[Simon & Emily]

I know shipping has been covered to death, but we are probably going to go with PSS purely on price and wondered if anyone could give us personal recomendations? I've tried to search on them, but PSS is too short to work!!!

I think Timbo had problems with them, but I'm not quite sure what they were. Can anyone enlighten me please?

We are concerned with the volume/space estimates for the house goods that we have received from all the shippers; this varies from just over half a 40 ft high cube to not getting it all in a standard 40ft. This will not be a standard house move, and I think some of the shippers would rather not do it at all. So, I think we may well have problems with whoever we use, and we won't be able to know untill the day itself :no :no :no

Thanks,

Emily

[kiwidebs]

They were fab the UK end - will let you know more when we finally get our stuff (currently in storage with NZ Vanlines!!)

Debs

[Biddy]

We used PSS and have nothing but praise for them. Cost is only part of the equation - service is more important. They bent over backwards with all our 'date' changes and gave us a certain amount of time as free storage at either end.
NZ van lines also were great. Unloaded, unpacked (most) with minimum fuss and disturbance.

[sarahw]

PSS were excellent - can't fault them. They quoted us for a 20 ft reefer container but we had a whole 20 ft container & they didn't charge any extra. They are pretty good at estimating what you need.

However, NZ Vanlines (this seems to go for Welly only since others have had good experiences in other areas) were useless (this was a year & 4 months ago though so might have changed their staff) - they didn't send us any of the paperwork when they were supposed to - I followed them up & went to their office & they really didn't know what they were doing - didn't give us a date for delivery until the last minute. Never returned my calls. The chaps that arrived were great & were unloaded pretty quickly but one thing we were told by PSS was that NZ Vanlines would put all the furniture together (which they did) and would unpack all boxes onto surfaces (which they didn't) - it didn't matter since I wasn't working for those few weeks so could unpack & they picked up the boxes when they said they would but I felt a bit ripped off that I'd paid for them to unpack & I ended up doing it myself!

I followed them up a year ago to see if they could do a local move within Wellington - they took 2 weeks to phone me back from a voicemail enquiry, by which time we'd moved!!!

[Tia Maria]

We also had a good experience with PSS The packers on the day, actually flat packed stuff and disinfected stuff for us, even though this wasn't part of the quote, (we gave them a big tip, as they really didn't have to, and I think just took pity on us, as we were so far behind!).

However, I do think with big firms, like PSS, service can vary from area to area. Our team were based in North London and very good, it might be worth asking if anyone has used PSS near you.

I think most people have varied estimates on size. Ultimately, the best rule is get rid of what you can, and take everything you might need. I know our packers allowed us to have some items in the 'maybe', category, which we held back until the end, to see if they would fit in. They didn't - but in the end we couldn't be parted from them, and had 15 boxes sent in a shared container. They don't arrive till later, and require extra paperwork, but as its not essential stuff, it doesn't matter.

Our experience with NZVanlines, were they weren't as professional, but weren't awful either. But nearly every removal firm will offer to get you a quote from an alternative. The difiiculty is finding a suitable alternative!

Good luck with it all.

Cheers

Tia