[sarahw]

Can anyone recommend a removals company in the Wellington region (or a nation-wide one) that they have used to shift from one property to another within NZ?

We've got 4 weeks to arrange a removal but Yellow Pages online has 4 pages full of removal companies I've never heard of & have also seen that most removals are charged on an hourly basis here! Anyone found someone who charges a flat rate so we don't get ripped off?

[acisman]

I can't actually recommend anyone in the Wellington area, but we are moving next week and we approached the NZ agents of the shipping company (NZ Vanlines for PSS) with a view to them giving us a quote.

Unfortunately they do not do NZ address to NZ address moves, but did recommend a firm. Perhaps you could do the same.

We did contact three or four firms when we discovered they charge by the hourly rate and it does seem that this is the way it is done over here. Best rate we got was $90 per hour. They estimate the total move will take 6 hours ( including their travelling time to and from us), so for less that £250 we get all our stuff moved 30 Km. We are happy with that.

The secret here is to have eveything already boxed up and I will certainly be prepared to carry some of the boxes to the lorry if that helps speed things up.

Dave & Pam

[sarahw]

Thanks Dave & Pam,

We moved over here with PSS/NZ Vanlines too - (don't know where you're living in NZ but must say I was more impressed on the UK side than the NZ side (Welly) though). $90- an hour sounds quite a good rate - I've been quoted up to $155!!! I think the Yellow Pages and the phone are going to be busy tomorrow!!!

One of the companies I contacted yesterday told me they supply boxes for free but they don't have any at the moment - so how the heck am I supposed to move a 3-bed house's contents with them? :? Cracked me up! That's like trying to sell a package holiday without accommodation! :laugh

[miep]

We used the Moving co twice. Once for moving from no.3 to no.1 (ie next door) and once a couple of k down the road. I actually preferred the hourly rate because it kept it very manageable. I think they charged $20 per hour per man and I just "ordered" 4 men. The second time I did the same + a truck, boxes and moving blankets. They will stay to put things back together or unpack if you want them to and otherwise you just write out a cheque and send them home. I found them very flexible and hard working, although all those sorts of companies come across as cowboys they came through on the day. They didn't even complain about the 100k washing machine and knew how to put the special gadget for moving it in!
( also have a 50k round fridge and a 50k dryer and lots of stairs and steep garden paths)

Good luck!

:cheers Miep

[sarahw]

Thanks Miep - good tips. Fingers crossed the removal will go smoothly but I'll just be glad to get into our own place! :P

[baboonworld]

Hire a van dude and do it the Kiwi way - DIY!

[sarahw]

Yes I would if I didn't have RSI & Ian had spine surgery 2 years ago & can't lift at all!!!

I'd rather pay for 3 men & a 20ft truck than risk NZ hospital bills for us both! :laugh

[Carol]

When is the big day Sarah???
Can't be too far off now..

[sarahw]

A week on Friday :cheers We can't wait - living in a house full of half-packed boxes at the moment! Off to sign the mortgage docs this Friday morning. :mrgreen: You'll have to come round for coffee once I've got unpacked :cheers (or something a little stronger!)

[Carol]

you're on pet.

:nice1 :cheers :cheers :cheers

[Kenny]

Can I come too ..... :cheers :cheers

[Carol]

Can I come too ..... :cheers :cheers

no


hehe :laugh

[Kenny]

Can I come too ..... :cheers :cheers

no


hehe :laugh


Are you not supposed to be working? :yes :yes :yes

[Avalon]

Just want to add here for future refernce - we are finding Crown quite awkward to deal with as straight removers rather than shippers.

First of all, the sales guy thought it was perfectly acceptable to ring us at 7.45am to see if we had decided to use them. Not Amused. If the prat had waited till he got to the office he would have found out that we had booked it in the day before!

Then thye want to charge a whopping 1.125% of the value for insurance. They are taking it over the bleeding hill - not half way round the world! We have sorted insurance with the bank and a quarter of the cost.

Then we were informed (having accepted thier expensive proposal), that we would need to provide the original packaging for our Plasma TV (42"). We pointed out that the proposal states nthey will "export pack" it, but they then made up a new rule on the Monday. We point out that we didnt kkep the pachaging (have you SEEN the size of the boxes thouse things come in???) and we are told to go back to the company we bought it off and ask them for one! We have a sense of humour failure and tell them to sort it out. After all, we aint getting this "service" cheap! :no

After waiting till Friday to get any info about this, Crown have decided that it was a really stupid idea - and have dropped the rule! :rolleyes:

Then they said it would be fine to send an email regarding our use of other insurance, which we did, then yestreday recieved our acceptance form back saying "please fill in the insurance choice"!

All in all, not very professional. And given the price we are paying - its been way too much hassle. So respectfully, I cant recommend them. :no

On the other hand - arranging for my parents shippment to be delivered (which crown have in storage) the day after has been as simple as phoning up and booking it in!

