Relocation Services - A Users Review

[Familyonthemove]

My family and I have moved several times within Asia and to/from the UK and so we've had some experience of three of the main relocation businesses. I hope the following notes will help other families to decide on who to use, and more importantly who NOT to use.

Pickfords:

Their sales person was an enthusiastic, if slightly eccentric ex-pat who seemed to prefer chatting and coffee to business, but he got the job done with his own style.

On moving day the truck was late (stuck in traffic, in Bangkok, who's have thought that would happen?), but they sent two guys on a motorbike to start the packing in advance of the full team arriving by truck. A nice touch and it meant we were not really delayed.

Packing was efficient and the team created the most amazing 'origami' packing cases from the card boxes and they managed to mirror the shape of the item being packed, so we had carboard sculptures of TV's, coat stands and chairs sitting in the apartment awaiting the arrival of the truck.

Everything was delivered to the new place on time and undamaged. The only breakage was when the local Manager tried to help and he dropped a picture frame and broke the glass .... no big deal and not even worth an insurance claim. However, the unpacking seemed to be done without any logic, with items placed in cupboards at random. We were still finding odd socks, bags and shoes in strange places weeks later. It would have been much quicker to unpack ourselves and we learnt from this.

9/10 but better to unpack yourself

Asian Tigers

Efficent inital contact, good packing, although their artistic skills with card and parcel tape did not match the creative skills of the Pickfords team. Delivery on time, a few small items missing but nothing serious. We unpacked ourselves. Asian Tigers were very competitive on price and they seem to use contractors for the shipping and delivery so it is not all under thei direct control, but in practice this made little difference to us. After the move they took all the old packing cases and paper away and swept the apartment. Lowest quote for this move.

8/10, but be aware that they may contract out some of the work

Crown Relocation

Initial contact was OK but we were left to do much of the paperwork and customs admin ourselves. It was a dual move for Crown from India and UK to Bangkok and their rules on what we were alloed to ship and what would not be allowed by local Customs (in their view) were petty compared to the other companies (no household cleaning chemicals, computer equipment, wine) At the UK end they arrived late and caused some damage to the house whilst moving out. In India they were on time, but failed to pack 10% of the items as they stacked the cartons in from of cupboards that still contained items to be shipped then left without checking. Unpacking was haphazard and there was significant damage to electrical items and they left all the old boxes and tape behind (this may sound petty, but it was a huge heap and this servcie is not cheap).

Unfortunately Crown were the prefered servcie provider for my company, and they were used again for a shipment back to the UK. We asked for quotes from all three companies and Crown matched Asian Tigers on price with Pickfords being much more expensive. Asian Tigers was a half container and Crown was 'Groupage'. I was concerned about Groupage as you can't get a guaranteed shipping date, but Crown promised to ship within two months. The shipment finally arrvied one and half years later! Mould had destroyed all the clothing and several vital items were missing (TV stand, screws and connectors) so in effect the shipment was a total loss. Insurance cover did not cover most of the loss due to small print and limitations and the attitude of Crown was that we should have paid more for insurance and a container so it was in no way their responsibility.

0/10 Avoid at all costs

[JoeKok]

Thanks for the great info. It was great to know in advance to avoid any unpleasant moving experience. However, I tend to see more Asian Tiger and Crown Relocations around Asia. While Pickfords is more of a UK local move though I do see they offer international move from their website. But I guess when it comes to cross-border moving, the consideration would be much higher, and certainly cost is not the only thing to be considered.