The first thing I did today was to call DHL. Should be something easy and straight forward. Well, at least sorta. First of all you've gotta love an automated phone system, that needs several attempts to get to where you actually wanna go. Finally you reach the department that should actually be able to handle your request. Well, not so quick! There they told me that they couldn't help me, but they handed me over to another department that will be able to assist me with a shipping quote. This particular department told me, that they're only doing Business-to-Business (the same as Fedex and UPS Freight)...but they could give me the number of a shipping company that does deal with private customers. So I called that company, just to find out that they only do business with private customers, if you want to ship full containers. Since I only plan on shipping about 1000 lbs, well that didn't help me either.
Next gave Crown Relocation Services a call. Got a hold of the right representative right away. Well I already knew that they can't give me a quote right away, as they insist on doing a Pre-Move Survey before emailing the Binding Quote. So I set up an appointment, and the earliest they can do the survey is June 15th.
Next I filled out the Inventory Request, that I had gotten from Guardian Cargo. Filled out all the stuff that is going to be shipped. I fill out some additional info about self-packing and that I don't need any warehouse storage and then I submitted the online form. I thought I was done with that. Well,not so quick. A couple of minutes later I get and email from Guardian. I thought that this would be way to quick to be a definitive quote. So I took a look at the email. Turns out it is the same auto-responder email that I got a couple of days ago. The be honest that doesn't particularly inspire confidence in the services of that company.
Finally I gave Allied Van Lines a call to clear up the $ 1.000 difference between the binding shipping quote and the ballpark estimate. Turns out that the formula Shipping Costs = 1 $/lbs. non longer applies. Apparently currently the fuel surcharge and the place on container ships is at premium. For now the $ 2.700 shipping quote is right and binding for them for the next 30 days. After that they would have to request a new quote anyways. In addition to that they can't give me an exact delivery date. The best they can give me is a time frame, somewhere from 55 to 95 days (not that that really would matter to me). If I were to choose them as shipping company I would have to request a new quote at the beginning of July anyway.
Evidently my personal shipping estimate of about $ 2.500 was pretty much right on!!
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