To help matters, I stumbled across the British Association of removers site (www.bar.co.uk). They offer a quote system and give you a list to fill in that covers almost every room and item. Just tick off what your taking and you'll get a fairly decent quote. Or so I hoped. BAR then passed the list on the three members nearest our postcode.
Within the hour, we got our first callback. Masons of Barry sounded fantastic. Easy going and typically Welsh. The guy was friendly enough and Lynda explained what we were looking for. There was no quote over the phone, but Mason's promised to email us that evening. Cometh the hour, cometh the email. Sadly the email didn't contain a quote. The secretary had forgotten to attach the quote. We emailed back and the next morning the quote arrived. With various charges included the cost came to £2497.50!. Bare in mind this wasn't a full removal. Fearing we'd asked for the wrong thing, We emailed back to ask if that was the price included the removers packing up our stuff. Next reply came, and yes, it was with a full pack service. Hallelujah. seeing a chance to save a big bit of cash, we asked how much it would save to do it ourselves. After all, we'd rather know we packed everything ourselves than trust someone else to do it. The reply came back and with baited breath we opened the email. Packing ourselves would save us just £135! Seriously, £135.
I had a sinking feeling in my stomach as £2500 was way above the costs we expected. As a backup, I began scheming. how much to hire a van and do it myself. Surprisingly, it came in around £1000. This put the cat amongst the pigeons. It wouldn't be an easy job, but here's the plan.
Ironically, booking flights to move, its much cheaper to book a return and not use the return part than it it is to book travel one way. Lufthansa offer returns for around £300 for the two of us, but two singles come in at over £1000! So since we have the return, I figured we could use it to get back to the UK once we'd found the apartment. So after a lot of logistics, the plan started on the return to the uk.
Pick up the Van from Cardiff Airport and Drive it Back to Hirwaun.
Next morning, Load up the van, hopefully with a bit of help, then head for Dover. At Dover, stay overnight at a hotel.
Day 2 - Dover ferry to Calais and into Europe. Ahead is a 7 hour journey to Frankfurt Airport. Frankfurt Airport marks the more or less half way mark. The airport is just off the Autobahn and has plenty of hotels nearby, making prices competitive.
Day 3 - Frankfurt to Vienna. 6 hour plus today. Head though southern Germany and into Austria near Passau then onto Vienna and our apartment. Here's the sucky bit. Unload the van by ourselves and park it up.
Day 4 - Back on the road to Frankfurt.
Day 5 - Calais and the English coast. It's an early start to get to Calais quickly. Once across the channel, its off to Crawley to return the Van. This is where the sneaky part of the plan comes in. The Van get's returned to Crawley rather than Cardiff airport, cutting 4 hours off the journey. From there its just a short taxi ride to Gatwick and a cheap flight to Vienna thanks to Easyjet, who Ironically offer one way fares.
The whole thing is a last resort, but we've done crazy things before. Anyway, whilst I was still putting the fine detail the the backup plan, The second removers got in touch. Fox Seemed very professional, and the quote was interesting to say the least. Fox would do the same thing, minus the packing for just £1455 including VAT. This sounded brilliant. For just £500 more than doing it ourselves and for the same price as replacing the furniture that didn't make it to the van, Fox would take care of getting our belongings to Vienna, and up to our apartment. However, there was a slight fly in the ointment. The quote only included unloading to an apartment no higher than the first floor. For higher floors, there would be an extra charge. Personally, I'm hoping for the 3rd floor or above so the extra charge would be unwelcome. Figuring this would price Fox out of the market, we asked the cost. Fox came through though. Each additional floor would cost £35. A bargain.
Within the hour, we got our first callback. Masons of Barry sounded fantastic. Easy going and typically Welsh. The guy was friendly enough and Lynda explained what we were looking for. There was no quote over the phone, but Mason's promised to email us that evening. Cometh the hour, cometh the email. Sadly the email didn't contain a quote. The secretary had forgotten to attach the quote. We emailed back and the next morning the quote arrived. With various charges included the cost came to £2497.50!. Bare in mind this wasn't a full removal. Fearing we'd asked for the wrong thing, We emailed back to ask if that was the price included the removers packing up our stuff. Next reply came, and yes, it was with a full pack service. Hallelujah. seeing a chance to save a big bit of cash, we asked how much it would save to do it ourselves. After all, we'd rather know we packed everything ourselves than trust someone else to do it. The reply came back and with baited breath we opened the email. Packing ourselves would save us just £135! Seriously, £135.
