Advice on hiring international movers

We are in the process of organizing our move. Trouble is we are on a very short deadline. I've received a job offer and I need to start in under a month. Not a lot of time to say the least. We actually went through the process of hiring a firm but now are unsure if they are right for the job. They said we only need to sign the contract, send them photocopies of our passports and then they will take care of the rest. Looking at customs information for Germany it seems that this is an impossibility that they could just "take care of it". Specifically the customs information I found is that we would need:

1 - A letter of third party (employer, German Embassy) confirming that shipper has lived and worked for more than 12 months in foreign country.

2 - Contract of employment.

3 - Customs registration form 0350.

4 - A letter signed by shipper that following goods are not inside his shipment: firearms – alcohol – tobacco – cigarettes – tea – coffee.

most of which we could provide, but since the company didn't ask for these items I'm a little worried that they don't know what they are doing. Has anyone been through this before and if so how did it go? Did you need these items? Did you get charged a lot at customs? One thing that stresses me out is that they mention in the contract that we are liable for any dues at customs beyond regular duties. This suggests that they just don't worry about these items above and just let us deal with the customs "penalty" for lack of a better word.

Any insight into what people have done in similar situations is welcome.

P.S. For item #1: A letter of third party, have any of you had to secure this document? If so how did you do it? I don't know that I have any resources that can prove that we've lived here for more than 12 months that would satisfy the authorities. Further complicating the matter, we'll have been here JUST 12 months before we return this time so it's not as is if we have records going back multiple years.

In any case, thanks in advance for any help/advice/tips/support/etc.

Frito

Having just gotten through this, I can confirm that the moving company really does "take care of it" - or at least that it is possible. We went with Rosenbrock (German movers, based in Hamburg), and their US partner (Lile). I felt very comfortable with Lile, since they handled most of my previous employers many (and massive) office moves.

We insisted on helping with packing, but apparently that places the move under a different regime, whereby a lot of the formalities you mentioned become the responsibility of the client. If the mover handles everything, they assume full responsibility (they also deny shipping a few categories of items, such as fluids, flammable or not) and the customs formalities appear to follow a less scrutinized path.

I am very pleased with the overal experience, as it was completely painless: packing, customs, unpacking, temporary local storage, furniture assembly upon arrival - everything was handled by them. If you'd like contact information for either company, please ping me privately at dragos dot avadanei at gmail dot com.

HTH,
Dragos

We used UPakWeShip and had no problems. The only thing we had to fill out was a packing list, a simple customs form (which they supplied), and a contract. They ship the items to the UK and then deliver by truck to various European locations, so the customs procedure may be a bit different than entering Germany directly. Other than filling out the simple customs form, they handled everything and there were no extra customs fees. I would highly recommend them as the price was fair and our items were well taken care of.

Tip: Number each carton with LARGE numbers at the upper right corner of at least three adjacent sides and write down the contents on a list for EACH of the boxes. You can make two description columns in a spreadsheet with one for customs and one more descriptive for your own personal use. The customs descriptions should be simple, e.g., "Books", "Kitchenware", "Linens", "Computer". These are all "household goods". By preparing this correctly your shipment will pass through customs much more quickly.

You may want to add a second marking denoting the room each box should go, making move-in a lot faster.

With the more detailed descriptions you'll be able to unpack in a more sensible order, again speeding move-in and set-up.

woof.

Thanks everyone for your help/tips. We actually already sort of committed to a moving company (Global Ocean Freight), I just am hoping they do have all the bases covered.

Knowing that it does get done painlessly sometimes is a relief though. In hindsight it probably would have been a smart idea to go with a mover BASED in Germany, but oh well.

Thanks again,
Frito

This is what I found about Global Ocean Freight:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/searchresults...p;Search=Search

dcgirl, can you give some info about upakweship? How much did they charge? Did you drop your items off at their facility, or did they drop off a container for you to fill? How quickly did they deliver your stuff? How different was the final cost from the quote they gave you?

Not to jump in, but I used UPakweship too. I just got my stuff last week.

It took about 10 weeks. It cost $12.50 per cubic foot door-to-door. They picked up the items from my home and delivered them to my new place without incident (I live on the second floor).

It cost only $100 more because there was a port charge (which they outlined in the contract), so no big surprises.

Alison Kane was my contact and she's AWESOME. I must've asked her a million questions, and she helped me every time without fail. Her liaisons were equally helpful and reliable. I'm satisfied. Just make sure you pack your stuff well like I did, and you should be fine.

I am compelled to jump in as well...
I also used UPakWeShip last year to move my household items from Lake Arrowhead, CA . They expertly packed and delivered everything undamaged door -to-door including two huge sofas. The items were 204 gross cubit ft. and the total fee including insurance (5K deductible) was $3,038 USD.
Alison Kane was my contact as well and she was very helpful in every aspect of the process.

However, I was originally quoted 7-10 weeks but it took 2 weeks longer because of a seemingly endless supply of excuses from their UK handler EuroUSA: the delivery truck needed a repair and they were waiting on a part, holiday driving restrictions in Germany etc.
I was just happy to get my stuff, the communications with EuroUSA was bad and I had to call many times to get status.

Thanks very much. I'm not so worried about the length of time it takes to get there, because we'll most likely just be shoving everything in the in-laws' shed and spare room for a couple more months when it gets there anyway. Aside from cost, is there any benefit to packing everything up ourselves? The move will be paid for by my husband's employer, so if there's no good reason to pack it up myself I won't.

Hi interplanetjanet. It's been a while now, so let me see if I can remember everything.

We packed everything ourselves and dropped it off at their facility near Baltimore, MD. We had everything delivered to us in Germany. They do offer pick-up service as well, but we chose to drop off since we were relatively close to one of their warehouses. Our quote was $9/cubic foot and we shipped a little over 100 cubic feet. You really need to try to use same/similar size boxes to make the most of your cubic feet. Also, we didn't ship any furniture, which made a huge difference.

The ship ports in the UK; everything was unloaded there and delivered by truck to our apartment in Germany. They contacted us after the ship arrived in the UK to give us a final quote for delivery to Germany, which ended up being £200. This was the only additional charge to our original quote. They did tell us ahead of time that the UK office would contact us separately with this delivery quote, but they couldn't tell us how much it would be. If you're having things delivered to your home, the charge will be in sterling, which may make a big difference if your budgeting in dollars.

The total transit time was 8 weeks and everything arrived in good condition. Nothing was broken, but I would recommend packing really carefully with lots of padding. I imagine the boxes get thrown around a lot. I think the person who helped us was named Alison. She was extremely nice and helpful, which sealed the deal for us using their service.

Edit: I just saw that we all dealt with Alison. They should pay us for such raving reviews.