My experience using Gentle Giant to move from Virginia to Scotland

Hi Friends,

I have had a great experience with Gentle Giant Moving so far.  My stuff is now on its way to the UK on a container ship, and once it reaches the UK, Britannia/Rainier Movers will take over to deliver the container and unpack it.  The main person who organizes the international moves at Gentle Giant is Bob Lane, and he was fantastic, patient, and helpful through the entire process.  Any time I emailed him with any questions, no matter how silly I thought they may be, he replied immediately and professionally.  I was only back in the USA for 3 weeks to get stuff ready to ship, and Bob and his team really worked quickly to meet my deadlines.  The estimator came and looked at my stuff, and then a few days later, Bob had the estimate ready for the shipment. We scheduled the movers to come 10 days later, and they were really skilled in carefully packing everything up- they wrapped all my furniture pieces and every other item beautifully.  They were friendly and professional the entire time.  Also, Bob phoned up during the moving day to check in with the movers, which really impressed me.

My stuff filled 1/2 of a 20ft shipping container and cost about $13,000- this includes door-to-door service, and I live in the northern isles of Scotland, which involves two ferry trips up and back, so it would probably have been less expensive if I lived on mainland UK. This does not include customs and VAT charges, so I will update everyone again once I get that bill- I valued the contents of my shipment using "yard sale" prices, so the total value came to around £2200.

I was also given the name of the ship and it's estimated date of arrival in the UK- the ship left Baltimore 25 March and should arrive in Felixstowe 10 April.  Depending on how fast the shipment goes through UK Customs and how fast they can get up here to Orkney, I may have my stuff within a month door-to-door.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful, and if you have any questions at all about the process, feel free to reply or PM me! 

Love, love, love Gentle Giant and Bob Lane!  I used them when I moved from Boston, MA to London and I'm so glad I did.  Everything arrived in one piece and the company they used on this end (Abel's for me) were incredible as well.  So glad someone else had an amazing experience using them for the big move.  I'm hoping to find a way to use them when we move back to the US next year as well.

Kbee, I think I read your original recommendation here on UK-Y which prompted me to contact Gentle Giant! So glad I used them- my shipment will be arriving at my door next Wednesday, so it will  be 35 days from when it left Baltimore to get up here to Orkney! I was expecting a much longer wait so I am delighted.  Once the shipment was on the boat from Baltimore, Laura from Britannia Movers in the UK began contact with me, letting me know the ship's schedule and ETA.  Once she knew the ETA, she asked me to send her the inventory document I had prepared of my items, along with the "yard sale value" I assigned to each item.  Within a day she had emailed me back with the amount I would need to pay UK Customs for the VAT/import duty.  On my £2200 value, I paid £560.  Once my container arrived at Britannia's warehouse a few days after the ship arrived in Felixstowe, Laura phoned me to schedule the delivery.  The delivery includes door-to-door service and complete unpacking and placing of my items in each room.  Everything has been easy and well-communicated so far- I'll update again once my stuff arrives, and let everyone know if anything was damaged!  Other than the price, this experience has been painless