[Park City Partner]

So, we have had Allied shippers at our house for the last two days. I went with them, in part, because of their reputation. A friend used them for a bunch of moves over the years and they are supposed to be very experienced in International shipping.

Long story short, not all of our stuff fit in a 20 ft. container. When we called to chat with them about it the guy that did the estimate told my partner that he told me it was going to be close. Not really what he told me. He told me it would be fine. We were told today that there is another 20ft. container that is a foot taller. Had I been told that it was going to be "really close" and given the option of the bigger container I would have gone for it...but I wasn't. Or if I had been told it is going to be really close you should get rid of some stuff or set aside somethings you can leave behind I would have. But those options were not provided. Now they are probably going to stick me with a bunch of extra charges....

Hopefully they won't and we will be able to resolve this with a positive outcome that I can report on tomorrow. My parnter has already told them that we don't believe this to be our responsibilty. The estimator is conveniently going on vacation tomorrow...and according to the packers he is the worst estimator they have.

Stay tuned. :confused:

[Smiler]

Don't back down. If the estimator got it wrong, it's their responsibility.

Hope you resolve this without fuss and hassle from them. I'm watching this space.

Deborah

[Park City Partner]

Well, long story short, we had to go down to the warehouse today and take stuff off the container that we were willing to leave behind so that we could get the other stuff on. They had to unload almost the entire thing.

If I could change moving companies at this point I would have. I understand how things sometimes happen but frankly their handling of the situation has left me less than impressed. The estimator admitted to me that he was wrong and apologized but no one else at the company has and they want me to believe that they are doing me a big favor by not charging me to unload and reload the container to fit the stuff we want. I am hoping that things pick up from here.

I will say that Allied has a website where you can track your shipment. Ours is scheduled to leave port on jan 26 and arrive in NZ on Feb 16...remarkable I think...we will see if it really happens that fast.

On a postive note my residency visa via my partner was approved yesterday! :raebanana

[GeorgeM]

It might not help at the moment, but we found Allied in Chch were very good at the unloading end. So hopefully things will get better for you from here on in...

Unfortunately Allied Pickfords in the UK were, for us, as inept as they appear to have been for you in the US.

[Howie]

Darn. I just called Allied to come over and give us an estimate. Does anyone have any other recommendations for shippers from the US? Do you mind me asking how much they are charging you for a 20ft container? We don't have a lot of stuff, so we likely won't fill a full container. Keep us posted. I'd love to hear if your stuff makes it there according to their estimated schedule and how things go on the other end.

Susan

[Park City Partner]

I'm sure a lot of the problem is with the specific people you deal with. Our estimator just did a poor job of communicating. The price for the 20 ft. container door to door with them doing all of the packing was about $8,250. The insurance was another 25 per $1,000 of value which is standard for the industry and doesn't vary by company. The container holds 7,000 lbs. We had a 1,400 sq. ft town home but my partner has lots of toys and tools as he is a builder. You'd be surprisde to find how much stuff you really have plus something that isn't that big gets a lot bigger once they pack it!

I will keep everyone up to date on how things go from here...hopefully it is all smooth sailing!

[Howie]

The price for the 20 ft. container door to door with them doing all of the packing was about $8,250.

Is that USD or NZD?

We have a 600 ft^2 appartment with not a lot of stuff and probably won't move everything. We do want to move 2 bikes and a sea kayak though. We got an online quote of $2600 US. We'll see what they say after they actually see our stuff.

Thanks for the info. Keep us posted.

Susan

[Park City Partner]

Sorry, that is USD. How many pounds did they quote you for? Also, I would strongly encourage you to have someone come out and see exactly what you are taking....and even then they make mistakes. I am assuming that you will have a partial container load and I'm not sure how that works. Good luck and I will continue to update.

