck....I am rubbish at haggling! I die of embarrassment when my dad haggles car dealers down but he always gets a good deal. Shaz Nightmare - don't envy you! With us .... Crown barely budged - well, not enough to match anywhere near the others! But Doree Bonner were willing to negotiate. they couldn't offer as competitive a price as JM but they were the most willing to at least try! Keep trying - what about insurance? If you are using the one company, at least try and get them to haggle on that. then see where that leaves you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terry & Melanie Posted August 18, 2010 Share Posted August 18, 2010 :jiggy:Could anyone PM me contact details for John Mason please John Mason International: Contact Us They were very good with us and I found them easy to negotiate with! (mind you we did live less than 2 miles from their Liverpool offices!!!) Good luck! Melanie x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kid Kutz Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 Thanks Melanie, much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaz36 Posted August 19, 2010 Author Share Posted August 19, 2010 Whats wrong with the company called kent? White and Co use them ane we are interested in their quote so would be interested in feedback Not sure, I've also tried to search for feedback on Kent. Not much there. The most competitive quote I got was from a local company who use Kent in Brisbane, so would be interested too. I have a feeling there was a post a while back about Kent, not a great one, but cant seem to find it now. Shaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blobby1000 Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 Anyone got an opinion on the Australian company called "kent" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Avalook Posted August 19, 2010 Share Posted August 19, 2010 Anyone got an opinion on the Australian company called "kent" Let Google be your friend.:biggrin: PSS and Kent removals : British Expat Discussion Forum Mixed views here, they claim to be Australia's largest family owned company so they must shift loads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cbms Posted August 31, 2010 Share Posted August 31, 2010 Hi Shaz36 just wanted to know how you got on with trying to get your figures down with the companies you have been speaking to? I am doing the same but I am not sure my haggling skills are any good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest physmum Posted August 31, 2010 Share Posted August 31, 2010 Hi all. We are in the same boat - just trying to decide on who to go for at the moment too. Estimated 785- 861 cub feet. Prices have ranged from £3800-4300. We have to have a full container, but you do pay more if you stuff more in it, cos they add on all the packaging and time it takes for the blokes to pack it all up. We now have to decide if we should go for Crown (who are the most expensive, but have a good reputation and cheaper storage) or Excess International, who are cheaper and friends have used and liked... Main advantage of Crown is having their people at both ends dealing with your stuff. Hmmm - it is a really hard decision huh? Good luck with the negotiating. I have found that Anglo-pacific won't budge at all, and Crown will budge a little! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Waylyn Posted August 31, 2010 Share Posted August 31, 2010 We had Aussie Kent deliver our goods in Sydney. We used John Mason to ship with and both companies were very good. The guys from Kent were Man Mountains, carrying large armchairs as if they were a bag of crisps! They made it all look so effortless and easy. This time around we got a quotes from a local company, Fox, John Mason and Robinsons. We just about got into a 20ft container coming back to the UK, however a lot of space was under utilised as they didn't flat pack anything! Fox said we'd need a 40ft container but JM and Robinsons both reckon a 20ft will be fine with JM saying anything over will be so slight that it could go groupage. Quotes ranged from nearly £7k for 40ft container to £4300 being the cheapest with Robinsons. Although I do like JM, the neglected to mention the AQIS fee as did Fox, the only one to tell us all costs up front was Robinsons. They also included that they will flat pack anything they can (we have quite a few Ikea bookcases) so that will save a lot of space. And in case anyone is interested, we moved back to the UK with King & Wilson. They were ok, use a lot of bubble wrap stuff instead of thick paper and the print rubs off onto everything! Plus it takes up more room. I've heard that most removers in Aus use that stuff but don't know if that is true or not. Robinsons delivered it to the house here and they were very good plus they have an office over the Bridge in Bristol, so they are quite near. Still have a few things to iron out before we make a definite decision, so we will see how things go! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Popeye Posted August 31, 2010 Share Posted August 31, 2010 Hi guys haven't read all the replies to this thread but we moved from surrey to Melbourne with Pickfords and they were superb-plus they only took 8 weeks door to door and inc full packing/unpacking service and assembley of furniture where required. They charged us 4100 GBP (no pound sign on this Oz comp!) for a 20ft container and were very proffesional and kept us upto date with the progress-highly recommended! Would use them again if i had to-but we got insurance elsewhere (searched under google) as there insurance was 1% of value! Hope this helps Rgds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest shelley07 Posted August 31, 2010 Share Posted August 31, 2010 Hi, We used john masons international movers and they were excellent, we had a half container and it cost £1100. Which is one of the best quotes i had and the service was really good, i got my insurance seperate to the shipping with an insurance brokerat 1% so i would recommend you shop around for insurance. hope this helps :eek: the quote you've had does seem quite alot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleabo Posted September 1, 2010 Share Posted September 1, 2010 Main advantage of Crown is having their people at both ends dealing with your stuff. They will have offices at both ends, but you could find subbies do all the work and a Crown representative never sees or touches your stuff at any point other than when they quote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bendeeg Posted September 2, 2010 Share Posted September 2, 2010 We managed to get crown down to £4,100 (with an additional reduction in their insurance - although still double insureyourmove.com...) We did have another quote from Excess International Removers (who were cheaper but do use sub contractors and don't include the AQIS fee) and then I asked crown to come down to this quote. They didn't manage it but did get close. Our initial cubic feet was 750 and the 20 foot container holds 1,000 so I was told so we had some space which we have now filled. We are going from Leeds to Brisbane at the end of August. The container should arrive in Brisbane on 14th October with a bit of luck. hi we used d,bonner we had about 750 and they used a slightly smaller container and its was 3500 with the insurance it went up to just under 4000 from kent - brisbane oh did the haggleing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balman Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Hi Had 3 Quotes in for a full 20 ft container surrey to perth John Masons - £3600 DB- £4200 Crown - £4600 Quite a difference. Though JM did not impress me by saying it was my responsibility to stuff drawers etc. Debating between crown and DB....... any suggestions ? Regards Balman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Popeye Posted September 9, 2010 Share Posted September 9, 2010 Hi Crown have got a good reputation, so have Pickfords who we used & they charged us around 4100 GBP ( No pound sign on this Oz pc!) for a 20ft container from Surrey to Melbourne. That inc all packing & dismantling of beds UK end & unpacking & reassembling the other. They were very thorough and proffesional and would definately use them again. Whoever you choose make sure they are regulated by the proffesional movers association and have good contacts over this side. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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