We got our stuff!!!

On July 28th of this year Bryan and I packed up our belongings in Vancouver and sent them off to Melbourne. We used a shipping company called Bekins Worldwide, who were quite good from their end of things. It wasn't nearly as expensive as I thought it could be, and the service we got in having the stuff picked up from our house was excellent. Really, I have no quarrels with Bekins.

Bekins told us that the shipment would take 10-12 weeks, so we predicted we would have our stuff in Melbourne by mid-October. With that in mind we carefully planned what we would pack in the shipment based upon we could and couldn't live without for that length of time. October came, and there was no sign of our stuff.

When you move to somewhere new and leave behind everything and everyone that you know, there is a grieving process of sorts. Despite the shipment containing only material goods, these were items that we were familiar with and associated with home. Without them we haven't felt like we had a home, and it has felt very difficult at times to settle in to life in Melbourne. Anyone can put up with this kind of thing for a few weeks, but after a while it gets very tiring. This was especially the case for Bryan, who had lost most of the stuff he had brought to Australia with him, when his 30 kg suitcase was lost in transit. Being burgled was also not helpful.

Anyway, we called Bekins, who put us in touch with the Melbourne based-company* who would be receiving our shipment, getting it through Customs and Quarantine and delivering it to our door. A guy called Mark# was our contact for that company. In general we found Mark was rarely able to answer questions without having to consult someone else, and rarely returned our phone calls. What Mark did tell us, was that our shipment had been delayed, and rather than chugging towards Australia, as it was scheduled to be by October, it was in fact, sitting in Hong Kong and had been for some time. Mark did not know when the shipment would be departing Hong Kong for Australia. But he estimated that we might be able to have our stuff by early November.

November came, and our shipment had in fact arrived in Sydney. Hurrah! Bryan followed up with Mark on a daily basis on the progress of our stuff through Customs and Quarantine (mainly because it took about 3 consecutive days of phone calls to Mark, to get any response) . After a few days we heard that our stuff had cleared customs and quarantine with no problems, and all that remained was for it to be delivered to our house. Things were surely looking up! That was around mid-November. We felt sure that we would have our things by the end of November and would be all unpacked and organised by the time our friends Rhonda and Carly arrived to spend a few weeks with us in December.

After a week, we had heard nothing about the delivery of our stuff. Bryan made some calls. Eventually we found out that the stuff was stuck in Sydney because the Melbourne-based company dealing with it did not have a truck going to Sydney until December 8th. We were at wits end but agreed that we could wait until then, given that we had waited all this time.

Mark told us that we would have our stuff delievered on December 12th. He confirmed this with us on two separate occasions. December 12th was the day that Rhonda and Carly were arriving, and I really didn't want to have boxes all over the house when they arrived. But I thought that maybe we could unpack some of the stuff and organise the boxes in to some kind of orderly arrangement in the time before they arrived. We were excited and organised to take some time off work to be at home for the delivery and to start unpacking. On the morning of December 12th I called Mark to find out what time our stuff would be delivered. Mark wasn't at work, but a bloke named Barry# (who is unlikely ever to be given an award for his customer service skills) told us, after considerable coaxing, that the truck with our stuff was still only halfway to Melbourne, and we would not be receiving our shipment that day. Its lucky we called to enquire, because I really don't think Mark was planning to let us know. Despite organising time off work for that day, Bryan and I went to work where we could at least be useful. Later that day, Mark called to tell us that we would be getting our stuff the following day, around 3-4 pm. So we arranged our schedules so we could be at home around 3-4 pm the following day.

At 5pm the following day, having received no deliveries, we called Mark. A receptionist answered the phone, told us that Mark had gone home for the day and that apparently there had been another delay with the delivery. We told her that the delay had not escaped our notice, and it would have been nice if someone had let us know about it before we took more time off work. Bryan and I started to consider the possibility of invoicing this half-arsed company for our wasted time.

The next morning, we caled Bekins in Vancouver to file a complaint about the service we were getting from the company that they had subcontracted to handle our shipment in Australia. They were very understanding and promised to take action. Half an hour later, I was sitting on a tram heading to work (as was Bryan), when Mark called me, possibly in response to action taken by Bekins. Mark told me our stuff was on its way to our house at that very moment, which was not actually a good thing, considering we were both heading in the opposite direction to home. I called Bryan to let him know he should turn around and go home to receive the stuff. About 4 hours later, Bryan called me at work to tell me the stuff had just been delivered to our house, and amazingly it was all there. So lets recap that last bit: Mark tells me our stuff is already making its way to our house - a 45 -60 minute journey, depending on traffic- and 4 hours later it arrives. Bryan has again wasted a several hours. But, at least we had our stuff. And it only took 20 weeks, about twice as long as we had been told to expect.

And now, we can start to feel like we have a home.


Footnotes
* I will not mention the name of the company at this stage, because they do not deserve to have their name mentioned in any context. If you want to know which company should NOT to handle your moving in Australia, ask me and I'll tell you.

# Names may or may not be changed.