[Howie]

I filled out a list of items that we think we'll be bringing on the shippers website and it calculated it to be 310ft^3. They said that since we have a partial container, the kayak probably won't fit :( I'm going to give them the exact measurements to make sure. They said they would try to send someone out to the house, but didn't know if that would happen within the next month!!! They said that the final cost would be based on the actual volume that we fill on the container, not based on their estimates. But they also said that we need to get our estimate within 100ft^3 so that they can plan to fill the container with other stuff. They said we should just measure everything ourselves and that should do. Does this sound odd? Oh, they also said it would take at least 10 weeks to reach us as it will be at sea for 6 weeks min and would have to change ships along the way. I guess your ship will be leaving from the West coast, which I guess would be a lot quicker.

Good luck and let us know how things go.

Susan

[jess]

A few days after I requested info, Allied in the US told us someone would be contacting us about the estimate, but they never did. Nor did Allied check back with us. I could have called them, but it seemed like if I had to nudge them before I even hired them, that might be trouble.

Crown has been fantastic so far, but we'll see if I can afford them. They came to the house to survey today, and have been both quick and friendly. Crown does not want us to pack our own stuff.

TransGlobal gave us an estimate over the phone after we filled in their online form, and they said we definitely need a 40 ft container for our stuff. We're taking most of what we have in our 1600 sq ft home, but no matresses or lawn furniture or electronics/appliances. For a 40 ft self pack, they are quoting close to $7000 without insurance. They said MAF fees will be $150. And there were some other additional fees I need to read up on in the info she sent. They said it was all by container size and weight wouldn't matter. They were very quick to get back to me.

I'll post the info from Crown when they call me in case it's helpful.

Jessica

[Howie]

Jess,
I've called Allied a few times too and never heard back from them. My quote was from Trans Global. I asked Crown for a quote but haven't heard anything yet. I guess if no one else gets back to us, the decision will be quite easy.
Susan

[jess]

Well, we have two quotes. Crown quoted a lot (and I mean a lot) more than Trans Global for the forty foot container. That's for Crown doing the packing whereas the Trans Global quote was for a self pack.

If you'd like the details, just PM me.

Jessica

[Park City Partner]

Well, I'm now in New Zealand and apparently our container is still in the US. It was supposed to leave on the 26 Jan but missed the boat. For some reason the container is being shipped out of Texas. I would have thought that coming from UT it would have gone via Los Angeles or San Fran but no. We also received an email from someone at the TX port asking for our delivery details. Luckily at the point I had deliery details but we were originally told that it wouldn't be a problem to provide them later. The TX contact said that it was only "part of the delay". The movers have a website that allow you to track your shipment. We were told it was going to leave on 9 Feb and it still not showing as having left. Our container has now been packed for about a month and only seems to be getting further away from our destination!

I emailed the contact yesterday regarding the status and no response today so I emailed again. Not overly impressed to say the least. :mad:

[Smiler]

PCP

Our experience, your's and dazza's (amongst others) just makes me wonder how these people get a recommendation as this is obviously the first time the company have shipped anything.:eek:

I hope this is all sorted for you soon. But 4 1/2 months in, our insurance claims are still being 'considered'. :wah:wah

Chin up

Deborah

[Howie]

I hope your stuff gets sorted out soon. We are still calling around for moving quotes, even though we leave in just over 3 weeks. So far we've just got a bad feeling from pretty much everyone we've talked to. The people who have bothered to come out and look at our stuff have estimates that vary so much, we have no idea who to believe. We really don't have that much stuff to move, but we really won't have a lot of money by the time we arrive, so we're just trying to figure out what comes and what we try to sell. I think we've finally come to the conclusion that the kayak does not make sense to move. Although we've been quoted that it will cost anywhere from an extra $200 to an extra $2000. Your post really has me leaning towards the just sell everything end of the spectrum.

Please let us know what happens. How are you enjoying the rest of your new life?

Susan

[Park City Partner]

Well things are looking up a bit but only because we are now in our house! A very empty house but we have a rental bed and sofa from DTR and some kitchen gear and a phone that works! So I am a little better connected. Working on our internet connection which will take a few more days but now have free limited access at the library behind our house.

