BrewZone

International Moving / Relocation Basics

We waited until two months before our departure date to start getting proper quotes. Starting from scratch without a single positive recommendation to work from, our challenge was compounded somewhat by being in Albuquerque. There just aren’t many companies doing moving to NZ from the middle of the country. We tried a search on the internet but we had more luck looking in the Yellow Pages to find locally listed moving companies that listed international services.

In the end we were left with just three options who we contacted to schedule estimates about a month before we were to leave. Apparently low competition gives moving companies the liberty of taking their sweet time, and getting to us when they get around to it. One of the companies made us call several times to get an appointment, then came a week later, and then took a week to return the estimate. Most likely, if we had chosen them, they would not have been able to come pack up before we left the country. The company we had contacted online never got back to us at all. This is when we realized we should have gotten quotes several months before the move, regardless of whether we actually knew what we were taking.

Likely, the quotes will be beyond your budget, and then you will have a sense of how ruthless/creative you will need to be. To downsize your stuff to your budget, you can start with categorizing everything into essential, useful, desirable and disposable. If you give this a first pass before your quotes, then you can have them exclude all the ‘disposables’ up front. You might also be able to get them to do two quotes for you- one with the ‘desirables’ and one without.

If the quote without all of your desirable items is still too high, you have a few choices. One option is storing some of the useful stuff with family or in a storage unit. Another is eliminating the useful things that can be replaced relatively easily after moving. If you are freaked out by trying to set up a household without some of your basic useful stuff, consider renting a furnished place to start with, until you have time to rebuild your basics.

This is probably where we need to admit that F is a bit of a packrat. He has a very object-oriented memory, so a thing from his past is an intensely visceral piece of history that evokes strong emotions and can trigger fascinating stories. When you add to that his indomitable inventiveness that sees every scrap as a potential project, he can acquire a startling array of items rather quickly. Add our joint tendency toward obsessive frugality where nothing should ever be wasted, and it’s quite difficult to clear “useful” things out once they have come in. 

Using what information we had to establish the values of things, we made a concerted effort during the several months before the move to pare down to the basics as much as possible and we were successful in eliminating at least 2/3 of our belongings. We disposed of furniture, books, memorabilia and music. We cleared out filing cabinets and clothes closets as if someone had died. We had to sell off most of our appliances and electronics anyway moving from 110 to 220 power. We converted the clutter into thousands of dollars of Ebay and flea market sales. We were on a first name basis at the Goodwill donation center.

And still, in the end we had a lot of junk to move. Okay, it wasn’t all junk. We had expensive sports equipment, our best clothes, china and fine cookware. We had some electronics that would convert to 220.  We had a mattress that didn’t aggravate M’s back pain. Plus we had the other half. We were in the situation, then, of moving a large amount of stuff that no one in their right minds would count as valuable but with which we thought we could not part.

If you think you are going to face a similar situation, even if you’re not as bad, start NOW on sorting things. Remember that donating and selling useful stuff means it is not being wasted, it’s just giving someone else an opportunity to use it. And giving you an opportunity to get something new in the future.

3. Find good movers and negotiate

Once you’ve got your estimates, even before you have necessarily decided exactly what you are taking, you are ready to select a mover and negotiate a contract. They won’t put you into their schedule until the contract is signed, so deciding sooner will help ensure you get the dates you want. In choosing a company, until you have a contract you are really just ranking your favorites. Your greatest leverage in this process is having another company to fall back to if your first choice will not meet your needs. Suggesting that you will check with another vendor when the agent says a request is impossible can sometimes produce ‘miracles’.

So, what should this priority ranking be based upon? In short, it’s about quality, features (as outlined in the contract terms) and price. While price is a huge factor, we list it last because an estimated price can be far from the actual final cost with all the extras accounted for.

Assessing Quality

Customer service is one key to quality, and so it’s fine to factor in your gut feeling about how responsively and honestly they treat you. Another way to assess quality is by evaluating their trade stature. Check if they have been around long enough to attain RIM or FIDI certification in industry organizations such as AMSA and FIDI without racking up complaints with the BBB in their home state, to ensure they are a legitimate business. And fortunately, in the US interstate movers are regulated by the Department of Transportation (DOT) and must have a DOT Number. You can ensure they are licensed for interstate commerce by searching their DOT number.

Finally, you can look at their reputation. If you don’t have first person recommendations to work with, the web has some very powerful resources for sorting through the available companies.Within the DOT an organization called the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) provides the FMCSA site specifically to educate and assist with interstate moves. You can download their Protect Your Move brochure, plus get info on regulations, preparing to move and state resources. They also maintain an easily searched database of complaints and actions that reports every formal complaint.

We also got good information from movingscam.com. This was where we discovered that an International Mover is actually a moving company that partners with a shipping company.  Not only did we need to check out the company that would be packing our things and taking them away, but we also needed to assess the shipping company they would be using to send it all overseas. The site was full of warnings and recommendations, and we ruled out one company that was using a shipping company with multiple complaints for lost or undelivered shipments. We were pleased to find that the shipper we ended up with, Rainier, had their highest recommendation.

