UPAKWESHIP negative experience

Hey,

Just wanted to leave a quick post about our recent experiences with UPAKWESHIP. 

At the end of July this year my wife and I moved from the US to UK... we had about 90 cubic foot of stuff to move.  After much looking we decided to go with UPAKWESHIP; things started ok but soon went downhill (bascially when EuroUSA, the UK agent took over). 

We left the US around the 22nd July, our stuff was supposed to leave a week later (i think).  After 6 weeks we received the standard "your stuff is about to arrive and you've been chosen for an additional security check (surprise surprise), please pay 50BGP".  3 weeks later i checked out status and our stuff was still apparently awaiting scheduling for delivery to our UK address.  Emailed and finally got hold of someone only to be told "your stuff isnt here, we opened the container and it wasnt there, contact your UPAK agent".  Turned out they never loaded our stuff and it was still in the US. 

After some hassling we got UPAK to push our order through and (surprise surprise) got another "your stuff is about to arrive and you've been chosen for an additional security check (surprise surprise), please pay 50BGP"... reinforcing the belief that all shipments pay the additional fee.  We didnt pay and our shipment was delivered to us quicker than it should have been once it arrived in the UK (but that was about 2 months late). 

From my experience i would advise against UPAK... even without the whole 'forgetting our shipment' thing, i felt communication from the outset was very poor, especially from the uk counterparts - EuroUSA.  Still, this is all just my opinion though.

This is good to hear about, but awful for you to have to go through!

I'm getting ready to pack it all up this week and I have been looking at them as a choice.   A lot of people here recommend them and had no trouble, but a quick google search shows a LOT of bad reviews and I've been a bit leery of them.  Their price is good, and from what I understand, those fees are pretty typical.  I think the problem with the end-point charges is that they do a bad job of communicating to people what to expect, and so it looks like a hidden fee when it's really pretty routine.   They need to improve that.

But I've just got a funny feeling about using them, that it's probably not worth the money I'd save by hiring someone else.  I've got someone from Stevens coming this week to get an accurate count of my stuff, and I can use their volume estimate to get quotes from both them and Rainier.  And actually, Upack told me it'd take about 8-10 weeks to get my stuff from Chicago to Lancaster, and Stevens told me 5-7, which makes me happier.

Glad you finally got your stuff.  I can't imagine being without it for four months.  It's almost like there's no point if it takes that long.

I got a note like that from the UK shipper, emailed Alison at UPAKWESHIP saying I was upset because I understood that all my fees on this end were already taken care of, and she emailed me back within the day saying I was right, it was an error on their part and she had taken care of it.  The fees were gone from there. 

My shipment did take a long time to arrive, but I found Alison to be very responsive to any worries I had.

I'm dealing with EuroUSA too.  They took their sweet time!  And they sent me a bill for 50 odd pounds which I didn't even think about questioning.  At this point, I don't even want to know if they screwed me.

My stuff has been in Bristol for 6 weeks.  I understand that they aren't responsible for the slow pace of the customs people, (it took 4 weeks for customs to release my stuff), but then it took them 2 weeks to get around to calling me to schedule delivery.

Color me unimpressed.

It's being delivered tomorrow BTW.                  

Wow, sorry to hear about this.  I've used them twice and have had nothing but a good experience both times.   Alison is great, have you spoke with her personally?

We had a similar problem with Eco Trans World.  We kept getting emails demanding further payments as our stuff was subject to xrays and we had to pay before they released the stuff.  They were also supposed to take 6 weeks from pick up to delivery to the uk door but it took 3 1/2 months in total.

We had a bad experience with Upakweship as well. First of all, the staff there are completely obnoxious - they acted pissed off and exasperated at every perfectly sensible question we asked. They often uttered long sighs before their responses. They just had a very hostile attitude, and would give one-word or one-sentence responses. Their whole demeanor was that of people who don't care, who can't be asked to help, and who want to get you off the phone as quickly as possible.

They also said that the shipment would arrive in 4 weeks. It took 8-9 weeks. They also gave us the line about our shipment being "selected for an additional security check" - we just paid the 50 quid to get it over with.

The only good thing I can say is that the price was reasonable and everything arrived (eventually!) in good physical condition.

Amazing - I was under the impression that the additional security fee only affected a select amount of cargo... Surely the removal companies wouldnt be abusing this fee would they??? 

Well, we got our stuff in the end and that was the important thing.  I hope all those that are moving in the near future don't get so many problems.

Oddly, I had a great experience with EuroUSA via upak. I’d arranged for a forty foot container to collect a houseful of belongings from a small town in central Illinois and dropped off at my house in the UK. They arranged collection at short notice, kept me fully informed regarding what paperwork...etc was needed, where my container was during the transit time (even when it missed the boat!), arranged delivery to my new house, advised me on one or two things I hadn't thought of....and all in 4 weeks!

pricing was also the most competitive I could find

Great job guys. I’m sure things go wrong sometimes but just wanted to let you know I’d definitely use you again (which would be great, as it would mean I’d be going back to the USA!:-)

I also had a good experience with Upakweship...they were communicative, competitive on price and timely...I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone.

This thread is over three years old, so...

We used them both US to UK and UK to US... reasonable price and great service.  I can't complain.

we are going to use UPAKWESHIP--packing up this week,  in move from UK to US.  i have found all my dealings with them thus far to be great---glad to hear about the good recent reviews (looks like there were probs in the past)
will let you know how it works out.

We just moved from Chapel Hill, NC to Melbourne, Australia. The entire procedure went exactly how UPakWeship had promised. And they gave us a great rate: $840 for 1.3 cubic meter. I had done a lot of research before I made a decision, other companies gave me price quotes a little or much higher, sometimes double or triple this price, and one even told me not to go with a "cheap" company. I am glad I did not pay $3000 for the same door-to-door delivery...
All our stuff was delivered just on time. No extra payment, except quarantine fee ($90), but it's the Australians...
Thanks UPakWeship!

again, this thread is almost four years old.  I don't know why people keep pulling it up and posting on it.  Things change a lot in that time.