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katandbob
8th July 2006, 11:28 PM
Hi All, :)

As I said on becca's Groupage post, I have just finalised the final extra costs of getting our stuff here, as we didn’t have much to take in the end (gave most of our stuff to my daughter!) I had contacted CARGOBOOKERS and EXCESSBAGGAGE, as the usual removal co's were quoting 60cubic foot as a minimum load..cheapest quote was £650.

We ended up using Cargobookers as their website was easy to use, and they were friendly and got back to me quickly with an initial quote....oh and you get 8 free 50cm square boxes (£10 delivery charge for courier) the first quote price was £240 and then when the boxes have been picked up, and weighed they send you the final quote....as I added 4 extra boxes the shipment was 1.5 cubic Metres, and weighed 267kg so the final bill was £280


INSURANCE, I contacted a few, such as LP, but they wouldn’t insure self packed....
I was recommended an insurance firm by a local removal company, but they only insure self pack for total loss cover, which provides protection from Accidental Loss or Damage. which cost me £56 for £2,900 worth of cover
(reason-insurance.com)

Cargobookers said they would contact me as soon as they had shipped them off from Southampton, with the name of the ship, ETA and waybill no.

Well we received this information the week after we landed in NZ on email and I left it a few weeks till we were in Christchurch....

We were told that the shipment was due in Christchurch on or around the end of June, beginning of July - this information was wrong though and caused a slight problem when I rang in NZ shipping company, because the ship name was wrong and the destination she couldn’t help me and she told me to get some more info....Cargobookers were a bit lax at contacting me back ( and had also not passed on our NZ mobile number to the Shipping company in NZ, which caused about 4 days of me chasing my tail in finding out where the shipment was)

So I rang them in the UK asking why they were not replying to my emails, they said they hadn’t received them…(maybe they dont like Xtra broadband ip or something???) they said they would get it sorted and the next day the NZ company contacted me and said that they had the correct details now and that the ship had arrived the day before!

The shipment actually landed in AUCKLAND, and was being shipped down to Christchurch via road - Cargobookers had told me from the start that I would have to pay the costs direct to the NZ shipping agent, and I was pleasantly surprised at the cost, $NZD250, So at the rate we got for our money that worked out at £83.33

Now the only thing I had to do then was sort the customs and MAF...Scary you may think[/B]...No, it was an easy process...I had to take my copy Itinerary along with the MAF HOLD form with all the shipping details on it, along with my passports. (they were for customs)...I went to MAF first, saw a lady called Nicola who talked me through filling the form in, she copied my list etc, and then said because we had not brought anything in that warranted a MAF inspection, then the cost was............$28.70!!!!!!!!!! I asked her how much it would have cost me if I had needed an inspection.........$50!!!

So I guess some of them Removal companies costs are well inflated!!

Next was customs.....(Nicola showed me on my map how to get there and also made me a photocopy of the form that I needed to hand to Customs so I had a copy that I could fax to the Shipping co to release the goods)...She was very nice (I am even going horse riding with her tomorrow - if the rain stops - its the first bit of bad weather we have had since we arrived on the 20th June )

Anyway....At customs the chap I saw was just as nice, said it would take him a while to enter everything into the computer, so he suggested I go look around the shops for half an hour!...Well I never need an excuse to shop!

When I got back he had done everything, it didn’t cost any money for the customs, and I was talking to him about shipping personal belongings, saying I had left most of the stuff, He told me I have FIVE YEARS to bring my personal belongings over So if I want some more of my things, I can get it sorted!! YAY! oh and he made another copy of the paperwork for me to send to the shippers!

Now as some of you may have guessed by now, we aren’t in Christchurch anymore! and so I said in conversation that I would have to go pick it all up...14hr round trip!
He said.........nah, you don't need to pick them up personally, just get a haulier to pick it up for you...and gave me a couple of companies to ring for quotes.....!!!

I did that and its cost me an extra $147.95 to get them shipped from Christchurch to Invercargill, then I can go pick them up from the hauliers yard!(this is excellent, as the last time I went to Christchurch and back to Invercargill, it cost us $140 in Diesel and then there’s the mileage that gets used up on the road tax thingy?? (Robs in bed so I can’t remember the correct term for this)

And that’s that....it was quite easy when I think about it and it cost me a total of .......£484.72...£435.41 if you don't count the extra haulage costs.

The Company that dealt with the process this side, is setting up a service for a similar self groupage, so if anyone wants his contact detail...PM with your email address and I will forward his contact details.


OK I saved myself £214.59 if I compared it to the cheapest Removal quote, and you will have to decide if its work it or go the extra for a company to come in and pack everything, etc? But I am glad I did it my self....

Thats that then folks....Hope I haven’t put you to sleep! ;) and that it helps in some way to make the process of moving your stuff easy...

I'll let you know how my boxes arrive and how successful my packing skill were next week

Kat

kiwidebs
9th July 2006, 09:30 AM
Hi Kat

Wow, Invercargill. Now that's really south. What took you that far south? Hope you and Rob are settling well. Sounds like your shipping costs were a bargain, well done you.

Debs

StevieD
10th July 2006, 03:19 AM
Good and helpful post Kat - don't think we will be doing that though with all the junk we have to take!

