UPakWeShip review

From start to finish I was satisfied with the service I got from UPak. Yes, there were a few hiccups, but in the end I got my stuff in more or less the timeline I expected at the price I was quoted. 

Pete was very quick in responses from my initial contact with them. When Alicia took over, she was not as quick, but she responded within 24 hours to all of my queries (even when they were stupid!).

Price was $1700 door to curb service for 150 cu ft of stuff, which came out to 29 pieces total - about 25 rubbermaid bins and a couple of odd items (one large suitcase, a couple of sturdy cardboard containers for artwork). I did not pay the $100 extra to guarantee they didn't bring a 50 ft truck to pick up, but they showed up with a smaller truck for my neighborhood, and it was fine.

Stuff was picked up on Feb 9 and arrived at my door on March 23. Exactly 6 weeks. Customs clearance was easy and no extra charges. My ship arrived in Southampton on Sunday and they called me Friday (during the eclipse) to arrange delivery for Monday.

I haven't unpacked everything yet, but it seems everything is there. A few of the bins are cracked, the plastic wrap job they did was not that great. 

Cons:
- driver never contacted me on pick up day. I was told "between 9 and 4:30" and he showed up at 4. UPak did not have contact info for the local carrier. I took my kids to the playground (assuming someone would call) and came back and he was just at the door. 
- Once in England, they contacted me to set up a delivery day, but again, didn't call before showing up (and they came an hour and a half early at 8:30am!).
- Stuff was not wrapped well. I could see other deliveries in the guy's truck that were MUCH better wrapped. The plastic had come off the stuff on top, bin lids open, my stuff just precariously balanced on top. This may have happened during customs clearance? IDK.
- SEETHROUGH Sterilite plastic bins I bought at Target easily cracked into SHARP pieces. I recommend you use Rubbermaid brand (I had about half and half) the Rubbermaid ones aren't see through, but are kind of bendy, so more sturdy.
- we found a KitKat extra chunky wrapper IN BETWEEN a couple of this bins. I had never heard of this kind of candy before, but it was a US wrapper...so maybe from when they were stacking them up or something? Anyway, it was weird to find in my stuff.

Anyway, I would use them again (like when we move back in 5 years!) and I would know better how to pack! I would use all the same type of bins so they stack easier.

Thanks for your thorough review.  One question, when they open the containers, do they unwrap every single thing?  I know I've wrapped some breakable things really well and it will take scissors to get into them and they won't wrap them as good as I have done. Also, as far as containers, absolutely go with plastic containers, not cardboard boxes?  I will be storing things for quite some time aat my parents house, so this is not an immediate concern, but good to know for the future.  I hate that I've already packed about 20-25 boxes and may have to repack, but that's down the road.

We used UpackWeship, we had a UCube and we used med sized boxes from Home Depot and we were able to fit 12 boxes plus pictures and other household stuff with no issues.  They deliver the cube to you flat packed and you have to assemble it and then fill it with your things,  you have to list all the contents of every box and each loose item on a shipping list.  Once it is full you have to seal it up and use the staps that were included and cover the whole thing in the large plastic sheet that was also included. We had tp phone for them to come and collect the cube, they gave us a 2 hour window for pick-up and they just loaded it onto the truck and we did not see it again until it arrived in Scotland.  It took 6 weeks for it to get from Boston to Dundee, Scotland and cost $1,500.  I would reccommend them to anyone one the service was amazing. As you can see its quite a large box.

This kind of info is very helpful.

Thanks for your thorough review.  One question, when they open the containers, do they unwrap every single thing?  I know I've wrapped some breakable things really well and it will take scissors to get into them and they won't wrap them as good as I have done. Also, as far as containers, absolutely go with plastic containers, not cardboard boxes?  I will be storing things for quite some time aat my parents house, so this is not an immediate concern, but good to know for the future.  I hate that I've already packed about 20-25 boxes and may have to repack, but that's down the road.

As far as I can tell, they didn't unwrap anything that was wrapped up (in bubble wrap or paper) in the bins. I think they took the lids off several of the bins and then didn't put the lids back on well. To be fair, many of the bins were very full so getting the lids on was tough. I didn't do a U-cube. I did shared container service, so they took my bins, loose, palleted them and wrapped them. So far everything has arrived intact, including all of my bone china and tea cup collection.

You can see in the photo below that my stuff is the 2nd pallet back on the left (behind the very nicely wrapped one) and you can see the lid off and stuff kind of just set on top, which I'm guessing happened in Customs.