[lisa]

Hi

Right ! we are now at the stage where we really need to make a decision on shippers. We have had 3 quotes PSS Britannia and Pickfords. We have discounted PSS as he was the only one that reckoned we would struggle to fit everything in a 20ft and thet we would have to prioritise some items not really thet keen on doing this (being as we've hardly got anything left now anyway :laugh )
There is only about £100 difference in the quotes and both are confident that a 20ft will be more than adequate (good news as I've just seen the weather report and am hoping to purchase some electric blankets before we go :nice1 )
Would love to hear anyones experiences good or bad. OIne of the things we liked about Pickfords is that it is there own offices in NZ.

Look forward to hearing from anyone.

Lisa and Andy :P

[Diny]

I hope people report that Britannia are the best 'cos that's who we're using.

I understand that Britannia use NZ Van Lines which have contracts with alot of the other shipping companies too.

Obviously all we've done with Britannia so far is the preliminary paperwork and visited the depot to collect a stack of self pack cartons but I can say 'so far so good'.

Good luck.

Diny

[GeorgeM]

We used Pickfords and at the UK end they were awful (do not confuse with awesome!!!).

Their team was very inexperienced, they packed things very badly, damaged a number of things through sheer negligence and even managed to put a deep rut through the middle of the wood floor in the hall of the house we were leaving by one of their students (sic) trying to drag, by himself, a heavy piece of furniture across it.

Their team came and went throughout the time they were packing, constantly moaning about the company - saying that they always had to do this, were never allowed enough time to do the job properly etc etc.

In the end we used them because of the office here, and at the Chch end they were very good, but Pickfords UK were rubbish and expensive.

More details / photos available if anyone is interested in hearing more...

[Yogi]

Would love to hear more, was considering Pickfords mainly as they at least have people at both ends not subbies.

Cheers,

Yogi.

[Kim39]

Take a look at the thread..... How long did your container take. Just put a post on about Pickfords. I'm not here to knock them as i haven't had any experience of them but just to say be aware.


Kim

[GeorgeM]

Would love to hear more

This is quite long, but gives a flavour for the problems we had with Pickfords in the UK.

Below I copy extracts from emails I exchanged with Pickfords in late 2002. There is a lot more correspondence (as you can imagine), and the number of itemised 'points' goes well into the twenties, but I think you will all get the picture.

We originally paid over five grand sterling to engage Pickfords for our move. I think "Joes Movers and Furniture Dismatlers Ltd" would have done just as well... :laugh

14th Oct 2002

So far there are 16 separate points which are worthy of mention, plus a couple of general comments on the team which was sent to our property in the UK. The points are in the order that they have been experienced rather than in terms of importance.

1. No systematic approach was taken towards keeping the various bits associated with dismantled furniture together. For example 12 castors were removed from our double bed, of which 3 were placed in one of the bed drawers. The other 9 are still to be found. This meant that the bed could not be put together by the NZ delivery team (we had been promised that all things dismantled by Pickfords would be reassembled at the other end), and that I had to travel a considerable distance to purchase and attach castors and then assemble the bed.

Another example of failings in this area concerns our kitchen table. The top was removed from the base, but rather than keeping the screws with the table they were placed in a sideboard drawer. It was impossible for your NZ to reassemble this item also, so further of my time had to be spent in this activity once the screws were found.

I understand from Mr Morgan that in NZ all Pickfords teams have a 'bits box' which is used to transport any screws, bolts etc so that these are not lost and are readily available at the point of delivery. Perhaps the UK could learn from NZ in this area.

2. One box contained a lid-less plastic storage box which held miscellaneous items from one of the children's bedrooms.

This box had been placed UPSIDE DOWN in your cardboard box so that all of the items had fallen out and were distributed about the box. I can think of no explanation for this other than pure bloody-mindedness on the part of the packer (of which I will say more later) - there was no possible way in which the plastic box could have turned over by itself during the voyage.

3. The packing of clothes was absolutely appalling. The general standard achieved was akin to that which would have occurred if we had asked children to pack away - clothes which were folded or hung on hangers were crammed into completely inadequate boxes with no attempt made to fold them in order to minimize creasing. This has resulted in almost all of the clothes being un-wearable until they are laundered or dry cleaned. Some of the clothes appear on the face of it to be so badly creased that they may in fact never be wearable. Do you wish for us to have the clothes dry cleaned in an attempt to render them wearable, and can you confirm that if you do that if this attempt fails we will be compensated for both the cost of the abortive cleaning AND the replacement items?

An indication of the lack of care with which the clothes were packed is shown by the items which were sharing the boxes.

With my wife's best dresses and suits were two 3.5 kg dumbbells (yes, really), and another box of our best clothes contained two wooden bookcase shelves. This is a further example of what appears to be bloody mindedness on the part of at least one member of your team.

