Container arrives in two days. Stressed.

[A.C. Slater]

[ rant ]
The worst part of our move so far has been the delay in getting our stuff. It left our house on 28 May, scheduled to arrive in Wellington on 5 August. We arrived on 4 July. My employer put us up in a furnished flat for a week, so we would only have three weeks of no housewares or furnishings, right?

No way. Shortly after arriving, we found out it wouldn't arrive until 18 August. On 15 August, it landed in Sydney. We were so excited! Just one trip across the Tasman and....

Nope. Our shipping company doesn't work with New Zealand, so they had to wait for another company to take it across the pond. Scheduled for 25 August. Now we're REALLY sick of sitting on the floor, sleeping on the air mattress from hell, eating with plasticware, and staring at blank walls.

A few days before the 25th, we find out he ship it was supposed to be on was full, and the new date was 2 September. So frustrating.

Our stuff has now been at sea for 17 weeks. And what can you do? Give the international cargo company a bad review? Talk to a manager? "Next time I move to the other side of the world, I'm going with someone else!"

You're completely powerless. That's the worst part. I'd like to think that I don't need material things to make me happy, but after eight weeks of this, it really gets depressing. I just want our stuff.

Lesson to those thinking of immigrating: Get a short-term furnished place. Don't count on your stuff arriving when they say it will.

[ /rant ]

So, our stuff is set to arrive in Wellington on Monday (YAY!). Just paid NZD $706 in port fees, and that doesn't include whatever inspection/quarantine they need to do, or destination services from our moving company ($1,300. BOO!)

They've already confirmed based on our packing list that there will be a quarantine period. We're really stressed about it, because we just have no idea how long it will take and how much it will cost. They emailed yesterday and wanted to know what our Christmas decorations were made of. Let the fun begin. We keep thinking of little things that they might catch -- like the wooden cutting board we forgot to put on the list. But for the most part, my wife did an outstanding job of labeling everything in extreme detail.

I don't know what I'm looking for, here. Can anyone share their stories of clearing customs so maybe I know better what to expect?

[annielobo]

Hi. I am so sorry o hear your plight, we are currently looking at shipping from the usa to nz. However the first question I have asked all of the companies is does their service cover door to door, all insurances ans custom clearances. It sounds like you were duped by the company you have used, hopefully you will have some redress with them for all of this emotional turmoil you are going through, totally unacceptable .when the company said they don't deal with New Zealand that is ridiculous especially as that is your container destination. Hopefully those Christmas decorations will be with you in time! Good luck

[annielobo]

Actually I just read a previous thread from you which said you decided to forgo the right of the shipping company to use their own people in nz so I suppose that's where everything has fallen flat. I guess they did fulfill their part of what they said they would do.

[A.C. Slater]

Thanks.. yeah, that's true. It saved us money, but it may end up delaying things. There are many layers to the move. We hired RSS to do our move. They had the best quote and they let us pick and choose how much packing service we wanted.

They sub out their packing service to another national company. That company subs out the work to local movers in your area. So that's three layers there. RSS is just a broker for the steamship lines, and they chose to work with MSC for us, presumably because it was cheapest. I really wish we had a little more say in that, but you don't find out until the day it leaves port. MSC deals mostly with the Mediterranean, so our stuff went east out of Boston, through the Suez Canal, down to Madagascar and Oz. Not the route I would have chosen.

Anyway, just things to be aware of when you choose a moving company. Ask a lot of questions. There's a lot they say they can't tell you, but press them as much as you can. It goes a lot more smoothly if you know what to expect.

[Alistair]

Yikes. I've moved 5 times in the past 15 years, once overseas (only me) and haven't had quite those hoops to jump through. I hope everything finally comes through, and intact.

[Dell]

I also slept on the air mattress from hell - but only for a week. You really have my sympathies!!

Was RSS your U.S. shipper? Son and his wife and kids just signed a contract with Upakweship from Arizona to N. of Auckland. They were quoted 7.5-8 weeks. I used Rainier and really had no problems at all. The container arrived before I had a house so I had to pay storage.

Hopefully, when your stuff arrives and you start unpacking your familiar things, this will just be a distant memory. Best of luck. Hope it arrives soon.

[JandM]

Sorry to hear of all the frustrations, and here's hoping it goes as smoothly as possible.

[Super_BQ]

As expensive it is to ship anything around the world, you still pay for what you get. For most part it depends on how much you value your goods and how much you value the 'timeliness' in shipping. The savings may not be much 5 - 10% ?). Back in Feb I was finding out shipping carriers from UK to NZ for a new motorhome. There was all sorts of potential problems that could exist with different carriers (many are not clued in to what you want to ship and dealing with the formalities). I ended up dealing with Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics which costed me around $9K NZD for roll-on/roll-off rate. Their website was extremely helpful in showing their sailing schedules. From Southampton UK I was able to track the vessel's whereabouts (which port of call etc) and knew when they would arrive in Auckland. Many other carriers don't easily provide this information online to the public. I suppose the biggest worry I had making such a purchase is to wonder if the dealer would actually ship the motorhome (ie. i've heard of horror stories where people wire TT $ abroad and the seller disappears).

In the past, my uncle had brought in classic cars from the US and often chose the cheapest carrier. His 58' Cadillac left Long Beach LA to some crazy journey throughout East Asia, Australia, it took forever to arrive and when it did, MAF threw the book at him as the vehicle was so poorly presented that it required TWO cleaning treatments in quarantine before the inspector would look at it. While during the same time, I had a car shipped from Vancouver to NZ (most direct route through Long Beach LA) and when the container arrived, not a spot of sweat could be found. MAF inspector was so pleased how the car was impeccably detailed as I showed him the Vancouver receipt of the cleaning done to the vehicle the day it was being loaded in the container.

So from my experience, spend as much times as you can learning about these shipping carriers and if you choose the cheapest option, then expect delays and hassles.

[kiwi.]

Don't stress about the inspection by MPI/MAF, if they're anything like our inspector. We had bikes, vacuum cleaners, garden tools, wooded christmas decorations. They were all marked on the inventory that they needed to be inspected, so were kept aside by the movers. The inspector came in and had a quick look. Inquired a number of times about whether we had any wooden pieces from Asia, which we didn't. My bikes were barely clean, but the inspector seemed happy. The inspector was probably at the house for 15min.
Just answer their questions and show them what they want to see and you'll be fine.

[Anne Goulding]

Our experience just recently was very similar. The only thing they wanted to look at was our Christmas decorations too - turned out we had some pine cones which I'd completely forgotten about and that was the only thing they confiscated. On unpacking stuff from the garage we found all sorts including dirty garden tools which we hadn't intended to bring (must have been "hidden' in something else) plus an open bag of garden compost!!! Really regret getting rid of all my basketwear now. We didn't really have time to clean things as much as we'd wanted too (or at all in some cases) and they didn't turn a hair. Hope yours all comes through as easily!