The Singapore Forum

Ah well, it all seems confirmed. The Crom family is heading sausage-side, to Frankfurt. Can we set up a Germany sub-forum please?

Actually, we're pleased. We shall have unimaginable luxuries including a car. And a garden. And access to family (may reconsider that in the 'luxury' category though).

So, now I need to get hold of decent removal companies. I'm sure it's been covered before, but I could only see references to moving locally. I suspect I'm crap at searching.

Congratulations! Frankfurt? Brrr, gets cold there.

Unigroup Worldwide moved us here; very good after the initial negotiating 20ft v 40ft container. Excellent packers.

Wow! How soon will you be going??

There's always Santa Fe -- they did the retrieval & unpacking of the container for us here. KC Dat as well -- they moved 2 or 3 families from Mr. S's company back to the US.

Thanks Slinky. Looks like we'll be off quite quickly. 14th August is the date that's being chucked around.

And yes, it does get cold there, but I'm thinking SKI-ING!

Ahhhh sorry to see you go, but enjoy the new adventure! Only mover I know is kc day, the moved us on here seemed ok. Will miss you for drink nights, must to before you go.

Edited for fat fingers on the iPod. Hirlies? I?i

We just used the UTS Unigroup, their price was pretty good in comparison to Sante Fe or KC Dat for a very full Hightop (or whatever they call it) 40' container load. They were a few 1000 cheaper and gave us over a month free storage at this end. After unpacking it all just this week I can say that it was all very well packed indeed. We only had one disaster, part of my lovely bed got crushed by something and although it all still works I was devastated when I saw it. However I think that may have been the fault of the mob at this end, not the original packers as I saw they pack it all up, then again it should have been packed so it didn't happen no matter how it was treated. We were self insured so no comment on their claims etc. I can't say I was impressed with the guys at this end at all really.

I tend to think of that side of things as well. It is all very well having great packers at one end but if they aren't great at the other it all gets undone. Kooky seems to have had much better luck with her unpacking than I have had...then again I doubt she had anywhere near the amount of junk we did.

KC Dat have moved us four times internationally and they were always good as well, I never had any problems at all with them.

Helutrans Singapore. Used them twice for 20 ft container w/no problems at all

Congrats Crom! Never got to know Frankfurt, but anywhere south of there can be beautiful.

KC Dat did our move from Dubai to Singapore, no problems
enjoy life sausage side. lived in Hamburg and would move back again in the future (wouldnt go back to Bremen though)

Sorry to spoil the KC Dat fan club here, but they did a crap job moving us from Singapore to Thailand in 2007. The packing was not good, damage done to some furniture - never got anything back off them. And they lied about "extras". Quoted us an "all in price" which was higher than other quotes then tried to charge us extras. Be warned.

Congratulations Crom, and enjoy your last few months in SIngas.

Has anyone used Allied Pickford for an International move ? Any feedback would be appreciated.

Edit : Crom - You'll be relegated to the "Rest of the World" forum I'm afraid.....

daffodil wrote:
Edit : Crom - You'll be relegated to the "Rest of the World" forum I'm afraid.....

ah but you'll be in good company - myself of course, skank-la and a few others. In fact, shouldn't we be Worldaporum these days. Not so many people left in Singers.

phuketkaren wrote:

daffodil wrote:
Edit : Crom - You'll be relegated to the "Rest of the World" forum I'm afraid.....

ah but you'll be in good company - myself of course, skank-la and a few others. In fact, shouldn't we be Worldaporum these days. Not so many people left in Singers.

boo hoo don't remind me.

We used Pickfords from the UK to Sg but the amount of stuff we moved (just boxes of crap, telly, etc., no furniture) doesn't really warrant a review.

Is it that time again, seems to crop up every few years, when the music starts and everyone gets off their chairs?

I am thinking Crom, that this is an excellent opportunity for you. I bet it was those darn movers what lost the necklace

Good thinking Az!

Ooh exciting. Lovely opportunity Crom. Good luck with it.

We used Santa Fe (no choice)for our last move and were really pleased with them. The crew were fabulous, it was no problem having them in the house for the packing time. My friend used them a month later and agreed they made the whole thing as painless as it could be. Neither of us had anything broken. There was a bit of miscommunication between them and the unpacking company at this end but the packers could not be faulted.

We used KC Dat for a move within SG, again fine, but I'd use Santa Fe if I could have that crew again.

Any updates to this thread? Need to find a mover for my upcoming Thailand relocation. On my list of candidates for quotes I have Unigroup, Allied Pickfords (got good feedback from friends who used them to go from Singers to Thailand) and Crown. Any others worth considering?

We used Allied to Perth and they were good.

Used KC Dat to Singapore and they were fine.
Used Crown for the last 3 moves and they have been excellent, including the move to Thailand.

One of the reasons I like Crown is that they have offices everywhere so they don't hand you off to a different company in your destination. I found their price competitive, after a little light negotiation.

I just called all of the above to book quotes. Crown told me $9k for a 20ft container... isn't that a little expensive?

Jedi wrote:I just called all of the above to book quotes. Crown told me $9k for a 20ft container... isn't that a little expensive?

I remember a similiar quote for a 20ft container to the UK. Shipping itself isn't that expensive anymore so if you negotiate you might get to the real price

Seems to be high. I found the quotes unhelpful though as they bill you on actual and I don't know if you need a full container.

Crown very expensive for our 40 footer, and managed pack so badly that stuff was found all over the place, instead of together with like items (such as book cases, shelves and books, or electronic equipments and cables and plugs). also a lot more breakage on this trip then ever before. some quite valuable and irreplaceable.

my past experience with K.C. Dat was quite good...

The margins on international household removals are high, very high - sometimes reaching 50%. For commercial cargo, it could be as low as 5%.

However, the reason, as we can see from the posts here, is that when you are shipping people's personal effects they take it very, well, PERSONALLY. People rage and rant on the internet, raise hell, get lawyers, talk about it to their friends and anyone that will listen, etc.

Whereas if a carton of your employer's widgets gets damaged in transit, it's just ho hum, business as usual. My company moves hundreds of thousands of containers every year. We will not accept personal effects. I promise you that you can find glowing reviews and damning condemnations of each company mentioned above if you look long enough. Many hands are involved in one shipment, and consistency is hard to achieve. You should work with the one where the sales or relationship manager is someone that you feel A) you can trust and B) has some relevance in the company and can be a good advocate for you internally if something goes wrong.