Another scary step

[selenay]

Well, I have just sent off emails and enquiry forms to two international movers to get quotes for The Big Move. One is a big multinational and the other is a local firm, so it will be interesting to see how they compare.

The big multinational promises to call me within 24 hours during working hours to arrange a quote. As Da Boss wants me to keep things under my hat for now, it might be a wee bit tricky to take this kind of call, but we will see what happens. I have contacted the local firm by email without giving them my phone number so hopefully I will be able to be reasonably subtle about that one.

I'm going to see what their quotes come out like and what I think of their customer service at this stage, but I probably will go with a local firm if the quotes are similar. I also plan to research and get quotes from at least one more company. Still, it's a start on this stage. Getting my stuff from here to Canada is actually the bit that scares me the most about the whole procedure so I've been trying not to think about it too much. I really do need to, though, because my stuff has to go on a ship in two or three months so quotes and decisions are definitely needed.

In less scary stuff, I got another half a sleeve knitted during the France-Italy match and I should finish it tonight. That leaves sewing stuff together and knitting the neck border and it will be done. Hooray! The match this afternoon was probably the best of the weekend. Yesterday I only stayed awake during the England-Scotland match because I was knitting. This afternoon I actually got excited and made noise during the game because it was a rather good match.

Um, yes, I was supporting the non-France side :-)

My neck is feeling a little worse than yesterday but still better than Friday. So not impressive but not as bad as it could be. Do I have to go to work tomorrow?

Comments

[tejas.livejournal.com]

How much stuff are you moving? I think, if it were me, I'd sell as much as possible then replace it when I got there... but then, I have no idea what kind of exchange rate you're dealing with.

[selenay]

I've got some furniture, which I could potentially sell and replace, but there is a lot of non-replaceable stuff like my book collection and photos and mementos from my childhood. My parents also have stuff that they want to send with me because they're moving over in two years. I'm definitely not shipping everything I own because there are several bits of furniture that would never survive the trip!

I'll be seeing what the quotes come out like. If the replaceable stuff would be cheaper to replace than ship then that's what I'll do, but there is some stuff that has to be shipped no matter the cost.

[tejas.livejournal.com]

Don't forget to check and see what it would cost to simply *mail* some stuff, like books. That's the kind of thing that you could send by the slowest (and usually cheapest) method so it wouldn't arrive until after *you* got there.

But then, for all I know, the movers themselves might end up being the cheapest method. :-)

[selenay]

I'm getting quotes before I decide on anyone so that I can see just how totally scary the bill might be. At the moment, I figure that shipping would still be the better option. I have to send some things anyway, so why not send everything that way? And 1000 books probably don't mail well...

[nic]

Have you contacted Seven Seas at all? If so, I have quite a few stories to share about that company....

[selenay]

Are these good stories or bad stories? Because I'm still looking for a third company to get a quote and personal recommendations wouldn't go amiss.

[nic]

Well, I have a mixture of stories. My stuff arrived on time, undamaged, and I was impressed with that. They were easy to deal with in terms of setting everything up and SMS'd you times they were going to pick up/deliver boxes. They were one of the cheaper companies out there.

On the downside, they're the company that accidentally overcharged me 3 times and it took 5 months (and a LOT of calls/emails) to get my money back. The reason for the overcharge was because I had a couple of non-standard items.

My overall feeling about the company is they will do a good job if yours is a standard job but the minute they have to do something a bit different, they can't cope very well.

[selenay]

Hmm, they may not be the guys for me. I have some furniture to move and they don't seem to do that kind of thing on their website. But thank you for the information, it's useful to have some idea of what these companies are like from real people!

[gmul.livejournal.com]

Yay for Scary Steps!

You could of course just not answer the phone to any numbers you don't recognise, then call them back at your leisure. Assuming they call at all, which will tell you something by itself... :-)

[selenay]

They actually called me at home about ten minutes after I walked in the door, which I approve of greatly. I haven't actually checked my mobile to see whether they called that first: I never hear my mobile when it rings.

They'll be round next Thursday at 10.30am, which I have booked off on holiday anyway. I'd planned to sleep a bit more, but at least that will be one assessment/quote out of the way and I'll feel a little happier about doing the others.