Pip
14th May 2007, 08:23 PM
o.k - I know, I've ranted about this a little bit already, but I found this board invaluable both before and since we've moved over here, so I'm keen to post anything that might help others in some shape or form...
This may be just limited to my experience of dealing with the Moving Co (one of John Mason's NZ partners) when you arrive in NZ - but I suspect that it applies to other companies too.
So In terms of shipping containers and MAF fees, I recommend the following:
1) never pay any bills for MAF fees, sent to you by the Moving Co (or anyone else) before your goods have arrived in the country. They often invoice you on your arrival before your container ship even docks. :mad:
If the goods have not arrived in the country, then these are only estimates, and if the true bill is lower when the inspection happens (which seems to be the case in 99% of cases), IMHO no one will actively tell you about it or refund you the difference.
2) Ask to be invoiced/pay MAF directly, - this is your absolute right, even if you didn't state at the time you left the UK. You will probably still have to pay a charge for Moving co staff time to locate the correct boxes for MAF to inspect, but I'm willing to bet it will be considerably cheaper. In some cases, MAF don't even inspect the container at all, in which case you might find you've paid $400 + for nothing! MAF are extremely helpful and more than happy for you to pay them directly if you so choose.
3) If you are paying them directly, do just that - go to MAF, not far from the airport and ask to pay your bill. Interesting enough, having arranged to pay MAF directly and the moving Co for their time during the inspection, - I got a call from Moving co, saying what their bill was and then what the MAF bill was and how did I want to pay - funnily enough, when I went to MAF to pay it, it was considerably lower! (its the blatant lies that get me!)
o.k - for people who like numbers, here's my actual example.
Estimated bill waiting for us when we arrived - for Maf inspection/quarantine fees = $386
After asking to pay MAF direct and agreeing to pay for moving co staff time (so much for John Mason door to door all included service!) this bill turned into
moving co time = $65
MAF bill = $ 145
not a bad saving, nearly $200 for a couple of phone calls. Although better still, when I went to MAF to pay my $145, it was actually only $111 (nice try moving co!)
Now $200 probably doesn't seem like very much, especially to people in the UK who are thinking in £, but trust me, when you've been here a couple of months and are earning NZ$, $200 actually goes a long way - e.g thats four months of sky, or a weeks food shopping, or as Avalon would say - a heck of a lot of coffees - so please please, think about it, before you hand over your hard earned cash! My general experience of kiwi life has been everyone has been completely honest, always willing to help etc- but I'm sad to say that dealing with the Moving Co has been the one exception to that!
This may be just limited to my experience of dealing with the Moving Co (one of John Mason's NZ partners) when you arrive in NZ - but I suspect that it applies to other companies too.
So In terms of shipping containers and MAF fees, I recommend the following:
1) never pay any bills for MAF fees, sent to you by the Moving Co (or anyone else) before your goods have arrived in the country. They often invoice you on your arrival before your container ship even docks. :mad:
If the goods have not arrived in the country, then these are only estimates, and if the true bill is lower when the inspection happens (which seems to be the case in 99% of cases), IMHO no one will actively tell you about it or refund you the difference.
2) Ask to be invoiced/pay MAF directly, - this is your absolute right, even if you didn't state at the time you left the UK. You will probably still have to pay a charge for Moving co staff time to locate the correct boxes for MAF to inspect, but I'm willing to bet it will be considerably cheaper. In some cases, MAF don't even inspect the container at all, in which case you might find you've paid $400 + for nothing! MAF are extremely helpful and more than happy for you to pay them directly if you so choose.
3) If you are paying them directly, do just that - go to MAF, not far from the airport and ask to pay your bill. Interesting enough, having arranged to pay MAF directly and the moving Co for their time during the inspection, - I got a call from Moving co, saying what their bill was and then what the MAF bill was and how did I want to pay - funnily enough, when I went to MAF to pay it, it was considerably lower! (its the blatant lies that get me!)
o.k - for people who like numbers, here's my actual example.
Estimated bill waiting for us when we arrived - for Maf inspection/quarantine fees = $386
After asking to pay MAF direct and agreeing to pay for moving co staff time (so much for John Mason door to door all included service!) this bill turned into
moving co time = $65
MAF bill = $ 145
not a bad saving, nearly $200 for a couple of phone calls. Although better still, when I went to MAF to pay my $145, it was actually only $111 (nice try moving co!)
Now $200 probably doesn't seem like very much, especially to people in the UK who are thinking in £, but trust me, when you've been here a couple of months and are earning NZ$, $200 actually goes a long way - e.g thats four months of sky, or a weeks food shopping, or as Avalon would say - a heck of a lot of coffees - so please please, think about it, before you hand over your hard earned cash! My general experience of kiwi life has been everyone has been completely honest, always willing to help etc- but I'm sad to say that dealing with the Moving Co has been the one exception to that!