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Shipping - any extra 'hidden costs' once in Perth?


Raychelsb

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Hi All

 

I have now received 4 quotes from Shipping companies with two coming in at a very similar cost of £2400 to £2700 for between 550 cubic feet to 610 cubic feet. One company has quoted me for the same volume at over £3500! I have gone back and pointed out the massive difference, and they said

 

'Other companies may price lower but do not include items such as export pack and unpack, customs clearance, Terminal handling charges and DAFF fees. At XX all of these charges are included in our price, we are the only company that can include the DAFF fees. Other companies will need to use agents/brokers that will incur extra administration costs. Also we have our own office at your destination so you will always be dealing with XX. Other companies cannot offer this and use service partners instead. This could then incur agents fees that are not included into your proposal. At XX we do not use agents so no extra fees are incurred.'

 

Now, is this extra fees and admin costs true? I have read posts from people who have used agents out there such as Kents and seen good reviews, so using other agents out there rather than the companies doesn't bother me, and are DAFF fees really going to total another £1000 on top of the other quotes??

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Guest Guest6235

Never seen that on any, the only extra costs are going with companies that don't have aqis included as far as I know but we know about that. We were all ready to go with groupage as for 580cuft is was cheapest option but been told today that when items get collected Nov 12th they may sit around for a while until they fill the 40ft container with other bookings.

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most of the shipping companies have offices over here. You will pay for having stuff treated that hasnt passed quarentine or you can have it destroyed for free! go with the cheapest, but get your own insurance, insure your move are cheap off the internet, google them. pack, shipping, unpack £4000 ish with pickfords. includes a months storage at this end, but didnt need it.

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Thanks. I'm discounting this company (who are named on here quite a lot and are one of the major players ) as they keep coming up with what I would say is bull to justify the extra £1000. I'm aware if extra fees for goin through customs and prepared to pay a few hundred on too if the quote for the fees and also insurance but not £1000 worth! Getting one more quote tomorrow and will decide which if the others to choose

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Someone mentioned letton percival the other day also for insurance who came back with decent price. When you price up individual belongings and have to make a claim, do you ever have to prove that they were that price originally.

 

Also did anyone go for the optional extra of mildew & electrical cover, I notice the external insurance companies include this.

Edited by Guest6235
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Our final quote for a 20ft container is 3719 this includes aqis and standard insurance, it would be another £30 for mould/mildew cover, does anyone think this is worth covering?.

 

They still also quote the price for 580 cuft even though we've got sole usage!!!

It doesn't sound a bad price looking at some of the others I've seen. Any thoughts?

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I havent heard of the mould/mildew cover, I won't be taking that out. The price you've quote sounds pretty much the rate for a sole container from what I have heard and seen on here. I don;t want to pay for the sole container as we are not in a rush for our things anyway, we have the basics out there anyway.

 

Good luck with your move Keefo!

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Thanks. We've been quoted 2700 and 3k with insurance with 2 companies for groupage but they won't know when it will leave docks as they need more bookings to fill 40ft container up. In the long run it may save us to pay for sole usage because if our gear doesn't arrive by mid January & we've found a long term rental by then we would have to secure it with a bond plus 1st month rental and our gear wouldn't be there & then we would have to extend our stay at holiday let. At least with sole usage you know roughly when it will be there.

 

Have you got belongings out there already?

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No but my husband has moved into a place last weekend which already has white goods plus sofa, tv cabinet and dining table and chairs. He has bought a new TV (ours will then go in a bedroom) a bed, chest of drawers and outside furniture - not expensive stuff, just things he has seen on offer and/or bartered on etc. So we have the basics to live on out there and we are happy to wait for our stuff from there.

 

Thanks. We've been quoted 2700 and 3k with insurance with 2 companies for groupage but they won't know when it will leave docks as they need more bookings to fill 40ft container up. In the long run it may save us to pay for sole usage because if our gear doesn't arrive by mid January & we've found a long term rental by then we would have to secure it with a bond plus 1st month rental and our gear wouldn't be there & then we would have to extend our stay at holiday let. At least with sole usage you know roughly when it will be there.

 

Have you got belongings out there already?

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That's good then, saves a bit of messing around. How is he doing work wise?

