Well, I finally bit the bullet and quit my job/flat so come the end of September, I'll be moving out. Most probably to the UK or Ireland though I'd still consider a job in CH if it was the right deal.

Anyway - can anyone recommend a good international removals firm or has any ideas about an effective way of moving stuff internationally?

I shouldn't actually have a massive amount of belongings to shift as I'm planning on sending the furniture to the Brockenhaus (will prob have to pay them to dispose of it as it's just old Ikea stuff) and will only be taking all my possessions like electronic gear, mountain bike, skis etc. Maybe it would be feasible to hire a small van in the UK and drive it back here, for example.


Also, since I might not have something to go directly to in the UK, has anyone got any experiences of using a storage depot? I was thinking that maybe I could just have my belongings shipped directly to one of those places - but I'm a bit worried about security (lots of expensive home cinema and computer type gear).


Gav

sounds like a rental might be the best job but give Luker Bros a shout as they're always over here from the UK.

How much space would your stuff take up?

Yeah - I've seen Luker Bros vans around Zurich several times. A friend left here a couple of years back and they gave her rather a large quote for her stuff (but she was taking a fair bit of furniture too). She ended up using a 'White Van Man' in the UK who was a friend of a friend.

I'd reckon that I could fit all that I need to take into the back of a large transit. Driving it to/from the UK or Ireland is going to be a hassle though, 2 days each way (at least 3 for Ireland) I reckon with ferries/channel tunnel and overnight hotel stays to add to the cost.


Gav

back of a large tranny is still a decent amount of gear.....maybe someone else is going that way at the same time and you can share a truck/container...?

I used Luker bros on this side, and Clark and Rose from the UK side, they were brilliant.

www.clarkandrose.co.uk

I've used Luker bros twice, once to move from Zurich back to the UK; no complaints at all. We then used them to come back again and it was a completely different story, they broke so much stuff, some of which they tried to hide, we took their advice on insurance only to find out we were underinsured and ended up several thousand Francs out of pocket. Based on our second experience I would not recommend them.

We have used Allied Pickfords from UK to AUstralia and Australia to CH.

They do not tend to break stuff, and they always had the cheapest quotes for us, but on arriving in SWitzerland they showed up a day later than they said, without warning. If you can live with that, they are ok otherwise.

Someone once told me to always get the insurance with an independent company as the same company will tend to rip you off once you need them.

Count on storage being expensive, as you tend to have to use it longer than planned. IF only for a few months, it might be ok, but I do not know about UK prices.

Glad to see that someone has worked out, that the friendly, low tax oil, multicultural, english speaking, oil producing nation in the north sea is a great pace to live and work.

I reccomend driving. 4 hours to luxembourg, 3 hours to zeebrugge (or 4 to calais). From there you can catch boats to the UK (Dover, Hull, felixstowe)..

I've been living in your nice country for over 4 years now and will move back to France end of August. This forum will definitely help to stay connected to a part of the world my family and I really liked!

With regards to international movers, Bishop's Move European were the most convincing for me, at least at quotation stage (move haven't taken place yet). Our query was quite complex with partial delivery to France, partial storage, an overall volume in excess of 70m3 with fragile pieces of old furniture.

Luker Bros has been a real pain to deal with... My contact, part of the managing family, insulted me and slamed the phone at me, as I was doing my buyer's job of comparing offers and trying to understand how their insurance policy would cover me, in case of breakage. 'I don't want to move you, go and pester someone else!' is the way Luker Bros deal with this kind of simple challenge. What sort of quality of service can you expect from a company acting that way with its customers? My advice: run away from Luker Bros

Hmm, that is pretty awful. I remember I changed our quote with Pickfords about four times, and they were polite every time (that must have taken some effort ).

Also, I can recommend asking the mover to come by once you have packed or are close to knowing what you will take. Most should do this free, and they will indicate how much m3 you will have. Should take about 10 minutes.

We estimated ourselves and had no none come and visit, and although the estimate was right, I would certainly have someone come over the next time, as they will also explain how they want things to be ready. This saves you a lot of hassle and stress on the moving day.

Also, if you overestimate, or underestimate, your final price will be much higher (or you are paying too much), because they will reserve part of a container, and if you suddenly go over on packing day, you might need a whole new one....

I have just had very good experience with this company moving an apartment- load of stuff from central London to Zürich after I saw it recommended on another Zürich discussion group.

Very good value, they picked up and delivered when they said they would and breakages were minimal.
No links with this company other than being a satisfied customer.
Dave


Charles Wood & Sons
00 441865 747555
Peterley Road, Horspath Tradin , Cowley , Oxford OX4 2TY
Fax:

01865 748640

I can recommend these guys... http://www.lukerbros.co.uk

They do weekly trips between UK and Switzerland.

I only used the freight service (all my stuff was already all packed up in boxes) but it looks like they do removals too.

Aggghhh not Luker Bros, I would not recommend them at all. See my post further up the thread for reasons why.

Oops sorry! Didn't read further up (too eager to add my 2 cents! )

I would recommend Baxters www.baxter.eu.com they have offices in Basel and are here at least once a week, they were extremely efficient and professional at both ends of the move.

Does anyone have any more recent suggestions, that perhaps have been discovered in the past few months?

We need to move a large number of boxes of records/cds from Germany (at the Basel border) to the UK, and we're investigating if this would be cheaper than sending through DPD or another similar service.

Bookmarking this thread for future reference,

DC

Just want to also add that Luker Bros would be best given a wide berth. I moved some stuff over with them years ago, and a fair few items were "unaccounted for" upon arrival. I got no help from them in trying to find out what had happened either.

I just completed a move with Lukerbros a few weeks ago. The price was good, and although we couldn't find out the exact removal date until the actual week of the move, there was not much messing about once they got going.

As for missing items, we had a box missing but an extra Dyson hoover. A fair exchange by all accounts. Lukerbros were obviously notified by who ever was missing the hoover since they were back in half an hour to make the exchange...

All in all, a successful move.

Firstly, I just want to be clear that I have no connection to Luker Bros whatsoever!

Its just that in the interest of fairness, given the mixed reviews of them cited here, I wanted to add my twopenneth worth and say that they moved us to Switzerland nearly 2 1/2 years ago and we didn't have any problems/missing items etc.. We were very happy with their service. They collected goods that we had left in storage in the UK and brought them out to Lausanne with a minimum of fuss. They brought everything up to the 5th floor (many things by hand as they were too big for the lift) and placed them in the appropriate rooms. Their fee was about half the amount quoted by the other companies that we contacted at the time.