Relocating Companies

[Riekie]

Otto, at least you know your stuff WILL get here - Crown does deliver, just not always on time. Hopefully in your case they will.

[serileen]

Thats true Riekie , when doing my Insurance Claim I saw that they only shipped the goods about a month after they packed eventhough I had a container to myself.

So good luck , hope everything goes well.

[ian]

PICKFORDS

Hi All

I moved from P.E to Adelaide.I went t magnas presentation and got a quote a few days later.They were the most expensive of about 4 companies.I eventually decided on Pickfords ,they came to my house packed everything that was going and a couple of months later delivered and unpackrd everything into my house.Not one thing brocken,and a few days later phoned to find out if everything was ok.I was more than happy with their service.

hope this might help

Ian

[Miss Piggy]

ELLIOTS

Hi everyone

We're looking for courier services that won't cost us a arm or a leg. Elliot gave

us a very expensive quote. We're thinking of sharing a container - only a few

personal things we would like to take over to Sydney.

Thx 4 the help

[Riekie]

Helga, there's another thread just below yours : "relocation companies" where this was also discussed in depth. You do have the option to share a container, but then you have to wait for when they have one with that amount of space (which you require) is available, which might delay your shipment a bit, but this seems to be the best way to go for you.

The following companies also does relocations:

Crown

Magna

Biddulphs

Hope this helps.

[Miss Piggy]

Thx Riekie. Read the thread yesterday after sending the post - sorry

[Riekie]

Don't worry! All of us do that! (Just thought I'd point you in the right direction..... )

[Pippa]

Hi Helga,

I hope you don't mind, but I merged your post "courier services" with this post.

Good luck with all you plans!

Pippa

[Cindylou]

BAILEY WORLDWIDE

I've had good reports from three different people who've used Bailey Worldwide for their relocations - 011 887 8923.

[Willem]

CROWN, PULSE, MAGNA

Hi

I have asked 3 relocation companies to come and give me a quote

Crown......first appointment they wanted to re-schedule and I said NO NO NO,they came out checked everthing on a Friday, said that they will mail my quote on the Monday or Tuesday

After a week I had to call them and ask where is my quote,they said I must give them 10min and they will call me back....I'm still waiting for that call ...they mailed my quote 2 week after they were there to check everthing

Pulse.....came there....did not wright enything down,did not messure enything....just came in and said....ok one container......received mail with a front letter and conditions.....no Quote,no price

Magna......came on a Thursday to check everything....said my quote would be ready on the next week thursday.....they phoned me on the wednesday to confirm that I have received my quote via email.....I phoned them and asked if they can explain the quote to me......the guy came out to my house to go through the quote and explained step by step to me

Well you can think for yourself who i'm going to use to relocate my stuff to Aus

Thanks

Willem

[Pisces]

ALLIED PICKFORDS, BIDDULPHS, CROWN, MAGNA

I also got 4 companies from CT to give me a quotation:

Biddulphs - Basically told me that I wouldn't be able to take anything in my house. Had to phone them back for a quote.

Allied Pickfords - Seemed proffessional

Magna - Still waiting for them to phone me back.............

Crown - Which we decided on, and as far as I'm concerned - BIG mistake! My container arrived a month after the date that we were promised, I did query this, but as yet have still not had a response. A box of my son's toys are missing, our fridge, dishwasher, washing machine have all been dented and discoloured. My dining room table and coffee table were turned on their sides and then boxes were packed onto the legs causing the legs to both split and break off.

As for their service, great until the payment went through, tho on the CT side, my responses back from Anton were usually kwik, but the service I have received on the Perth side from Jennifer has been non existant. All our paperwork from CT side we had to resend to the Perth offices, so if you use them make sure you keep all your paperwork with you! I also had to hound her for my claim forms ( I also asked Anton in CT when I got no response, but to no avail since I got no response from him either). I will be sending in the final quotes and photo's next week to them, let's cross fingers that I get some response and my claim will be settled!

BTW as gross as it may be, even my husband's electrical toothbrush went missing!!!

[serileen]

Hi Pisces

Welcome to the club...don't know if you saw , but I have also had bad dealings with Crown Cape Town.Anthony after the balls up has been lying all the way.

I am also now getting together the second lot of paperwork for our claim.