4. A number of lampshades have been made unusable by being crammed with other items into boxes. This has resulted in them being creased so that when they are used to shade bulbs they throw a shadow. We have moved on numerous occasions and on previous occasions lampshades have been given boxes to themselves to prevent just this sort of damage.

One lampshade in particular had its metal fixings detached from the shade itself by one of your men. I am 100% certain that this shade was in perfect condition before it was packed, and the fitting could not have become detached in transit as it was separately packed in paper!

5. Labelling on many of the boxes was totally inadequate and has considerably hindered our unpacking at this end. We had books in virtually every room in the house, but many boxes were just labelled 'books' with no indication of where they originated. Similarly many boxes were just labelled 'Misc' which was of little use to anyone.

6. Many boxes contained mixtures of two or more rooms. We understand that where one room ends and another begins it may be necessary to mix items, but this cannot account for the high percentage of boxes which join together the contents of various rooms. This also has severely hindered our progress here, especially as many of the mixes seem bizarre - for example items from bedrooms and the garage!

7. A 'lightstick' belonging to my youngest daughter is missing. This is a coloured (yellow) florescent tube with a base to hold it. We had the original box for this item which we offered to your men as the lamp was quite fragile, but this offer was declined. All boxes and items of furniture long enough to hold the stick have now been opened and it has not surfaced.

Unless the lamp has been folded into a smaller box (nothing would really surprise me now) then the light is not going to turn up - I expect that it was broken and has been jettisoned somewhere - perhaps even whilst still at the loading location. Can you please confirm that if the light does not appear and it is not available in NZ that it will be replaced in the UK and dispatched to us.

8. The overall impression of packing is one of a team that did not have sufficient time to complete the task set them, but one item suggests otherwise. A pair of stacking beds (dismantled by your men but not reassembled by Pickfords NZ) contained 16 bolts. Whilst I was spending my time putting these beds back together I realised that the nut on each of the 16 bolts had been screwed as far along the shaft of the bolt as possible - a good three inches. Whilst it is of course necessary to ensure that the nut is not lost it is hardly necessary to thread the nut to the very top of the bolt. It looks as if one of your team was far happier wasting his time in this manner than getting stuck in to the job in hand.

9. I opened one box and was pleased to see that the main family photograph albums had arrived safely - 9 very large ones all stacked together in a box. Unfortunately when I got to the bottom of the box I found that these heavy items had been packed on top of a camcorder and a 35mm SLR camera. I ask you a very direct question - do you think that this is a reasonable way to go about packing items as delicate as camcorders and cameras?

10. We had a number of cardboard storage boxes of our own which contained various papers and other items. Some of these we crammed (sideways) into Pickfords boxes and partially crushed in the process. The remainder were not packed at all - instead they were sealed with tape and a make-shift label taped to the box tops. When the labels were removed and the tape removed to reveal the contents the top (coloured) layer of cardboard came away, so none of these storage boxes are now usable and all have to be replaced.

11. We have a cover for a child's pool table which is made of silver coloured material. This was folded on the pool table, but was unfolded and screwed up before being squashed into a box. The cover is now a mass of creases. This too needs replacing, and is yet another example of what appears to be deliberate and wilful damage to our property which could easily have been avoided.

12. As I stated earlier we have a considerable quantity of books. Many of the boxes containing these have not yet been opened, but a sufficient has to identify that we have a problem in this area too. In some (albeit not all) of the boxes books have been stuffed in with no attempt to prevent damage. Consequently a considerable but as yet unknown quantity of books have been severely damaged and will need to be replaced.

13. The mixing bowl from the Kenwood Chef has not yet been found. In the box which contained the mixer itself were all the tools and attachments, plus sundry items unrelated to this item. As far as I can see there is no reason why the bowl should have been detached from the mixer - a single box would easily accommodate all - but this is just a further example of the bizarre manner in which much of the packing was carried out.

14. A chest of drawers from my daughter's bedroom was emptied of the clothes it contained (which were then stuffed into boxes - see point 3) and replaced with books. I can think of no reason for doing this, and neither could Mr Morgan who suggested that whilst it would be normal to replace the contents of a chest with lighter items it was decidedly odd to go to the effort of replacing them with heavier items.

15. My wife had a large bag containing 5 wooden puppets she had had since she was a child. The bag has been discovered, but now there are only 4 puppets. Although there is no reason why the fifth puppet should have been removed from its companions this is by no means impossible (based on our experience so far) but it does seem that this particular item has gone walkabout.

16. A bracket from a 'mother and child' halogen uplighter lamp has been removed which means that the lamp is unusable. A second similar lamp arrived with the brackets intact.

