[colindp]

I have been fortunate to get a job with Dunedin City Council and they are assisiting us with our move to NZ to the tune of 10K (NZ$) however they are keen on using Crown who have initialy quoted 12K admittedly without carrying out a survey yet. This concerns me... I also asked about self packing as I have done this before from the US back to the UK, I was promptly told that it would affect the insurance. Any advice greatfully received........

:? :hopeso

[sarahw]

Hi,

The shipping companies don't like you to pack yourself (1) because they get to charge a great deal for it & (2) because they do pack things extremely well - nothing of our whole 20ft container was damaged as it was so well packed. Having said that - you might want to check how it might affect the insurance - as it may end up cheaper on the whole if you pack yourself...

I wouldn't put all my eggs in one basket with Crown - I'm sure they're very good - they came across very well when we had them out to quote, but we didn't use them as at the end of the day money was key. I would get 3 quotes and compare them. We managed to play the shipping companies off against each other & saved about £500 on the final cost. Crown went down in price once but not by enough, whereas PSS were excellent and came down on price twice - I know a lot of other people on the forum are using Whites as they were also very competitive.

Good luck :hopeso