 

Yeh hes good, we've been very lucky - he was offered a 3 month contract before her left, so he started that the week after he arrived. He was then offered a job on the mines but was offered a better package to stay where he was. He was then interviewed for the Fiona Stanley hospital and that went well but he turned that down too to stay where he is, which should be turning into a permanent job soon. It;s been a huge relief that work is out there. It seems a lot of places take you on temp (in the trades) but make you permanent, a way of try before you buy I suppose!

Me on the other hand, I am struggling even getting interviews from over here, so hope that will change once I am out there.

 

How about you for work?

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My wife has a job lined up to start 29th January in Mindarie. I emailed a guy about a position I saw on seek 5 weeks ago, I explained that we're not over there until new year & pls can you keep me on file should any such positions become available in future bla bla. I didn't think anything else of it then a few weeks later he asked me to call for interview. When I called I said you are aware I'm not there until ny and he said yeah just realised after reading your mail again. I had a great chat with him for around 15 mins and he said call him when we're over but he can't promise anything. We will have to find adequate daycare 1st also before I start work.

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Someone mentioned letton percival the other day also for insurance who came back with decent price. When you price up individual belongings and have to make a claim, do you ever have to prove that they were that price originally.

 

Also did anyone go for the optional extra of mildew & electrical cover, I notice the external insurance companies include this.

 

Hi, think that was me. Never had to prove the original price as it should be based on the cost to replace in Australia, we did have to prove that for our claim (and purchase quite a lot of them to get the pay out). We used both the electrical and mildew, TV developed an electrical fault and mattresses and a few other items got mildew, its personal choice and I guess it depends on what you are shipping.

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Cheers. What do you mean when you say you had to purchase quite a bit off them to get pay out.

Our main worry is mould and mildew on fabric sofa....the tv is 8 year old plasma and it states electricals are only covered for 6 years and under so we're not sure.

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The way the insurance works is that they will replace or repair the items that are damaged, this meant that we had to provide receips for repairs and for larger items that had to be replaced and receipts for purchases to get the pay out. They dont just settle for a sum. They did agree to just pay out on some smaller items without receipts, but TV, mattresses, violin repairs, shoes etc we had to give the receipts. It is worth reading the small print to understand exactly how it works and what is covered and what is not as well as time frames etc. hope that helps

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I've just asked one of the shippers a question about this. I asked if I put a sofa at value of 2k and it gets damaged will I get payout of that value or will somebody at the other end quibble it's worth. As long as you don't have to show receipts from when the original purchase was made then that's fine, I understand that you may have to show a receipt of the replacement sofa etc.

I just like to ask them as many questions as I can to nail them down but they are like politicians in the fact they never give you a straight answer.

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My understanding, which may well be wrong, goes something like this...

 

You insure your couch for 2k. It gets damaged, so you go and buy a replacement couch for 2k. Show them the receipt for the replacement and they'll pay out the full 2k, happy days. If, on the other hand, your replacement couch costs 4k, they will only pay you 1k rather than the 2k that you insured it for. As you only insured it for half of it's 'true' value, they will only pay you half of what you insured it for.

 

Makes sense, kind of...

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Thanks HLV ......Honestly that has cleared things up, a lot more than the waffle on the sheets of paper.

 

If you insured it for £2k and replacement was $3500 then you will have the full cover. But if sofa you bought was $3800 (over 2k) then they would only pay out half the 2k

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I got thoroughly confused as to whether to insure in pounds or dollars and can't remember what we did in the end, I think we went with $ for everything to avoid confusion over exchange rates at this end. What they did at their end to come up with an amount for the premium is anyone's guess! Completely academic for us thankfully as nothing was damaged!

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Now being told to be more specific when putting insurance figures down for clothes instead of a lump sum. How can you price up each individual t-shirt, undies, socks etc and how do they go about finding like for like.

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I have just today booked Britannia for our removals but have decided to use Insureyourmove for our insurance. Haven;t booked it yet as I need to go through valuations for things tonight so not sure how detailed I will have to be on their form- I gather from the website that you just put topline for them but we shall see! Why is nothing straightforward!

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Did anybody insure their clothes in the shipment? Most of our clothes will be with us in our cases, the clothes we are shipping have to have a rough figure down for how many items of clothes there are. With the £100 excess we're actually wondering whether it's worth covering them.

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