Sent on 21st Oct 2002

17. When visited by Mr Whitby I made it clear that for many electrical appliances (computers, stereos etc) I had kept the original boxes so that the items could be transported safely. I asked him whether I should pack these items myself but was informed that your men would be experienced in this and all I had to do was to leave the boxes by the side of the appropriate devices. This I did.

This weekend I unpacked a computer and monitor and found that the preferred method of packing for your team had been to place the piece of equipment directly into the box, break the specially shaped polystyrene into small pieces and arrange these around the device to wedge them into place. Even if the person packing was having problems I could have offered guidance, but was never approached.

There are four results from this stupidity:

i. The items were less secure in transit than they could have been. As luck would have it both items appear to be working correctly.

ii. The secure packaging is now unusable in future if I need to transport the items around.

iii. Small pieces of polystyrene may have entered into the vents on top of the monitor (I have opened the PC system box and checked that this is not a problem here).

iv. I had to spend a good deal of time cleaning up the mess resulting from small pieces of polystyrene sticking to things - I'm sure you will know how unpleasant this stuff is to deal with.

18. My children attempted to play a game of pool for the first time at the weekend - one of the adjustable feet for their pool table has been removed (if you care to send someone down from the Christchurch office they will be able to see that this has to be deliberate - they cannot fall off by themselves) with the consequence that the table has to be propped up with a book at the moment (perhaps a suitable role for one of the books ruined by your men? (point 12))

19. The top drawer of a portable desk pedistal unit cannot be opened owing to the manner in which packing material has been jammed into it. In this case are we to attempt to open it on the understanding that if we damage the item in the process it will be replaced, or do you have specific instructions on how we should proceed?

Sent on 30th Oct 2002

I have some small amount of good news relating to my earlier points. The missing puppet (point 15) has surfaced, albeit in box simple marked 'misc' from a different room altogether from where it was kept with its four companions. The box containing the other 4 puppets contained other sundry items so there was room to pack them all together. The only reason I can come up with for taking a single puppet from the communial bag and packing it elsewhere (which must have taken some deliberate effort) is that it was designed to cause us inconvenience.

The mixing bowl for the Kenwood Chef (point 13) has also turned up, this time in a box containing items from the utility room - including candles and shoe cleaning kits. I note from your boxes that you claim ISO 9002. Can you please comment on whether your certified procedures extend to packing, and if they do whether it is considered acceptable to pack food processing items with such items as shoe polish? (I believe that I am also awaiting your comments on other points).

Additional to point 17. During the week we also unpacked two televisions for which we had retained and made available the original packing. These were also just placed into the box and the polystyrene broken into pieces and jammed around them in an attempt to keep them secure. Can you please comment on whether you would expect your men to have made a better stab at packing these delicate items given that proper packaging was supplied. The documentation I have to hand from the insurers states that they will only cover items which have been packed by you. I really am begining to wonder why as I am sure that in many cases I would have done a far better job myself, amateur that I am. Can you also suggest how we can resolve the fact that my secure packaging for many items (which is, I believe, unobtainable) has now been destroyed by your team?


Sent on 1st Nov 2002

We are still unpacking, and unfortunately are still coming across examples of your team's ineptitude.

Point 18. A lever arch folder so badly packed that it will have to be replaced. Value very small, but I really think that we could have expected better from your men. Do you provide them with any training at all before letting them loose on people's property? Please see the picture attached, which you can add to your, no doubt large, rogue's gallery.

Point 19. A briefcase full of papers, placed upright in a box and heavy books then placed on top crushing it. Now unusable. Again, see attached photograph.

Point 20. A box containing files and photographs labelled 'Files, photos and christmas tree lights'. No Christmas decorations at all in the box, but the label is sufficient to make the local Agricultural Ministry want to inspect the box - it couldn't be found when the original delivery and inspection was made, so they will now have to make a separate trip to look at a box full of paper.

Phew! Hope this gives people an insight into "The Careful Movers"! :laugh :laugh :laugh

[veronica]

Umm, I am still a staunch supporter of the pack it yourself mode.
Nobody else is going to care as much as you do about your belongings and although I darsay that a lot of these guys are good at their jobs it only needs one bad one in the team to offset the balance.
We packed our own stuf on each move we have made to and from Australia and again to NZ and so far we have had no breakages. Our stuff...our responsibility....and so far no aggro.

[Diny]

We've opted for self pack - well half and half really - Britannia will wrap the large pieces of furniture and load them but everything else has been down to us.

I must admit, I feel happy that everything is packed well and padded and protected. I'm not saying the Britannia guys wouldn't do a good job, I'm just saying that I won't be spending the weeks of the containers journey wondering if my belongings are rattling around in their cartons getting smashed to smitherines.

Oh yeah ..... and self pack was cheaper :nice1

Diny