Moving Company Recommendation (US>Zurich)

Accomodation, House and Garden
1
for those of you out there who've used moving companies, can you recommend one that you used and liked?

I will be moving from Boston to Zurich in 3 weeks, I need to get my tail in gear and schedule a pickup for ocean freight shipping. I am only moving household goods for 1 person so the co's with large minimums won't work for me. I have a relocation package but would like to use someone with reasonable pricing.

So far I have called Schumacher but I'd like to get another quote.

Anyone? Anyone? Buehler?

2
I am in a process of a move from Seattle to Zurich and have decided to go with Welti-Furrer since they are Swiss company and seem to be more resposible. They still work with a US partner but ultimately it is their responsability. So far they have been good but I have not received my shippment yet so I cannot endorse 100%.

They work with NYC based Arpin so it might work out very well for you.

3
You might check out movingscam.com (I think that's the address)...they recommend several international movers. There are a lot of sleazy forwarders, and I found the site somewhat useful in knowing what to ask.

We used Southern Winds Int'l and were very happy with them. They used North American in the US, and Professional Relocations here. Our stuff got here in less than 4 weeks and we had minimal damage due to two instances of sloppy packing in the US - But we had 6 dish packs with no casualties.

You can also contact Swiss companies - two that come to mind are packimpex and kehri-oelier (I think) - their US partners didn't work as well for us in NC, but given that you are in Boston, that might work better for you.

Three weeks is not a lot of notice - depending on the time of year, it might be a little tight. Good luck!

e.

4
We used Packimpex for our move from Thailand to Zug. The swiss side were marvellous, the Thai side less good. One piece of advice I can't stress enough is to get a firm date that your goods will leave the country.Stupidly we didn't and our stuff only left Bangkok once we had arrived in Switzerland.

5
That website is very helpful! At the very least to learn what questions you need to ask and things to be wary of.

I called Southern Winds and may end up using them.

Thanks everyone for your responses!

6
We had the worst experience with Welti Furrer who was hired by our moving firm in Asia. On the day they delivered the container, the crew was 3 persons! Anyone who knows anything about unloading a container would know that 3 people is nowhere near enough. The excuse they gave was one person was off sick. Even 4 was less than what was promised. They obviously had underestimated the amount of time they would need for the move (they had allocated 2 days) and the entire experience was a disaster that lasted almost one week! The crew were inefficient and disorganized. We had requested a specialist to assemble our USM unit and they said they had one but it was a guy who was reading the manual while attempting to build it. In the end USM had to send their own people and replace parts the moving guy damaged in his attempt to assemble it.

They made no attempt to cover the floors even at the entrance to try and catch some of the dirt they were bringing on their boots (it was October and cold and wet) and the entire house was filthy,floors and carpets.

We speak German so language was not an issue. We had to call the mover we hired in Asia to try and remedy the situation.

For everything that went wrong, they blamed the moving partner in Asia. At the end of the day, the customer is not interested in trying to figure out where the blame lies. We also had an enormous insurance claim which took months to settle.

I hope you have a much better experience than we did. I would never recommend them, and in fact,when we moved locally and one of the local movers said Welti Furrer was their international partner, I scratched them off the list.

7
The guy at southern winds who arranged all our stuff was Donovan - I forget his last name, but he was great.

8
you might want to look at http://www.guenstigerumzug.ch/

I have used their service. It was quite efficient and the price is reasonable.

9
I contacted Packimpex and Interdean (HRs suggestion) through their swiss office. Both promptly came back with a local contact for assessment. This was a move within europe. One price was half the of the other and the local agent seemed more professional so not so difficult to choose packimpex.

Some have since suggested that contacting the local agent directly may even get you a lower price, I don't know, anyway think it pays off to take in several quotes.

Packing experience in Copenhagen with Møbeltransport Danmark was excellent, they were 5 men packing every thing while I was sitting in a corner working and drinking coffee until they packed down the coffee machine.

The handling agent was excellent also, kept me informed of customs progress. They were very flexible with storage time as I didn't have a apartment ready in Zurich.

Unpacking was less professional, 3 men, but they got the job done.

And I did not have a full container.

I've found a few dents that I had not noticed before but nothing is broken.

Good luck, and get more than one quote even though you have a relocation package the cost is usually taxable - not to mention that it is common sense not ot pay more than you need.

10
Here is a list of moving companies that my employer recommends ... with contact info and everything (see attached).

Interdean Interconex Welti-Furrer AG Gondrand AG Weber-Vonesch AG Möbel-Transport AG

11
Donovan - that's the guy arranging my stuff too.

Just curious - did you find SW to be comparable in price to other moving companies you contacted?

12
US side was Bolliger, Swiss side was Keller. Its all the same company I think.

They were fabulous on both sides of the Atlantic.

13
Hi,

anyone had a good experience of a moving firm from Washington DC area to CH?

Recommendations welcome.

14
Hi

I have used this company and its partners Pickfords UK and Team Allied, 3 times from UK to Europe, UK to Switzerland and Europe to Switzerland http://www.alliedtoallied.com/ .

The site above will take you to the US partner. They are exeptionally professional and also in all 3 moves competative in price. I highly recommend them.

15
DC! I grew up in Bethesda, MD and moved to Boston after college.

Anyway, I think most U.S. moving companies will have regional partners or offices, ie. for D.C.

I have decided to go with Southern Winds. I can certainly provide feedback when I'm done but so far they have been very professional and communicative.

I recommend checking out that www.movingscam.com website. There is tons of info and the forums are pretty good too.

16
They might have been more expensive, but not by much more than 10% if I remember correctly. They had the most convenient transit times for us Also, we had three pieces that they recommended crating. After we thought about it, we decided to have the pieces crated - a painting on canvas, a china closet with beveled glass doors and a piece of marble for a table top (these last two pieces are over 100 years old). My husband had 30 boxes of books and a couple of prints in mirror packs delivered to his office from the same shipment, and that cost perhaps $100 extra, practically nothing in the grand scheme of things.

The movers on the Swiss end were great. The movers on the US end were variable. I had lots of fragile stuff that made it fine. We had a pair of inexpensive bookcases that someone forgot to take the shelves out of, wrapped and were ruined on arrival. So my advice is... watch them pack as much as you can, and if they empty shelves, walk around after them and remove the shelves. Pain in the butt, but what can you do?

17
We just moved from Boston to Basel 3 weeks ago ourselves, our stuff hasn't arrived yet, so can't say whether it will or not but we used Rainier and their partner in Boston is Gentle Giant. Contact this guy: Please visit us today at WWW.RAINIEROS.COM

For our part, we were really impressed with Gentle Giant - they were fast (had plenty of slots so for your time frame, should work) and really professional. They aren't cheap. But as others have already pointed you to movingscam Web site, I don't need to. You want your stuff to get here... don't go with any old clowns...

Good luck!