gonenative Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 Hi, I hope this is the right forum for this thread - mods please move it if not!! Has anyone had any experience with shipping their stuff to California - or the US in general - from the UK? I'm looking at paying Euro-USA about £100/m3, for about 4-5 cubic metres from London to their depot near Long Beach. A normal-sized Transit van is about 5.5m3, for reference - so if you have remotely nice stuff it's surprisingly economical, IF you pack and possibly drive to the depot yourself. Another firm quoted £275/m3 door to door. Uhaul hire for a van to take it, plus gas, looks like being about $4-500 for the 400-odd mile ride to Davis. Has anyone had a better deal than this? And if anyone else is starting at Davis (or any other schools around the Bay), will have a shipment coming into LB/Garden Grove this fall, and fancies sharing a larger truck, PM me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bukharan Posted May 15, 2011 Share Posted May 15, 2011 I am heading to the Bay Area but (hopefully) not moving any stuff there. Just wanted to thank you for sharing with us the information. I feel like £100/m3 is a fairly good price... if the stuff you are moving is actually nice, as you said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runonsentence Posted May 16, 2011 Share Posted May 16, 2011 Have you looked into freight shipping? I studied abroad in the UK for one semester in 2005, and I vaguely remembered that there was a super slow and slightly dodgy option of having your belongings chucked onto some barge or ferry. Some of my friends did this after we spent the night madly trying to shove everything into our suitcases but realized it wouldn't all fit. I was lucky to have some friends who were Americans in the military, stationed at an RAF base. This meant they essentially had both a U.K. address and a U.S. address (an APO). I was able to ship a box to them at the RAF base domestically and they were able to ship them back to the U.S. for me, also at a domestic rate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mandarin.orange Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Have you looked into freight shipping? I studied abroad in the UK for one semester in 2005, and I vaguely remembered that there was a super slow and slightly dodgy option of having your belongings chucked onto some barge or ferry. I wouldn't recommend this, esp. since you used the term "slightly dodgy." I did study abroad in the UK, had to ship a set of car keys back home to CA, and chose this option. For a teeny padded envelope, it took months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
far_to_go Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Whatever shipping option you use, pay the extra money to get some kind of tracking/insurance/delivery confirmation. I mailed all my books from CA to the East Coast using the Us Postal Service's "book rate" (cheapest option) with none of the extras, and half - HALF - of my boxes of books got lost. When I called repeatedly to try to find out what had happened to them, the post office made a pro forma attempt to track them down, but I never received any of the lost boxes. I was totally bummed. Losing half of my academic and personal library was NOT a fun way to start the grad school journey. Learn from my mistake and pay extra for the peace of mind :-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runonsentence Posted May 17, 2011 Share Posted May 17, 2011 Whatever shipping option you use, pay the extra money to get some kind of tracking/insurance/delivery confirmation. I mailed all my books from CA to the East Coast using the Us Postal Service's "book rate" (cheapest option) with none of the extras, and half - HALF - of my boxes of books got lost. When I called repeatedly to try to find out what had happened to them, the post office made a pro forma attempt to track them down, but I never received any of the lost boxes. I was totally bummed. Losing half of my academic and personal library was NOT a fun way to start the grad school journey. Learn from my mistake and pay extra for the peace of mind :-( That's exactly what happened to my former roommate—he used Media Mail, and a lot of his lovely Norton literature anthologies were replaced with weird self-help books or just missing altogether. Keeping a detailed packing list would also be prudent, to ensure that all of your books make it safely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gonenative Posted June 1, 2011 Author Share Posted June 1, 2011 AFAIK, you can't ship on most of the reputable services without insurance (and I probably wouldn't trust any which allowed you to). And yes, packing lists (better yet pictures) are essential! As is checking whether the insurance will actually cover replacement... If by freight shipping, you mean container (well, part of, aka groupage shipment), and if by super slow, you mean 6-12 weeks, and if by slightly dodgy you mean do things occasionally "happen at sea," then yes, that's what I'm talking about! Runonsentence, you brought back images of the river boats on the Ucayali, replete with riberenos lounging in hammocks next to barrels of gasoline... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hahahut Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 I was thinking about sending some stuff. But then I found out US flights normally allow to check in two suitcases with 23kg each plus another carry on bag. That should be enough for all the essential stuff and a few books. But of course, one can't bring a bed that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runonsentence Posted June 1, 2011 Share Posted June 1, 2011 AFAIK, you can't ship on most of the reputable services without insurance (and I probably wouldn't trust any which allowed you to). And yes, packing lists (better yet pictures) are essential! As is checking whether the insurance will actually cover replacement... If by freight shipping, you mean container (well, part of, aka groupage shipment), and if by super slow, you mean 6-12 weeks, and if by slightly dodgy you mean do things occasionally "happen at sea," then yes, that's what I'm talking about! Runonsentence, you brought back images of the river boats on the Ucayali, replete with riberenos lounging in hammocks next to barrels of gasoline... The media mail service I was referring to in my post was a domestic shipping option offered by the USPS. (It is possible to ship things w/o insurance domestically—but I would suspect you're entirely right about insurance being less of an "option" with international shipping.) Yes, exactly re: the second paragraph. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gonenative Posted June 25, 2011 Author Share Posted June 25, 2011 So, I have decided to go with Doree Bonner. They have a £100 discount on USA removals right now http://www.doreebonner.co.uk/special-offers/view/122/100-off-removals-to-usa Andrew Boyd is the man to talk to there. Including the discount, their quote (door to door) was by far the lowest I saw including packing and delivery - less, in fact, than port-to-port rates (plus hiring vans both sides) from EuroUSA. Oh and to be clear, the author has no conflicts of interest to declare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demain Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 Davis has a very active 'freecycle' community and there are often many, many free ads on Craigslist.org for furniture and appliances. I know you mentioned having 'nice' things but do consider the fact that picking up some furniture once your here will be very easy. With a little sanding and some paint, most anything can be made new again. Also, I attended UCD for my undergrad; if you desire any tips about the town, drop me a line. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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