Hi Liam,

Yeah we are still debating if we are going to use a shipping company or not. The items we would ship through them are items we would not need immediately. But, we are considering just checking extra luggage and paying the additional fees with Aer Lingus - $100/bag. We really need to blow through our house within the next week or so to see what exactly we are bringing. A lot of the items will just be cheaper to buy in Ireland, rather than ship. We are fortunate that the house we are renting comes furnished, so the only purchases that will need to be made are linens, tableware, small kitchen appliances (coffee maker, toaster), which will be one major trip to IKEA for us the day we arrive.

The reviews with the shipping company I have mentioned are mixed - half are wonderful and half are terrible. The terrible ones seem to revolve around a transfer of hands so to speak - packages were lost during the transfer between shipping companies in places that this company could not ship directly to. Or deliveries being held up by customs. Either way its a gamble.

There is a shipping company my husband works with to get his product from Maine to Iceland (which he trusts), but if we used them it would be stuck in Iceland which does not help us 🙂

What I have found too, is that many of the items you end up shipping you need immediately upon arrival, so you end up re-buying them anyway. We tried to make do without a lot by sending things early, but with little kids in the mix, it makes 'roughing it' a little harder. I recommend keeping what you need as long as you need it, and then re-buying, if of course it's cost effective.
You'd be amazed too at what you get rid of, and what you find yourself never re-buying. It's liberating 🙂

Our experience in the end was a total nightmare. To highlight the experiences we encountered:

- Estimated arrival of 4-6 weeks. In reality, it took five months.
- Charged a change of address fee of $500. Their paperwork listed Dublin UK (we corrected this when noticed as we were getting the quote - the quote! that early! - and they assured us it was a typo and they'd fix it), so we had to pay $500 to change to Dublin, Ireland.
- X-ray charge once it arrived in Rotterdam. We had no idea Rotterdam was on the itinerary until we received that notification.
- They shippers refused to respond to email or phone calls. I had to shame them into responding by calling them out on social media (THEN magically the phone would ring!).
- In the end, our daughters' piano was stolen (the case arrived empty) and their heirloom jewelry boxes containing costume jewelry were stolen, too.

We emailed our complaints in February, no response. We are at this point considering it all just a loss. In the end I believe we paid $1000 more than quoted/expected, but I can't recall what the other additional charges were at this time. It was a partial container we had shipped, one and a half pallets, plus piano.

We haven't yet formed a plan for the return. We have three years to sort it out and ask other expats. But DO read the YELP reviews for a company! And Google reviews! Read what folks are saying on social media. Research a potential shipper thoroughly.

And I second minimalist living! We learned in those five months we really didn't NEED most of what we'd shipped! And by the time the box arrived we didn't even remember all of what we'd packed (thank goodness for our personal inventory - I recommend keeping a very detailed and organized inventory). Most of what I shipped was for the children. I wasn't willing to have them part with much because I already felt extremely guilty for uprooting them.

In regards to buying on arrival, some electronics will fall into that category.

Hey Kate (@katemreagan)

Did you end up going with the shipping company? How did the packing/collection process go?

Hope all's well 🙂

Liam

Hi Liam,

I've been a bit quiet since the move as we have no internet - won't be set up until next Thursday.

Shipping companies - we did not go with the shipping company. The person we spoke to on the phone initially seemed to be on top of everything and reliable, until he promised to provide us a contract and quote within 24 hours of our conversation, neither of which ever came. We never heard from him again. We could have contacted the company again, but decided against it.

The amount we wanted to ship was miniscule and was not worth the hassle, so we ended up just checking extra baggage on our flight. We also shipped some packages through USPS in their international flat rate boxes, which we will never do again!! The boxes came and were practically falling apart. The Irish post had retaped them to keep the contents from falling out. It's as if someone threw them and smashed them. Unfortunately, the only 2 wedding gifts we decided to keep and bring were shattered, as well as our wedding champagne flutes, and two glasses to my husband's crystal whiskey set. It's not that big of a deal, but we definitely would have paid the extra money for UPS to ship it had we known the packages would be treated in that way. We sent a piece of pottery to our friends in South Africa through UPS, which actually never arrived due to a postal strike in South Africa, but made its way all the way back to us in tact over the period of 3 months. Needless to say, I trust UPS, even though they are expensive.

I will say the best thing to do, at least it was for us, is to just pay the extra baggage fees. Aer Lingus was great and only charged us for 2 additional bags totalling $200, even though we exceeded our allowance and the weight limits. We ran into an emergency an hour before leaving for the airport which caused us to check more items than we intended to, but it all worked out in the end. Short story, my father in law, who was supposed to drop us off at the airport and keep our kids car seats, practically chopped off his finger and had to go to the emergency room. So, we checked the 2 car seats, 2 strollers (1 double jogging stroller and an umbrella stroller), and 7 suitcases. The tricky thing with doing that is ensuring the rental car will hold it all, and as you know cars in Ireland are not that big. We were lucky to be able to rent a 9 person passenger van which held everything and us comfortably, and we were able to take it to IKEA later that day and load up!

Moral of the story, avoid shipping companies and just start new if you can.

Liam. I am new to forum. I'm not moving back but I need to send about 6-8 large boxes from San Francisco bay area to West if Ireland. Even port to port would work.

Does anyone in forum have any recommendations and advice. I am getting quotes ranging from 600 to 6000!

Sea shipment is OK but I want a decent ship company who will include all costs on both ends.

Also any idea of customs issues in Dublin? Or tips?

Thanks so much in advance for any help!

John

Hi John,

Maybe the information in this new topic may help?
http://irelandmoveclub.com/forums/topic/us-postal-service-to-ireland-worked-well-may-2016/

End to end hassle free shipping via ocean seems to be a myth.

Customs may choose to examine your good, or not. If they do, you'll be charged a fee for that too. The fee would amount to a portion of the total fee for the container your items were in. Hope this helps @johnf

I can understand the horror stories and warnings, but I'd welcome posts recommending shipping firms that did a great job getting your container from the US to Ireland. Thanks in advance!