Good luck

[Bullet]

CROWN

I have read with great shock of the treatment recieved from the relocating companies.I have just asked Crown to do mine from East London (SA) to Perth throuhg their Port Elizabeth Office,have not signed a contract yet.Have anybody had dealings with Crown Port Elizabeth and what was your experiance.

I see this is a very spoken about topic and it must be totally $%^$#@ to wait so long for your furniture and then find it damaged as well .SOOOO if Mr Murpy is busy with someone please keep him busy for 2 weeks

Regards

Bullet

[serileen]

BULLET MR MURPHY IS A TERRIBLE ONE TO DIE DOWN ....I THINK HE HAS AGENTS ALL OVER....HEHEHEHE

[zappa]

kings: called them twice, left a messege both times and they never called back

magna: called them once, left a messege, never called back, call again and was put on hold twice for long periods so hung up

allied pickfords: got good service from them initially and immediatly got an estimate quote via email. they visited, were on time, and a got the quote the following week of R5000 less than Crown for a full container, just i had specifically asked them to quote on everything in the house and to give us an alternate quote for 350 cu ft of goods in a groupage container. never got the alternate quote and did not have another week to wait and my instructions were not difficult, yet they messed up.

crown: there sales guy was more on the ball than allied, and they seemed more professional, and they are one company, they quoted as per my instructions, so with no time left we went with them on a groupgae load of 350 cu ft.

gee wizz, a bit worried after some bad posts about crown, just transferred the money to crown....will keep you posted. i went with them on condition they can guarentee collection bet 30 mar and 03 apr, but they needed payment first and then they would get back to me, which hasn't happended to date. will keep you all posted on our experience. it somewhat irritated me and is worrying me that they simply couldn't give me confirmation first like "if we get your money in the next hour, then we can confirm collection on such and such a date........."

[Riekie]

Don't be too concerned - just don't leave it in their hands completely 'cause you'll end up on the bottom of the pile. Phone them regularly to find out how your things are going and make a note of every conversation (who you spoke to, date & time, short note of what was said) - remember not to pack your notes in your container as you will need them to follow-up once in Australia as well. Once you are here, and you're not getting any joy from Crown RSA, contact their offices here and you won't believe how quick they are to bring things up to speed! Photograph your house content even before they start packing i.e. all your electronics, etc and open every cupboard & photograph the content (i.e. linen, clothing etc). The more proof you have of everything, the better - hopefully you'll need none of it, but if you do, you'll be glad you went through the trouble.

I have an inventory spreadsheet I can let you have on which everything we had was listed, together with values - we sent that by email to Crown before they started to pack and because of that, could claim something which was not listed on their inventory (which the packers drew up). The packers only compile a very basic inventory of what goes into the boxes. Count your DVD's and list the number on your inventory etc. Cover all your bases!

We did have losses with Crown, but they paid up 100% In the end, we did not regret using Crown.

[zappa]

I've been forwarding all said via telephone on email to have it in writing. I've started with the inventory spreadsheet and I will take some photo's before they collect! We also going to send some stuff like baby's walking ring and camping cot and CD's, extra clothes, fishing stuff, etc via unnaccompanied baggage. Quantas say they use Jonene freight and we'll be looking at about R2 000-00 for sending these things air cargo with them. Anyone used Jonene before?

Interestingly, they gave me a quote of about R7 000 to ship 10 cu meters of self-packed freight from Durban to Sydney via their Singaport route and it would take 45 days. Might be worthwhile if one doesn't want to send too much stuff, etc.

One would then have to clear the stuff yourself or appoint someone to do it in Sydney, don't know if insurance would be an option, anyway, ran out of time to pursue this option and went with Crown for R25 000 for a groupage container - 10 cu meters, but they collect , pack, ship, customs, deliver at Central Coast, unpack, insure.

[Vossie]

Found this on the Magna Website. Maybe someone is interested

Please join us at one of our Migration Seminars

(Click on the venue to send a request)

Cape Town, City Lodge, Grand West Casino Complex - Date to be advised

Durban, Holiday Inn Marine Parade - Date to be advised

Johannesburg, Midrand Protea Wanderers - 11th May 2006

Pietermaritzburg, Maritzburg Golf Club - 25th April 2006

Port Elizabeth, Beach Hotel - To be advised

Elmare

[Vossie]

Hi

Ons het kwotasies gekry van Magna, Crown, Allied Pickfords en British International.

