[y448]

Hello All,

My friend wants to take his car (swift) from Trivandrum to Nagpur.

Could somebody suggest me good packers and movers in Trivandrum? It would be nice if I can get a rough estimate on the cost as well.

Thanks in advance.

[beez]

Recently a friend of mine used the services of Agarwal Packers and Movers to transport their Zen Estilo from Trivandrum to Mumbai. Their charges were somewhere around 6000-7000rs, I think. I have used their services for household items (no cars anyway!) earlier from Bangalore to Cochin and found reliable.

[n_aditya]

I need to move some household stuff from Chennai to Bangalore this weekend.

Items include a dining table with 4 chairs, wooden almirah, pooja cabinet and such, almost all which are wooden.

I have used Agarwal Movers and Packers thrice earlier and my experiences are below:

1. Bangalore to Chennai - 5/5 (in the year 2005)
2. Chennai to Pune - 4/5 (2008)
3. Pune to Bangalore and some items to Chennai - 1/5 (2010)

The last experience was terrible. They broke some expensive stuff, lost some pooja items which had immense sentimental value and also I had transported my car through them.

Items arrived late, car was driven 250 kms and my car was used to transport some cargo also. The sun film (which is taken off now) was badly scratched and in some places scraped off completely. The delivery guy had the cheek to ask for a tip too.

Now i need to move some items from Chennai to Blore as listed above.

Request fellow members to suggest a packer and mover who is reasonable in pricing and yet will ensure items are transported with care.

[vikramhere]

Hi Guys,

In-laws are planning to shift the house from Coimbatore to Chennai, in a week's time. Any suggestion on good packers and movers would be really helpful.

Never been involved in the perils of shifting a house before. Any pointers as to what to take care of in fixing a packers and movers and during shifting would be appreciated.

[TheTeacher]

Originally Posted by n_aditya

I have used Agarwal Movers and Packers thrice earlier ...

The last experience was terrible.

Sorry I can't help, but Agarwal has become absolutely horrendous. I understand the family has split, and you will find that there are now two Agarwal Packers & Movers. I used the subsidiary of DRS Logistics two times. They were outstanding in 2008, and sucked unbelievably in 2013.

They don't send enough staff for packing, don't provide enough packing material, etc. Absolute scumbags.

They broke our showcase cum TV stand, acknowledged it, but haven't paid a dime. Replacement cost is Rs. 32k.

Anybody using them uses them at their own risk.

[n_aditya]

Originally Posted by TheTeacher

Sorry I can't help, but Agarwal has become absolutely horrendous.

Thank you sir.

We used the services of New Hindustan Movers and Packers based out of Chennai (link).

The experience was very good. We had the packers come in at the requested time and they did a very good job of padding and packing the material. However they could have used more padding on the showcase glass (for my mental satisfaction) but nothing was damaged in any way.

The materials (furniture) were transported with utmost care and reached the intended destination well before the agreed time.

I spoke with Mr. Narendra, very helpful and pleasant person to deal with. Gave him a background of my predicament (using Agarwal earlier and having to deal with a bitter experience) and he assured me that he will personally take good care and ensure items are transported safely and without any issues, which was met to the T.

Cost was almost half of what other companies quoted.

Very happy with this company and highly recommended.

[TheTeacher]

Thanks Aditya, glad your move went well.

I will eventually need to find good movers in Bengaluru for a local move.

When we moved from the US in 2006, I did all the packing myself - some 120 cartons. The truck that came to get them merely palletised them to load them into containers, and I preferred to use two pallets at a higher cost instead of one pallet stacked impossibly high with cartons.

Not a single item was broken; I had packed each carton to the top with crushed newspaper so there was no sag, and made sure that during palletisation the heaviest cartons were at the bottom and the the cartons were progressively lighter as the level went higher.

At the customs warehouse, I saw pallets stacked with cartons eight feet high, sagging dangerously to one side, the bottom boxes crushed with the weight. If the stuff was worth shipping all the way from there, then it's worth it to get them here in one piece, surely?