[sizzlingbadger]

Avalon

Don't know if it's too late to change removal companies but we used Allans Removals in Masterton, they're used by Crown and we found them fantastic. Not a cheap quote though just over $1000 to move from Churton Park to Featherston. They were really careful with our stuff unlike another removal company and were a really friendly team. They started 8 am and were away by 2 pm, we did have all our stuff packed beforehand though.

[Avalon]

Oooh, I dont feel too bad now - Crown are charging $1450, and they have to get us that bit further to carterton, and then into the wilds!!!!

We also have to pack everything - but most of it wasnt ever unpacked in the first place!

[mattford]

Interesting that someone mentioned Crown - They moved us from Auckland to Wellington earlier this year. My employer paid for the move but we got the quotes first and they seemed pretty competitive at the time.

However they turned out to be a bit of a headache - Especially on the admin side because whenever we phoned nobody seemed to have a clue what they were talking about, and different people told us totally different things. They also have the kind of admin staff who say they'll phone back about something, but then never do, so you end up chasing them the whole time.

Our stuff did get here eventually, but they changed their mind about the date they said they could deliver. They told us it would be 5 days between collection in Auckland and delivery in Wellington and they would contact us about a delivery time. However the 5 days passed and we didn't hear from them, so we phoned and they said it would actually be 8 days. We were already in Welly and kicked up a fuss about needing our stuff and eventually they said they would come one morning. They finally made an appearance that afternoon. There were a few minor breakages, and the delivery guys didn't take particular care.

The other people who started work the same time as me and used Crown to move their stuff all had problems too. In one case Crown only sent a driver with the van so there weren't enough people to shift the fridge, sofa etc, and in another case Crown claimed it cost an extra $100 to deliver a shipment on a saturday morning (which was total rubbish, and they changed their mind after someone complained).

Anyway we're planning to move again in the next few months and we most definitely WON'T be using Crown.

[Smiler]

Any one else got any suggestions/recommendations for removal companies in Welly please? :D

[snuggleball]

When you moved locally, did the movers provide the packing materials? Those low $1000s removal costs that you've been quoted (ie, you did the packing yourself), did they include the cost of packing cartons?

We will require the help of the movers to pack for us. We will be moving from the Hutt to Porirua. We are currently in a 2-bedroom house. Both places are within easy access. We were quoted close to $1900. That's excluding dissembling of our 3 big cabinets (we have to do that ourselves), but including packing materials. Does that sound about right?

[jen]

I'm bumping this up to see if anyone has moved within Welly recently & liked their moving company. The pages and pages of movers in the yellow pages are overwhelming me & I'd really appreciate any recommendations - the Moving Company is mentioned upthread, any others?

We knew we'd be moving from our apartment (though not this soon) & we saved lots of boxes so we don't need packing material, just a truck and some strong backs to move our stuff from Island Bay to Hataitai.

Thanks!
Jen

[shagen]

We used Axis Movers when we moved from Wellington to the Kapiti Coast. We did our own packing but the packing materials, ie. boxes, wraps, etc, were supplied by the movers. They also dismantle the bigger items for transporting and assemble them back at the other end. In total their charges did not exceed $1k ... but that was some 6 months ago.

[jess]

We moved on the Kapiti Coast and used King Transport (http://sites.yellow.co.nz/site/kingtransport/). I think they go all over, even though they're based in Paraparaumu. The guy who owns it came by and gave us a free quote, and his was the lowest we got. But the service was fine, and they were prompt and friendly. We still had everything packed from the container delivery so we only needed moving. For a three bedroom house full moving about 15 kilometers up the road it was $500. Despite the fact that we didn't pay for packing, they still wrapped furniture extremely carefully. I'd recommend them.

[Angelonthemove]

The Moving company as just quoted us $135 per hour and $2 per carton for packing we are moving Khandallah to Wadestown so not so far. She said it may take longer as we have 98 steps at he new house. they originally moved our 20ft container into our house here and were very quick, organised and professional. Took them less than 3 hours with a distance to the house of 45 steps here but that is on one level. So I am estimating 8 hours total.

It depends on how well we have packed our stuff beforehand as to how long it takes.

[jen]

We decided to go with Conroys; I wanted to get the movers lined up last week & it seemed some people have used them successfully, at least for small moves.

They quoted me $135/hr for 3 men. We have our own boxes as we only moved into our apartment 3 months ago (though I never would have unpacked so much of our stuff if I'd believed we'd buy a house this soon :roll ). I'll post how it goes - moving day is May 11; we take the house the 8th but are putting in some carpet & doing a little painting before our stuff goes in.

Angelo, we're almost the same as you with the # of steps - we've got 45 at our apartment and 67 at the house we're moving into! At least at both ends the movers will be carrying things downhill.

Jen

[gil]

I asked this question a few weeks back in respect of Auckland and got no takers (except Marie P and her OH kindly offering their services!) so I thought I'd just let you know that we have booked The Moving Company for our local move in Bucklands Beach. Very professional and courteous as they were when they handled the NZ leg of our shipping.

Gil