To ship or not to ship

I know in the end I will have to call people to give me estimates, and this issue has been discussed tons of times before.  BUT for those of you who shipped stuff was it worth it?  (We won't be taking most of the furniture or the car) Who did you use and what did it cost ballpark and how long did it take to get to you?  Everytime I have moved the government has paid for it. This time it would be on us.

Thanks!

It was totally worth it to me.The port in Charleston is is one of the largest on the east coast, so I was able to ship a container over for relatively little money. What I did was this- packed everything in boxes(had 92 medium u-haul boxes) then hired "Two Guys and a Truck"($300) they wrapped my furniture in shrink wrap and took all my stuff to a crateing company($400) I highly recomend this because what they do is pack your container and build braces for things so nothing will shift, there is ALOT of movement at sea and if the container isn't packed properly you its like putting your thing in a tumble dryer.The shipping company($450for container,$250 inland fees) then picked up the full container(actually our 3bdrm house only filled 3/4 of the container)and loaded it on the ship. 3 weeks later the entire container was sitting in front of our new home! We could never have replaced our stuff for what it cost to ship it over and to have our thing here has really helped my son with the transition. If I can be of any help PM me( I became somewhat of a shippingexpert , good luck

that's a great story.  I hope to be so lucky - right now in frustrated 'finding a company' mode.

What shipping company di you use?

It was totally worth it to me.The port in Charleston is is one of the largest on the east coast, so I was able to ship a container over for relatively little money.

Sounds like you got an exceptionally good deal!! My move cost me a hell of a lot more than that, but it was worth it to me. I didn't have to do a thing -- they packed it all up for me and unpacked big stuff again on this end. I should say that I brought a ton of big, heavy furniture. I went with Rainier Overseas Movers (www.rainieros.com) -- they're based in Washington state, but contract with local movers all over the world. They did a great job!

It was totally worth it to me.The port in Charleston is is one of the largest on the east coast, so I was able to ship a container over for relatively little money. What I did was this- packed everything in boxes(had 92 medium u-haul boxes) then hired "Two Guys and a Truck"($300) they wrapped my furniture in shrink wrap and took all my stuff to a crateing company($400) I highly recomend this because what they do is pack your container and build braces for things so nothing will shift, there is ALOT of movement at sea and if the container isn't packed properly you its like putting your thing in a tumble dryer.The shipping company($450for container,$250 inland fees) then picked up the full container(actually our 3bdrm house only filled 3/4 of the container)and loaded it on the ship. 3 weeks later the entire container was sitting in front of our new home! We could never have replaced our stuff for what it cost to ship it over and to have our thing here has really helped my son with the transition. If I can be of any help PM me( I became somewhat of a shippingexpert , good luck

Can you give me any more info on how you shipped or who you used. I have recently gotten a quote from a moving company and it was in excess of $18,000. I would love to bring more with us, but do not want to spend that kind of money.

We paid around £3700 to have all my household goods shipped from the USA. For some reason I felt the need to cling on to my American possessions. Well 5 years later and I still have my dining room set but thats it. The rest was eventually given away or donated to charity. If I could do it all over I would have packed a few boxes of sentimental items and that would have been it.

I think mine ended up costing about $7,000. I did bring a ton of stuff, though. A lot of the furniture, artwork, etc. that I brought has sentimental value and has been in the family for a long time. It wouldn't have mattered if it had cost twice as much -- I still would have brought everything with me.

Hi!
We will move back to London in about two months time. Right now I am looking for a moving company.

Does anyone have any suggestions? What are the good and the bad moving companies?

Just as my little contribution, but that's for the other direction: We moved from the UK to the US about a year ago. The moving company was Britannia (Sanderstead's of Surrey). They were late, they were reliably unreliable and they made us pay extra because of excess volume after having us estimated twice. If I remember correctly, we paid about 2800 quid for about 600 cft, plus insurance of 3%. Our stuff arrived after about 8 weeks.

just got off the phone with our movers - planned to pick up Friday and drop off Oct. 26th.  Crossing fingers!!!

I went with Jay Raddin with Nationwide.  there's a link on a thread on this site - but I think she spelled his name Jay Raffa.   We got a on-sight quote from Reiners but I DID NOT LIKE THEM - they are supposed to be the upper end company to go with - but they wanted to unpack everything I had already packed - NO WAY!    plus they are super expensive.

Nationwide- which I think also goes by worldwide - has been reasonable, friendly and very accessible.  the woman who used them on this site spoke very highly of them.

If you go through Jay - tell him that Eric Anderson just reccomended you.  he must get some good business from this sight - maybe they should become a sponsor/Donner!

good luck!

We used Allied/Pickford to move my fiance's things from Texas to Bristol, and that worked out quite well, so we're using them again to move my own things from New York.

I, however, am NOT bringing everything -- mainly books and papers (I'm an academic so that's no small item), a set of dishes, my clothes, a few rugs and my prints. And one coffee table I can't part with. The rest is going to my mom's house. She recently had the floors redone in her office, and needed new office furniture. Magically, I had a whole crapload of it to provide.

falada
 thats kinda similiar to our move - the majority was books!  where are you an academic?

I'm sad to say that since the mover's did the pick up yesterday there's been a lot of stress and miscommunication between me and the agency and the moving company - mainly causing the trouble, was my representative decided to take the day off.

but i will save my judgment and venting till things get worked out - then I will know who's fault (mine/theirs/both) it is.

I was wrong to go with nationwide - NOTICE TO ALL -- do not go with them

for more see my other thread :  http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=17651.new#new

I'm in New York; my last teaching stint was at Barnard but of course I'm not working now as I'm getting ready to leave for the UK. I'm an anthropologist. The book situation is ridiculous, but what can you do?

Hi, all.  I'm new to the forum but have decided to relocate to the UK.  I've been doing a lot of research and would like to contact "cwgrlbarb" who posted earlier in this thread regarding sending items via ocean container.  I was unable to find a way to PM her.  Any help is most appreciated and thank for all of the fantastic insight!

Hi, all.  I'm new to the forum but have decided to relocate to the UK.  I've been doing a lot of research and would like to contact "cwgrlbarb" who posted earlier in this thread regarding sending items via ocean container.  I was unable to find a way to PM her.  Any help is most appreciated and thank for all of the fantastic insight!

Just click on her name on her post. Her profile will show up. Near the bottom of her profile there is a place to click to send her a pm. Good luck!