As I sealed each carton, I numbered the carton on a corner with a marker, noted the contents down, and later entered it all in an Excel spreadsheet. I then printed labels with the destination address in India, and the carton #, "Carton x of y" and pasted the relevant label over the marker number. Each carton had the address cum # label on two opposite sides on the upper left corner.

Handed a printout of the "manifest" to Customs here when they asked what was in the cartons.

We couldn't open all cartons immediately here, and when Wifey wanted something, I just searched my Excel file, opened the relevant carton and fished the thing out.

[tilt]

Hi,

My wife and I are moving from Canada to Bangalore (on Transfer of Residence) and are using professional packers and movers for this. The Canadian moving companies work with some Indian partners for the Bangalore portion and I was wondering if anyone here either has any experience with the following movers; or would be able to find out from others about these movers.

My concerns are mainly about the following:

1. How they handled Customs and "negotiated" duties etc.
2. How easy was customs clearance for the client
3. How quickly were the goods cleared
4. Did they transport and deliver the goods properly from Customs to home, with no hassles or spur-of-the-moment demands for more money etc.
5. Did they unpack properly and remove all the packing material etc.?
6. Did they place each carton in the respective room of the house?
7. Was there any damage, and if so, how did they handle it - did they just wash their hands off or leave it to the client to contact the insurance company etc. or did they do all the work themselves.

The only damageable things I am carrying would be a brand new 27" iMac (completely maxed out, and so very expensive), an older 40" flat-screen TV and a Home Theatre system with speakers. The rest of the items don't hold much value.

I am grateful for any feedback. Here is the list of movers in Bangalore that work with the Canadian movers:

B.R. Shastry & Company Pvt
#114, 3rd Floor 5th Cross Road
Cabridge Layout
Ullsoor
Bangalore 560 008560
wwww.brshastry.com

Globe Moving & Storage Co. Pvt. Ltd
No. 3360 8th Cross
13th B Main, Hal 2nd Stage
Bangalore, 560 008
www.globemoving.net

Interem, (Intl Removals Div of Freight Systems (l) Pvt Lt
32 -2G CSR Compound Sonnanahalli Industry Layout
Sitarampalya, Graphite India Road
Mahadevpura Post
Bangalore 560008
www.interem.in

Raffles Movers Pvt Ltd
100 - 4 Kundalahalli Main Road
ITPL Road
Bangalore 560037
www.rafmover.com

Santa Fe Moving Services (India) Pvt. Ltd
1189-C, 13th Main, HALL II Stage
Indira Nagar
Bangalore 560008
info@santefe.in

I wish to add a few movers to my list :

PM Relocation,
AGS Four Winds
Writer Relocation
End2End Logistics

Thank you all and cheers

[TheTeacher]

tilt,

We moved from US to India in May 2007, so my experiences will be from that time.

1. How they handled Customs and "negotiated" duties etc.
2. How easy was customs clearance for the client
3. How quickly were the goods cleared

As far as I know, the shipper will not deal with Customs. It's your stuff, so you need to go to Customs and get the shipment cleared.

In my case, the shipment arrived in India and went to the Customs warehouse in Bangalore. I was notified to appear there. Once there, I had to identify my shipment and provide the packing list to Customs. For Transfer of Residence, many items are allowed in duty free. In my case, I had multiple PCs (I was an IT guy who liked to play around with set ups), and I was told one laptop and one desktop were allowed free, and since I had about 4 desktops (only one was newish, rest were old) I had to pay duty of Rs. 4k. None of my boxes were opened. Note however, that a friend of a friend of a friend a friend of a friend a friend of a friend had had a chat with Customs about me. How much this smoothed the process for me, I really don't know. My understanding is that for Xfr of Residence, they are fairly relaxed with the rules.

4. Did they transport and deliver the goods properly from Customs to home, with no hassles or spur-of-the-moment demands for more money etc.
5. Did they unpack properly and remove all the packing material etc.?
6. Did they place each carton in the respective room of the house?
7. Was there any damage, and if so, how did they handle it - did they just wash their hands off or leave it to the client to contact the insurance company etc. or did they do all the work themselves.

