Report Abuse

“Safe arrival, worried for nothing!”

written by on 01/02/2013

I only saw all the bad reviews of Anglo Pacific removals AFTER I had booked and paid for surface transport of my old dolls house (of great sentimental but relatively small monetary value) to go from the UK to my little grand-daughters in Australia. I chose them as their prices were very competitive, but even so it cost £185 in all, far more than the item was really worth of course, so after reading all the bad reviews, I spent many sleepless nights, and made myself ill worrying about it. I phoned Anglo-Pacific to ask about them, and they pointed out that they do get occasional problems like any other company, but out of the nearly 20,000 or so removals per year that they have, it's a very small proportion. They also pointed out that the reviews are spread over quite a long period of time, in fact several years, which is true, and pointed out that usually only people who had a bad experience write a review, since if it went smoothly, people tend to forget about it. I later read that the Museum of London has used them with no problems and also a Theatre Company shipped all their stuff from Bath ,U.K to the USA, which was reassuring.
£50 of the charge was for them to make a special wooden crate for it, which should have been delivered to me to put the house in, then off it would go. However they phoned shortly before collection to say they had another van in the area, without the crate, so wanted to collect it anyway and would pack it for me at the warehouse. I worried about this even more, however my family in Australia later showed me pictures, and it was a good sturdy crate and it arrived safely and intact. They collected from me spot on time, and also were very good about communication at this end, and in confirming the times of collection etc.
I especially was grateful for help and advice that I was given over the phone from the UK office, re.the paperwork. I was warned it was difficult to estimate exactly how long it would take due to circumstances beyond their control. In the end it arrived in Australia exactly when estimated (12 weeks), but was held up for another 3 or more weeks by Australian Customs, which is obviously something they cannot control.
They also warned me when booking, that although Customs Clearance is included, the Australian Quarantine people might make additional charges for inspection and fumigation if considered necessary, and these could be quite expensive. I was told by my family that there were indeed additional charges, but they said these were only small, as they paid for that, I cannot confirm it. All I can say is we were warned in advance, and the charges would apply whatever company I had chosen.
When shipping goods across the world, where several different agents get involved, one is always taking a risk, but in my case, my fears were groundless, and I was pleased with their service