Steve

Smiler
10th July 2006, 04:40 PM
Nice Post kat. Good to hear it all went well for you. Sounds very reasonable too.

Me too, why Invercargill, or did you have to stop there before you dropped off the SI? :D

Crystal Lil
13th September 2006, 01:54 AM
Hi Kat

I know this was posted an absolute age ago but I was hoping you might be able to clear up a couple of questions for me... I'm about to move to Auckland with my partner (flying out nov 17th). We're looking at shipping about 10 tea-chest size boxes and the cheapest I've been quoted so far is £360 for a door-to-door service or £260 for 'door-to-port'. First of all, I thought this meant all you had to do was pick it up from the port but now I realise there's a bit more customs etc rigmarole to deal with. In your original post, do you mean that you took a door-to-port service and dealt with all the customs/MAF stuff yourself and it only cost you $28.70??? We've got plenty of friends who can help out with transport, so if it's relatively straightforward to do the customs clearance and costs significantly less than £100...it would definitely be worth doing. I'm assuming I'd have to pay for any MAF costs on top of what they've quoted me anyway. Can you give me any advice? Thanks.

Lil.

Crystal Lil
13th September 2006, 05:43 AM
Okay...update...I've just had a quote from Cargobookers (as recommended by Kat in her earlier post) for £148.46 to ship 8 boxes 50 x 50 x 50 cms (200 kgs, total volume 1 cubic metre) door-to-port. This knocks spots off all the other quotes so far. The woman I spoke to said that this does not include destination charges: customs clearance (should be no charge, if you do it yourself); duties taxes (again, likely no charge); quarantine (she said this should also be no charge but other posts on this site suggest otherwise - also the MAF website says it's $45 for more than 0.5 cubic metres); and port handling. This is what I'd like to ask about - does anyone have any experience of shipping boxes door-to-port? If so, what did they end up paying for these so-called port-handling fees? The woman from Cargobookers said that this could be around £100 and would include offloading, delivery to warehouse and documentation, such as "customs formalities". Shouldn't it be possible to be a bit more definite about what these port-handling charges will be?

Many thanks!

Lil.

katandbob
13th September 2006, 08:55 PM
Okay...update...I've just had a quote from Cargobookers (as recommended by Kat in her earlier post) for £148.46 to ship 8 boxes 50 x 50 x 50 cms (200 kgs, total volume 1 cubic metre) door-to-port. This knocks spots off all the other quotes so far. The woman I spoke to said that this does not include destination charges: customs clearance (should be no charge, if you do it yourself); duties taxes (again, likely no charge); quarantine (she said this should also be no charge but other posts on this site suggest otherwise - also the MAF website says it's $45 for more than 0.5 cubic metres); and port handling. This is what I'd like to ask about - does anyone have any experience of shipping boxes door-to-port? If so, what did they end up paying for these so-called port-handling fees? The woman from Cargobookers said that this could be around £100 and would include offloading, delivery to warehouse and documentation, such as "customs formalities". Shouldn't it be possible to be a bit more definite about what these port-handling charges will be?

Many thanks!

Lil.

as in my post the ......CargoBookers was from Door in UK to Port in NZ that I specified......

The company that dealt with the paperwork for the ships docking/off loading rang me and told me what i needed to do, they emailed me paperwork and I went to MAF & CUSTOMS and got the necessary customs clearance and maf paperwork, faxed it off to the company and that was it, they released the goods to the haulier...........IT WAS VERY EASY.

BUT as I said in the first post, before the stuff arrived we moved to INVERCARGILL.....I rang a few local Hauliers and one had a depot in CHCH too, so its cost me an extra $147.95 for them to go to the port and to get them to ship it to Invercargill............... then I can go pick them up from the hauliers yard!(IN THE END THEY DELIVERED IT TO MY DOOR AT NO EXTRA COST)

BECAUSE I HAD NO ITEMS THAT MAF WANTED TO INSPECT IT WAS A FLAT FEE of $28.70

CUSTOMS IS FREE.

BUT IF YOU WOULD LIKE ME TO EMAIL or PM YOU THE DETAILS OF THE COMPANY THAT DEALT WITH THE STUFF THIS SIDE I CAN as they said that they would quote a custom quote to people moving to NZ from the UK....they are in the process of setting this up commercially.....

PM me if you want his details.

OK

good luck

Kat...PS sorry for the lateness of the reply but my son had nicked my Laptop :laugh

Crystal Lil
14th September 2006, 02:05 AM
Thanks Kat - I have sent you a PM.

I have spoken to Cargobookers again to ask them to clarify what this extra "port handling" charge is for. They tell me that the quote they have given me covers collection from my address all the way to arrival in Auckland dock and no more. They say that I will need an agent to offload the boxes and take them to a warehouse where I can collect them and that this will cost me £120 - £150 (including 1 hour MAF inspection charges - but not customs clearance). I have asked if there is any way that I can avoid using an agent at Auckland and have been told that there is not! Obviously, if MAF don't want to inspect my stuff, that cost will come down. Am I being unnecessarily suspicious here? Another shipping company gave me a much higher quote for shipping the stuff door-to-port, but said they would add on about £60 - 70 for taking things through customs and quarantine clearance, ready for me to collect at the port. I'm away for a lie down in a darkened room.

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