Once the duty was paid, Customs provided the papers and I notified the local shipping agent that the shipment was cleared. They brought my shipment to our home, and placed the cartons where we wanted them to be placed. I had to pay for this transport, because the US shipper (an Indian company), played dirty with me, having told me in the US that no additional charges will be levied. I believe we paid about Rs. 2,500. We preferred to unpack ourselves; see my earlier post above about how I did the packing myself and had labeled the cartons and knew what was in each box. Since I did the packing and it was palletized under my watch, there was zero damage.

I do not remember the name of the local outfit. From what I know, Globe Moving & Storage is a premier moving outfit in the US, and the guys in India using the name have licensed the same from the US company. One would think they would be more professional than the local types. But when I moved last year and got a quote from Globe in Bangalore, their quote was 2x the next guy. I'm sorry I don't have better info than this.

Hope this helps.

[tilt]

Teacher, thank you for the detailed info. Some more questions if I may:

When you landed at the airport (you, not your shipped goods), did you say that you are coming in on Xfer of residence or... - do you remember?

And if you did say you were coming in on Xfer, did they add the goods you hand-carried to your overall allowance or was the unaccompanied baggage evaluated by itself?

The people I contacted here in Canada told me that the India partners would keep my passport until the goods are cleared because apparently that is the law - I am not really sure. And one of them even said that they would come to Customs and that they have managed to get reduced duties for some of their other customers etc., hence my understanding that they would do the customs clearance. In fact they also mentioned that my presence there was my choice. Pretty confusing.

Yes, I too have heard stories of how the shippers play dirty and avoid taking your calls etc., hence my list of specific questions.

And by the way, completely off-topic, you used "Xfer" instead of "Transfer". So, have you ever used an OS called TurboDOS (a CP/M-based multi-user 8-bit OS)? That term is a blast from the past for me

Cheers

[TheTeacher]

tilt,

When we landed, we did not tell them we were transferring residence. The baggage we brought on the flight was it, and that was not even looked at, we just walked out of the airport.

I didn't give our passports to anybody, and I would advise you to do the same. I'd be terrified at the thought of handing over my most important identity & travel document to an unknown clerical type who would not know its importance and value. If you opt to get the agent to do the clearing most certainly money will have to change hands, no doubt about it. My advice would be to do the clearance yourself. You do need to take your passport for clearing the shipment, and they mention in there that you have transferred residence. This is because you are allowed to do it once every x number of years, and by noting each occurrence in your passport, they can disallow transfers that occur multiple times within that time window. A way to prevent abusing the system.

Once upon a lifetime, I did use CP/M quite a bit; can't remember if I ever used TurboDos. Xfr is a common abbreviation for transfer, and an extra 'E' in my earlier post was strictly a typo. My typing skills have gotten worse over the years since I haven't done any coding in about 20 years.

[ani_meher]

I am planning to shift my house within Pune. Is there any good mover, or am I better of packing stuff myself and hiring local guys to do the pick-up and drop?

[carboy]

Originally Posted by ani_meher

I am planning to shift my house within Pune. Is there any good mover, or am I better of packing stuff myself and hiring local guys to do the pick-up and drop?

There is Associated Packers & Movers - who have pretty reasonable prices. They are OK for local moves. They pack well & do it quickly. Don't even try them for intercity moves though - their intercity co-ordination is pretty bad.

I moved inside Pune using them many years back. Their headoffice is on Aundh Road near Khadki.

[Abeer]

I need to shift household stuff (including an Alto) from Ahmedabad to Greater Noida (UP). Any recommendations for a good Packer and Mover?

[rama75]

Originally Posted by vikramhere

Hi Guys,

In-laws are planning to shift the house from Coimbatore to Chennai, in a week's time. Any suggestion on good packers and movers would be really helpful.

Never been involved in the perils of shifting a house before. Any pointers as to what to take care of in fixing a packers and movers and during shifting would be appreciated.

Hi,
I am planning to shift from Coimbatore to Chennai. Have your in-laws shifted their house? Which packers and movers did you use? How was the quality of service?