Negotiating the Features

Aside from different price bids, we also had different contract terms and insurance between the two companies we got quotes from. The one we didn’t choose wanted us to pay 10% over the estimate price on pickup, regardless of the actual cost. (I’ve since learned from the FMCSA site about the 110% rule which makes this legal, although exactly opposite of the intent of the regulation.) Refunds would only be made 30 days after delivery. We also felt their insurance terms were not as favorable, since the other estimator had stated (incorrectly) that we could insure just part of our load.
Before you sign, you should feel comfortable that you have negotiated the best possible deal in these areas.

The Contract
In addition to specifying the estimated price, the contract contained a complex and formidable collection of terms. The most important thing to remember is that the printed contract is not set in stone. Until you have signed, you can negotiate items in the contract to wrest back some control  over the process. As long as you have two or more companies bidding, you have leverage to improve your deal.

Our contract addressed a seemingly comprehensive list of fees related to an international move, and clearly outlined who was responsible for each, between us, the moving company and the shipping company but we could have done much better. Use the experience of friends, family and internet  users to compile a list of bad experiences before you begin negotiating. Here are some key negotiating points:

• Price Quotation: as mentioned above, the standard quotation is a “non-binding estimated cost” where the contract specifically states that the actual price will be based on actual weight and volume. You could instead require that they give a “fixed price” quote or a “maximum variance” quote, where you agree to pay no more than say 120% of the quote. The latter is most fair since a fixed price bid leaves the option that you could sneak in additional items.
• Included and Excluded Services: this is the all important list of additional fees and charges. Do your homework for this one and make sure that nothing that you are likely to encounter is left undefined or in the ‘Excluded’ list. In our case, we considered the Agricultural inspection and quarantine fees to be part of customs clearance, but our shipper counted them as a tax or duty, even though it is a fixed fee for every inspection. Beware of clauses left open ended like ‘delivery destination with unusual access’ if you can specify what the delivery location looks like. Common add on delivery surcharges include insufficient length or width of driveway or excessive distance or stairs to the front door.
• Insurance options: insurance is not covered in the quote and must be purchased separately. The available options should be listed in the contract (see details below)
• Transit time: typically they will give themselves 2-4 weeks variance, and then hold you to a 5 day delivery window. There is no real way to guarantee when the ship will arrive as seas change, etc, but you can specify consequences (fees) for exceeding the delivery window, and try to get a more realistic window for yourself. Our delivery was delayed for the ag inspection fee which we wanted to dispute. It was right at the new year so we had trouble reaching our shipping agent, but if we didn’t act within 72 hours (the NZ mover waited 2 days into the contract’s 5 day window) then we would have to pay port storage costs greater than the fee. 
• Shipping partners: both of our estimates and then our contract clearly named each company that would touch our shipment. Make sure you have all the details of each company to check them out, and require notification before any change is made. 
• Payment: Understandably, for international shipments you will be required to pay up front, before you leave the country. Not only do you need to know what forms of payment are acceptable, who to pay and when it will be paid, you should also have specific terms for paying for anything above and beyond the estimate. 

Insurance
Although you should be able to expect a shipper to be responsible for treating your belongings well, most of them are quite happy to depend upon their liability insurance as a substitute for being careful. To them it’s a cost of doing business, while to us it’s our one-of a-kind family heirloom. And that’s why you must understand and use insurance to your advantage. If you don’t buy insurance, your belongings will only be replaced if lost, at a rate of $6/pound. So, even if the container gets wet and destroys your 20 pound computer, they might pay you $120 replacement or maybe nothing at all if it was an act of God. So, you will have to buy some coverage and  it represents a sizable expense beyond your first quote.

The insurance options seemed quite different between our two potential companies. One had a sort of all or nothing. We could accept the basic loss protection, or the other option was to ensure the entire load at $25 per $1000 valuation. This means you list and value every item in your shipment and buy insurance at a rate of 2.5% of the total. In our case, we valued our stuff at $30,000, so we’d have had to pay an extra $750 for insurance. The company we chose offered a more customized approach. We could pack lower value items ourselves and they would be insured at the $6/pound and let them pack higher value items to be insured for replacement at $25/1000. This would have cut our insurance in half. Unfortunately, upon further research, the agent found that once we bought replacement insurance, any item not listed would not be insured at all. To manage the cost, we undervalued our less important items (aiming toward $6/lb) to keep the total insurance cost down to $500 while still ensuring full coverage of our important items.

Make sure you ask a lot of questions about the insurance options and ensure that you can get full replacement value for any item you consider special. Once you have committed to a plan, take the time to fill out the forms with as much detail as possible so that you can quantify anything lost should something bad happen.

One other thing to keep in mind is that the insurance has lengthy lists of exclusions, including almost anything with a high cash value such as jewelery and stamp collections. You’ll need to pack these items into your carry-on. They also don’t cover breakage of owner packed items, damage by vermin or marring you can’t prove. Further, damage to one item in a set that ruins the set will be valued for the single item only. A huge percentage of mover complaints revolve around actually getting reimbursed for damages because you are left to deal with their liability insurer. The lesson is that even with the highest level of insurance, you really have to be emotionally prepared to lose any item you put into their care.

Price

Now that you know what is in and out of the contract and what insurance options you have, you are in a much better position to compare the prices between companies. Ideally, you have chosen the highest quality company with the most features and twisted their arms to come as close as possible to the lesser competitors. You will probably pay more than the lowest quote, but feel confident you are getting a better value.

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This article was written on Sunday, August 31st, 2008 and is filed under Mastering Skills. For more articles about: Living Abroad (5)

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