We have just used Nightingales, a firm based mainly in the West Country,
and they have been excellent so far. In two days three young men filled
a 20 foot container to the brim, everything wrapped in miles of bubble
wrap or packed in over 150 strong cardboard boxes. Off it went with the
promise of delivery to our door in NC in 6-9 weeks when it would all be
unpacked for us.
Big surprise a week later in NC, a phone call from a shipping company
saying delivery was expected in two weeks time! Now we have to rush
about and find a 1200 cu. ft. storage unit for all the stuff so we can
move it in a box at a time. That's going to be fun, opening boxes and
finding things we had long since forgotten we owned!
And the cost? £4900 door to door, we did nothing except dictate what was
going and what was staying.

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Posted via http://britishexpats.com

We have just used Nightingales, a firm based mainly in the West Country, and they have been excellent so far. In two days three young men filled a 20 foot container to the brim, everything wrapped in miles of bubble wrap or packed in over 150 strong cardboard boxes. Off it went with the promise of delivery to our door in NC in 6-9 weeks when it would all be unpacked for us. Big surprise a week later in NC, a phone call from a shipping company saying delivery was expected in two weeks time! Now we have to rush about and find a 1200 cu. ft. storage unit for all the stuff so we can move it in a box at a time. That's going to be fun, opening boxes and finding things we had long since forgotten we owned! And the cost? £4900 door to door, we did nothing except dictate what was going and what was staying.

One thing to remember, if US customs decide thay want to inspect you
shipment, they can and it wil delay your delivery plus they charge you
for the privilage of having them rummage through your stuff, they will
also not release you container until you have paid them, they did it to
us, also they were not as carefull repacking it as one or my wifes hats
was cut across the top where they cut open the box and when they re-
sealed it they left a silf scarf hanging out the bottom of the box which
then got ruined sure the insurance paid out but the scarf came from
venice so not easy to replace!!

Click this link for more info
http://help.customs.gov/cgi-
bin/customs.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_sid=hgE6vMoh&p_lva=&p_faqid-
=396&p_created=1043364939&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9ncmlkc29ydD0mcF9yb3dfY2-
50PTU5JnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9Y2hhcmdlJnBfcHJvZF9sdmwx PX5hbnl_JnBfcHJvZF9-
sdmwyPX5hbnl_JnBfY2F0X2x2bDE9fmFueX4mcF9jYXRfbHZsM j1_YW55fiZwX3BhZ2U9-
MQ**&p_li=

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Posted via http://britishexpats.com

One thing to remember, if US customs decide thay want to inspect you shipment, they can and it wil delay your delivery plus they charge you for the privilage of having them rummage through your stuff, they will also not release you container until you have paid them, they did it to us, also they were not as carefull repacking it as one or my wifes hats was cut across the top where they cut open the box and when they re-sealed it they left a silf scarf hanging out the bottom of the box which then got ruined sure the insurance paid out but the scarf came from venice so not easy to replace!! Click this link for more info http://help.customs.gov/cgi- bin/customs.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_sid=hgE6vMoh&p_lva=&p_faqid- =396&p_created=1043364939&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9ncmlkc29ydD0mcF9yb3dfY2- 50PTU5JnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9Y2hhcmdlJnBfcHJvZF9sdmwx PX5hbnl_JnBfcHJvZF9- sdmwyPX5hbnl_JnBfY2F0X2x2bDE9fmFueX4mcF9jYXRfbHZsM j1_YW55fiZwX3BhZ2U9- MQ**&p_li=

[QUOTE=mikehope]One thing to remember, if US customs decide thay want to
inspect you shipment, they can and it wil delay your delivery plus they
charge you for the privilage of having them rummage through your stuff,
they will also not release you container until you have paid them,

Nightingales warned us about that and said the answer is to label every
box with nothing unlabelled or marked PBO (packed by owner) and have a
very accurate and detailed list of every box and item in the manifest.
They certainly did that for us.
Now we wait for Nov 6th.........

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Posted via http://britishexpats.com

[QUOTE=mikehope]One thing to remember, if US customs decide thay want to inspect you shipment, they can and it wil delay your delivery plus they charge you for the privilage of having them rummage through your stuff, they will also not release you container until you have paid them, Nightingales warned us about that and said the answer is to label every box with nothing unlabelled or marked PBO (packed by owner) and have a very accurate and detailed list of every box and item in the manifest. They certainly did that for us. Now we wait for Nov 6th.........

Our shipping company packed and labeled everything for us, still some of
the boxes where opened and inspected, we think they even booted up our
computer to check it as when we set it up here we got thwe "improper
shutdown detected" message and we know we shut it down properly in
England plus you could tell by the way it was re-packaged.
Hope it all goes well!

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Posted via http://britishexpats.com

Our shipping company packed and labeled everything for us, still some of the boxes where opened and inspected, we think they even booted up our computer to check it as when we set it up here we got thwe "improper shutdown detected" message and we know we shut it down properly in England plus you could tell by the way it was re-packaged. Hope it all goes well!

Thanks......OK so far!!

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Posted via http://britishexpats.com