Bishop's Move - in our opinion

[Guest Rachael]

Hi All,

There seems to have been a run on posts lately asking about shipping companies. I said that I would review Bishop's Move once we had had our consignment delivered this end and had unpacked. So, here goes...

We had Bishops come to our house when we moved out in April. Originally we were going to put our furniture with my parents stuff and ship it in one container but had to ship it separately in the end as they were not ready. So to start with everything was put into their storage depot in Southampton and we moved in with my parents.

We paid 816 pounds for packing and removal, 300 pounds for 12 weeks storage (we negotiated 4 weeks free) 40 pounds for insurance when it was in storage, 73 pounds for fire insurance, 100 pounds for insurance while it was in transit (to the depot from our house) and 10 pounds insurance for any damage made to our house while they were moving us out. In total 1235 pounds for removal from our house and into store for 12 weeks.

In July we asked for our consignment to be shipped. This cost us 2436 pounds including insurance to the value of 20,000 pounds. Our consignment left on the 10th July. By this time we had some more stuff at my parents that needed shipping and Bishops came to the house, collected these things and put them in the container with the rest of our stuff.

Once it arrives in Oz, Bishops hand everything over the Kent removals. They send a letter to let you know what's happening and an estimate for delivery. I called them to see if the container had arrived but it was delayed a week. However, Kent's arranged for it to be booked into quarantine for when it did arrive and rung me back with a date for delivery.

Our consignment was shipped on the 10th July and was delivered to us on 15th September.

3 men from Kent's delivered our stuff on the Monday, they unwrapped all of the furniture and put things where we wanted them. They moved furniture around when needed and would've unwrapped all of the items in boxes but I wanted to do that in my own time.

Now we were unpacking, it was time to see whether everything had arrived safely. Generally it had. One box had our bedside lamps in and it was packed along with 2 pillows (the lamps were sandwiched between) one of the shades was pretty smashed up and this was obviously because it hadn't been wrapped properly. We had one box of kitchen things that was all broken - 2 lasagne dishes, 2 serving bowls, a vase, a bowl and one of our dinner plates which matched a set of 8 (so now we have 7). I was pretty upset about this as they had all be wedding presents from a few years ago. Most things were from M&S too so it was nice stuff that was broken.

It was obvious that the items had broken because they hadn't been wrapped properly (only one sheet of paper was used to wrap the lasagne dishes) and too much had been put in the box as it was very heavy. It annoyed me because some other cheapy things had been wrapped with about 7 sheets of paper. Apart from that, the odd picture frame was damaged or the glass was broken but those can be replaced.

 

As far as what we brought that might've got caught at Quarantine, James brought his golf clubs - all cleaned and they got through fine, he also managed to stash away a few bottles of alcohol which was wrapped in with things from the dining room. We brought a brand new washing machine, push chair, pram and car seat and a whole box full of baby clothes (all new but I took off all the tags). We had various wicker-type waste paper baskets and some wooden storage baskets and all got through. Some boxes were opened, including our shoes but nothing was confiscated.

 

Overall, the service we received from Kents was fantastic, the removal men were great and I had good service when calling the office also. I've just phoned them to ask if the empty boxes can be collected and they are coming to get those on Monday. Bishops Move also gave good service and Wayne, who dealt with our consignment was very good. They gave us a good price, were reliable and went that extra mile to help by coming to collect the other bits from my parents house. Generally everything was wrapped well and our furniture all arrived safely. I know you can't expect to move to the other side of the world and not have anything broken so apart from the one box of kitchen stuff (which I will be claiming for) I feel we did get a good service from them.

 

I hope this post will help others with their shipping needs, I would recommend Bishops Move and definitely Kent removals this end, hope I haven't gone on too much but wanted to give you the full picture of how our stuff eventually got here.

 

Rachael.

[Guest donna T]

I agree - we used the same company and thought they were fantastic