Good International Moving Company

[msn11us]

[quote="amiee40"]Hi

Anyone used Orient Express Forwarding or Relocasia before?? Thanks

Hi there,

We are trying to decide between these two companies too. Who did you chose and was their service good?

Many thanks

Maheshi

[Winnie the Pooh]

I am extremely impressed the excellent service of William Lee of PPB Worldwide Enterprise Pte Ltd. His mobile: Hp : +65 9239 3021.

My family actually moved all our personal belongings from Hong Kong to Singapore and we contracted PPB Worldwide to handle the clearance of custom and storage of our stuff in their warehouse.

William is very nice and a type of person who will go an extra mile to help you out whenever you have queries. He is very detail oriented and has provided us with so many helpful tips and advice, such as how to minimise the GST payment, how to declare your goods in order that not a single item is taxable, etc. I am so glad to have used PPB Worldwide as my relocation from HK to Singapore is now stress free!

Agnes

[Ratpick_2000]

IGNORE the above post - do not use a local player for this type of move. Just imagine who might turn up in London on the day of your move!!

I have used three international Movers since my life as an expat began:

First, if money is no object, go with Abels (they are by Royal Appointment and handle all of the Queen's gifts she receives from foreign dignitaries). They packed every item carefully, labelled and generally did a fantastic job. There were, however, not cheap at all. That is the price you pay. I think we had one broken mug and that was it.

Second, we used Allied Pickfords (or which ever one it is these days: Team Allied or Pickfords). For our move from Dubai to Singapore they did an adequate job but there were a few breakages and scuffs/dents on our bed and tables etc.. They were in general terms pretty good.

The third option is to go local - I have used local shippers in Dubai and Singapore and on each occasion have been horrified by the service and quality of the packing. In particular, Singapore Movers seem to be groups of young students more interested in messing about than getting the job done. Avoid is my advice. They are of course, the cheapest option.

Good luck!

[qwertrew]

We will be using Crown for our relocation back to France.. and quite nervous now after these comments; however will keep my fingers crossed!

Does anyone have advice as to whether I should take pics of my furniture/ items now, or only at point of when the Movers come in, so that they can't dispute that the pictures were taken a long time ago when the item was "brand new". Just thinking what I need to do in event we have damaged furniture.

And no, unfortunately the company has already selected Crown so we dont't have a choice.

Didn't have this problem when we first moved here as we came only with 2 suitcases but now leaving with 2 containers!

[Eejc]

Hi, I've moved from Singapore to China and upon initial contact, Astro Movers was very very responsive. But after they had gotten the business I found that they became very lackadaisical and took a long time to respond despite calling them. They also were two hours late in picking the things up from what they promised. Their services is actually more expensive than other providers but their services is not worth the price you pay. I was very disappointed with them and would not recommend them at all.

[aargon]

Anyone tried KC Dat?

[muschaa]

Hi guys,

There are for sure many reliable relocation partners in Singapore - unfortunately we were very unlucky with our choice, which was Links Moving, and we regret it more than anything in the world...

First of all, we were beguiled with their competitive offer (ca. 2000SGD cheaper than the other two companies we contacted) and good impression the manager did on us. The preparation process went quite smoothly as well: they answered emails, called us back etc. Until we paid our money. Suddenly we were not on their priority list any more... But well, they packed our furniture, clothes etc. and they did it vey well, so we were hoping it will be allright.

Our move from S´pore to Vienna took place in August. And we saw our stuff in Vienna after bit more than 3 months, although Links Moving were saying usually it takes no more than 8 weeks. But the worst part was not the length of the delivery. It costed us also many STOLEN items. They were not lost on the way, but just stolen - the thieves were such assholes they put empty, ripped packing bags back in the boxes... We lost our TV set, wakeboard (they even took shoes which were packed separetely), sports equipment and all female sport clothes (functional t-shirts, mountaneering trousers, mountaineering socks etc.), even my jeans (but only the new and branded ones) and my brand new converse were missing! The list is really long and you can imagine the costs of re-buying it... We have insurance from the company reccomended by Links Moving but honestly we are very sceptical if we´ll ever see any money.

Links Moving is not answering neither our emails or our phone calls. And you can only imagine how powerless we feel trying to push things forward from Europe...

My advice is please avoid Links Moving Asia.

[/b]

[fdc1963]

We generally remove vindictive posts especially from the users who just seemed to register solely for that purpose. I let it stay because it seems reasonably balanced and informative. Your other post was removed.

Moderator

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I've used Allied Pickford twice. The first time was from HK to Singapore, and everything was fine. The second time was from Singapore to the United States, and the experience was horrible. A competitor had pointed out that Allied didn't have their own operations in the United States and instead relied on a partner. I originally thought this wouldn't make much of a difference, but as it turned out, it made all the difference in the world. If I were to do the move all over again, I'd go with the competitor who had their own offices in the U.S.

