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.