The container situation is no better than it was last I wrote. I actually spoke with the owner of the moving company in UT who was basically useless. I seemed to know more than he did and he blames the entire situation on a merger of two container shipping companies they use. Though they (Allied) claim to be the largest international shipper apparently they have no pull to get anything shipped. My goods are now schedule for a 4th vessel (according to my count) with no assurance that it will actually make it. To recap I have been told that my goods would ship on Jan 26 then Feb 9 then Feb 19 and now on a 4th vessel with an unspecified date. Anybody want to place bets on when it will actually leave.

They better hope that it leaves the States before I return to UT on march 13 because if it hasn't they are going to have one very unhappy, 6 month pregant woman with raging hormones in their office. Trust me it will be unpleasant for all involved.

Stay tuned for more horrid details.

[Smiler]

Hi PCP

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c75/smiler127/emoticons/smileyhug.gif

That is appalling, why has it missed the boat so often, so to speak?:D

Please can I be first to place a bet on it leaving shortly after the 16th march?

OOh and when you visit them, hormones araging, please can you take pics of the nasty mess you make, just to cheer us all up with you.

Seriously though, are they not affiliated/accredited to a government body? I can't think of the right expression, some one who controls them, association of movers type thing? Someone you can complain to?

Deborah

[jess]

I'm so sorry for your trouble!
I'm going to bet March 12. Somehow they will know that an angry pregnant woman is heading their way and will get it shipped just before you can get to their offices.

I do hope they send it earlier though. Deborah is right... maybe you could complain to the Better Business Bureau if you haven't already.

Jessica

[Park City Partner]

Well, I have been told that our container actually did ship on the 23rd as we were told (the 4th time)! I still have not been given an explanation as to why it took a tour of the US before leaving but at least it is on a ship...and hopefully it will stay on the ship. Did you see the recent post and photo about containers falling (or getting tossed) of the ship? Yikes!

In reality I'm not sure it will be so bad being back in the States and leaving the unpacking to my partner :yes . So sorry to disappoint that I won't have any aftermath pictures at the moving company in Salt Lake....although if things don't go well once the container arrives in NZ there may still be a chance of good photos!

So, keep your fingers crossed that it is all "smooth sailing" from here. Stay tuned for more updates!

Cheers!

[Park City Partner]

Well, the nightmare continues.....

When I was notified that our shipment had finally left the US, I wat told by a US Allied person to contact the Allied Auckland office to which he gave me the phone number. I spoke with a woman named Jan who said she didn't have any info yet but that was probably because it had just shipped. She seemed to be on it and sent me docs to complete so that
the customs claim could be filed. She said the customs claim can be filed5 days in advance of the vessel arriving so I made sure that the
documents were received prior to March 11 as the container was due to arrive one March 16.

On March 10, I received another set of documents from Allied. On that day I called Jan to confirm that she did indeed receive the set the I completed since I was leaving the country the next day. I also told her that I paid the $45 fee and emailed a scan of my partner's passport to the general email
address on the docs (attention Jan in the subject line). She told me
that she had everything she needed. I told her that I was very
concerned that I had received a second set of documents from you and
that the lack of communication within your office did not instill a
sense of confidence. She assured me everything was fine and as I said she seemed to be on it.

Well today I receive an email from the guy that sent me the second set of documents saying that nothing has been done and that they didn't have my documents. My partner called Jan in NZ and she claimed not to know anything about it and didn't recall our 3 conversations and had no docs! I then called the customer service agent at the UT shipper and laid into her.
At least this time she said I was right and apologized. She also said she would get to work on it and keep me posted. To her credit she did just that. After several calls, they found the documentation and the container is supposed to be delivered next week. Apparently, I was given Allied Pickfords phone number. The story goes that they are sister companies with Allied Movers and since they are sooooo busy they handed it off to Allied Movers. There was no good explanation about why they didn't seem to communicate with each other etc. UGH!

I was also told today that on international shipments you only have 30 days to file any claims. I won't even be back in NZ in 30 days so I insisted they give us a written extension. My partner is great and will do some unpacking but he won't do it all so we must have the extension.

As I told the rep today, Allied claims to be the top international mover (at least in the US) but my experience makes it seem like they have never done even one international move. She agreed with my assesment.

So, VERY long story short...AVOID ALLIED LIKE THE PLAGUE!