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Moving company from Singapore to USA

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alsop5500
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Moving company from Singapore to USA

Post by alsop5500 » Mon, 08 May 2017 10:42 am

Hello All,
Appreciate recommendations on international moves involving USA / Singapore corridor. This will be a move on our own back to the U.S., not corporate, but we do want it to be door to door. Also any general tips appreciated. Understand most folks on this forum likely can relate to experience of moving from the US / abroad to Singapore which is ok. Thank You.

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Strong Eagle
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Re: Moving company from Singapore to USA

Post by Strong Eagle » Mon, 08 May 2017 9:12 pm

I used Allied Pickfords to move from Singapore to Houston. Overall, the move was handled professionally. The packing crew showed up on time, things were properly packed (exception - one worker who tried to wrap whole drawers with contents inside - forks, knives, you name it - but with a bit of whacking on the head he soon stopped).

Allied Pickfords is associated with Allied Van Lines in the USA, so the move was seamless, customs was handled without incident, and our stuff was stored in a Houston warehouse until we were ready for it, then delivered to our door. Vans were broken open and boxes placed in our home.

Two things that soured me, although now that you know, you should be able to avoid. We didn't have enough stuff (by choice, we sold off most things) to fill a full 20 ft container, so we used two vans (large wooden crates, each taking about 1/3 of a container. We were quoted X dollars for our household goods.

However, when we were finally packed, one of the vans was only two thirds full (we wish we had known that - we would have packed more stuff). The kicker was that they wanted to charge us for the empty space in the van, considerably raising the quoted price. I had to fight all the way to the managing director of Allied Pickfords to get them to honor their price.

The second thing is that we knew we would have between 3 and 12 months of storage depending upon what we did with our house in Houston. Allied Pickfords quoted a monthly storage price and we accepted.

But, when we got to Houston, the monthly storage fees for Allied Van Lines were twice as much. Fortunately, Allied honored the contract price and went after Allied Pickfords for the differential (the kind of customer service you would never see in Singapore).

I judge you'll have a good shipping experience with Allied Pickfords but make damn sure that economics of the deal are sealed in concrete.

alsop5500
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Re: Moving company from Singapore to USA

Post by alsop5500 » Tue, 09 May 2017 9:08 am

Thank You very much. Those are very helpful insights. May I ask if you are inn ti share as a ball park what cost to expect for say a 3 BR move door to door.

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Re: Moving company from Singapore to USA

Post by Strong Eagle » Tue, 09 May 2017 9:56 am

alsop5500 wrote:Thank You very much. Those are very helpful insights. May I ask if you are inn ti share as a ball park what cost to expect for say a 3 BR move door to door.
We were quoted about S$8,540 for a bit more than half of a 20 foot container. This is in 2012. We sold beds, sofas, and all that, taking back only those things that mattered... aka... no IKEA.

This was pretty much in line with a friend who moved earlier and whose company paid about S$20K for a full 20 foot unit. A 20 footer ought to easily handle a 3 bedroom unless you are a serious junk collector.

Beware the "pack it yourself". If you do this you will be unable to get any kind of shipping insurance.

Beware also of the loose pack shipping options... they put your stuff in boxes, then store it in their warehouse until they find a container to dump it into. At least with a wooden van, all your stuff is in one box.

alsop5500
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Re: Moving company from Singapore to USA

Post by alsop5500 » Tue, 09 May 2017 10:21 am

Thanks, that's helpful.

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