BI is baie goedkoper maar ons weet nie van iemand wat dit gebruik het en hoe die diens was nie. Die verskil in prys is nogal heelwat, hoewel ons so te se seker is dat ons Crown gaan gebruik. Alles ingesluit in hulle kwotasie en dit gaan dit dalk makliker maak om te budget!

Thanx

Elmaré

[Danie]

Hi people!

The thing is there is so many choices depending on where you live! We moved from R'bay and were restricted to what is available! We got 3 quotes, from CROWN, Allied Pickfords and MAGNA...

And I believe first impressions make or break you... well this time I was like in terrible wrong. Crown were first to visit us and there were coming across as very provisional and clued up... well it only appeared that way... not really helpful after the first visit, not getting a explanatory quote from them...

Secondly Allied Pickfords came and they were very close to Crown on looks and impression.

I would rather not go-off on Magna....

Close friends of ours decided to use Crown, due being couple of thousand Rands cheaper... they were not impressed at all. They container came later than promised, there were problems at customs and a couple of things were broken... and now the fight have started to sort that out...

We went with Pickfords. The lady drove from Durban the 190kms to come and measure our stuff, and within the promised 2 days we had our quote! It was not the cheapest but with in acceptable range. We had good service from them all around. The rep visit us 3 more times to ensure that all is okay and all stuff has been accounted for! I must admit it was not always plain sailing, the ship was delayed and took 2 weeks longer to get to Brisbane. Once there I made contact with the local Pickfords branch and were referred to correct lady working with immigration shipments! Well I spoke to hear regularly to track the progress of the stuff through customs, immigration ect!

We have lost a glass dish and some stuff got a couple of scratches but nothing serious, I am currently in the process of working that out.

Thus If I have to pick now, I will use them again!

HTH

Groete!

Danie

[Mike]

Hi Willem

It would seem that each region in South Africa has a personal "favourite" moving company. We moved from Nelspruit to Adelaide last year and used Magna. We found them to be prompt and helpful. Their quote arrived a week after their inspection. Come packing day, their truck arrived on time (after having first driven down from JHB the night before and then checking access to our property). Their crew were courteous, fast and efficient. Within no time, the house was securely packed, loaded and on it's way. We had no "losses" or breakages at all. They even managed to deliver one of my balsawood model planes completely intact!!. If you are using the same crowd that we had, then you should have no problems at all.

Best of luck with your move.

Edited May 16, 2006 by Mike

[Pisces]

Hi all

Just to let you know that our insurance claim for the container has finally been settled and we have been paid out, so at long last my furniture can be fixed. Thanks to Riekie who helped with advice and a few heated emails to Crown they finally saw our point.

There were times we felt like giving up and saying its not worth the effort, we pushed through in anycase, guessed we believed that that was what the company was bargaining on and we didn't want to give them the satisfaction.

now we just keep our fingers crossed that the repairers do a good job

[ExASP]

Hello All

I used STUTTAFORD VAN LINES. We even moved our jacuzzi. They did a quote in a day and came to pack my house up at eight in the morning when they said they would. We moved from Pta to Alice Springs, it took a month and our container was delivered. I got calls from them when the container left the port in Durban and from Kent (in Adelaide) when it was in customs. They also let me know when it was cleared.

I had lots of stuff that could be broken and out of everything, I only had one plate that broke.

[chatterbug]

Hi All,

We used Kings International Movers http://www.kings-int.com/index.html and they were quite good and on time. Their packing and service in SA was very good and we only lost some cd's in the process.

The only thing we were slapped with was a weird charge (those dreaded hidden charges, taxes and customs fees) for the external washing of the container?? Yip thats right external - before it could enter the Aussie docks. Something like $600-00. We bitched and moaned so much, that KINGS agreed to bpay half of it. PLease clarify this with your removal company before you choose.

C'BUG

[Riekie]

The only thing we were slapped with was a weird charge (those dreaded hidden charges, taxes and customs fees) for the external washing of the container?? Yip thats right external - before it could enter the Aussie docks. Something like $600-00.

First time I've heard of that..... You're right, it IS weird...!!