The main problems I had with my Singapore-USA move using Allied included:

- Their U.S. contact was never available by telephone, you'd always get his voicemail if you called. The only way to communicate with him was by email, which was inconvenient and inefficient.

- The U.S. contact had promised to notify me as soon as my things arrived, but five days passed after the goods landed before he contacted me. He had been on vacation and apparently didn't bother to delegate his duties to other colleagues.

- I was presented by various charges (totaling US$1100) that U.S. Customs supposedly levied on my shipment after arrival. When I signed the contract with Allied, they never mentioned that these additional charges would apply. After I paid these charges (I desperately needed my furniture), I noticed that the receipts were from Allied, not U.S. Customs. When I asked for evidence that U.S. Customs had in fact levied these charges, Allied never provided any. It is therefore entirely possible that Allied (or rather, its U.S. partner) fabricated these charges, but I don't know for sure. I let this go partly because my company covered the payment anyway.

- After unpacking my things, I discovered that a box containing various currencies totaling about US$200 was emptied, and I was also missing two designer label sunglasses.

My recommendation for moves from Asia to the U.S. is to go with a company that has its own operations in America. Otherwise, pay heed to the problems I encountered and take precautions to avoid them.

[RecentlyMoved]

just in case anyone here is considering to use Santa Fe for their local or international move:

we used them recently and had a very bad experience!
they contract out to dishonest moving crews who betray by presenting the client with false invoices, claiming you will get reimbursed by Santa Fe headquarters. then Santa Fe says they don't know the company name on the invoice and they never worked with them - so no reimbursement.
unbelievable!

also, their team was very slow, and at one point disappeared for more than 3 hours, supposedly on the way from old to new home - both within singapore. when they finally reached the new place, they needed to take a "lunch break" before doing anything else (at 4pm, after being 3 hours late).

we previously used Asian Tigers for our move to singapore - and now we regret sooo much that we did not use them again!

[beppi]

I also had a bad experience with Allied Pickford when moving from Singapore to Germany:
We chose them, over cheaper competing quotes, because they said their German office would handle things on the other side - and having everything in one hand is always better.
However, this German office, although called "Team Allied Relocations", then claimed to be a different company and not responsible for Allied Singapore's mistakes!!!
In fact, they forgot to apply for a customs' certificate from the embassy before export, and this was rectifiable afterwards only with some buerocratic. effort. In the end, everything was resolved fine, but I was rather upset when the exact reason why we chose them turned out to be a lie.
Other than that, everything went o.k., with only some minor damages that I consider normal during an international move.

[phoenixscienter]

My family of 4 will be moving from the US mainland to Singapore. Any idea how much I should ask my company for the moving expenses part of my expat package? (note I've got a good handle on the other parts of my expat package-- just need some help on figuring out a good sum to ask for relating to international moving).

For reference sake, we have some furniture, a whole boatload of clothes (2 kids and all) and random stuff. I'm not packing up a whole house, but I want to budget for that.

Is $10k US enough? $20k? I'd rather err on the high side.

thanks so much

[beppi]

A 20ft container (full or partially filled), incl. packing and unpacking services, will cost US$5000-10000, depending on the Moving Company.

[Ramyaismoving]

Hi

Anyone used Orient Express Forwarding or Relocasia before?? Thanks

Humm.. not sure about Crown. I got a quote from them and also abit of a shock, price was nearly triple than the quotes that i got from other large removalists (based on the same inventory list).

We used Orient Express, for our moving from Sing to India after they were highly recommended by a friend who had moved a year before. We had a very smooth experience with them.
* Professional level of packing and loading.
* Regular updates of shipment in transit.
* Customs assistance
* Unloading and unpacking.

Most important, I had taken 5 quotes for this job and these guys came at about 60 percent of what the others were charging. So highly recommended if you are paying your way through or if you are looking for a cost effective solution. I had a corporate packer when I moved from India to Singapore and I can confidently say my experience with these guys was as good at half the cost.

[acheang]

We are moving from Singapore to Australia.
Anyone have suggestions of good Movers ?

Did anyone have experience with Classic Moving & Storage P/L ?

[Rainforestbiker]

I've moved from US to Malaysia then to Singapore then to US with a few local moves in between over the past 16 years. All went reasonably well using Allied Pickford and others. But, I have to say, Crown Relocation, who did my last move, has changed from the first time I used them (6 years ago) . I do not recommend them at all. They are fine up to the point they have your goods in their possession and then you'd be amazed the tricks they pull to extort more money- combined with terrible communications and management and it is truly the move from hell. One of the biggest mistakes I've ever made in a move and hope all reading this can be forewarned.