I had a sinking feeling in my stomach as £2500 was way above the costs we expected. As a backup, I began scheming. how much to hire a van and do it myself. Surprisingly, it came in around £1000. This put the cat amongst the pigeons. It wouldn't be an easy job, but here's the plan.
Ironically, booking flights to move, its much cheaper to book a return and not use the return part than it it is to book travel one way. Lufthansa offer returns for around £300 for the two of us, but two singles come in at over £1000! So since we have the return, I figured we could use it to get back to the UK once we'd found the apartment. So after a lot of logistics, the plan started on the return to the uk.
Pick up the Van from Cardiff Airport and Drive it Back to Hirwaun.
Next morning, Load up the van, hopefully with a bit of help, then head for Dover. At Dover, stay overnight at a hotel.
Day 2 - Dover ferry to Calais and into Europe. Ahead is a 7 hour journey to Frankfurt Airport. Frankfurt Airport marks the more or less half way mark. The airport is just off the Autobahn and has plenty of hotels nearby, making prices competitive.
Day 3 - Frankfurt to Vienna. 6 hour plus today. Head though southern Germany and into Austria near Passau then onto Vienna and our apartment. Here's the sucky bit. Unload the van by ourselves and park it up.
Day 4 - Back on the road to Frankfurt.
Day 5 - Calais and the English coast. It's an early start to get to Calais quickly. Once across the channel, its off to Crawley to return the Van. This is where the sneaky part of the plan comes in. The Van get's returned to Crawley rather than Cardiff airport, cutting 4 hours off the journey. From there its just a short taxi ride to Gatwick and a cheap flight to Vienna thanks to Easyjet, who Ironically offer one way fares.
The whole thing is a last resort, but we've done crazy things before. Anyway, whilst I was still putting the fine detail the the backup plan, The second removers got in touch. Fox Seemed very professional, and the quote was interesting to say the least. Fox would do the same thing, minus the packing for just £1455 including VAT. This sounded brilliant. For just £500 more than doing it ourselves and for the same price as replacing the furniture that didn't make it to the van, Fox would take care of getting our belongings to Vienna, and up to our apartment. However, there was a slight fly in the ointment. The quote only included unloading to an apartment no higher than the first floor. For higher floors, there would be an extra charge. Personally, I'm hoping for the 3rd floor or above so the extra charge would be unwelcome. Figuring this would price Fox out of the market, we asked the cost. Fox came through though. Each additional floor would cost £35. A bargain.
Then, Pickfords entered the Frey. Moving company number 3 really wanted to come and inspect our belongings, but Lynda talked them into giving us a quote. Reluctantly, and a few days after they promised to email us, we got the quote. £1800+VAT, so around £2100 more or less. But whist it seems that the price is more or less in the middle, the quote is for 400sqft, not the 330sqft we've been quoted by Fox and Masons. So its possible the quote may come down some. We await a revised quote.
The thing is, and this is purely a 'me' thing, the costs involved do make the van run quite appealing. And whist Fox looks set to get the job, due to me wanting the 'best deal', we need to get specific quotes in much earlier than expected. August to be precise. Why? Well, the best prices for easy jet tickets are at the furthest point from departure. Easy jet sell 10 months in advance, so August is effectively 10 months from May. You can see where I'm going from here I'll guess. So come August, we'll need to finish downsizing and get the pros in to quote us happy as the ad use to say. If we don't like the price, well 2000 miles in a van it is.
As I type, Britannia want to have a look around and GB liners hoping the same. But at the moment, Fox movers are winning the battle. We should know more around August, when we get the companies in to provide a detailed quote.
Parrots aren't Pets.
In other news this post, Apparently Parrots aren't pets. At least that's the way Petair see poor Geri. Petair deal with moving your pet to your new home. Most of their website deals with cats or dogs. However, they also have a page that says they deal with more than just cats and dogs. It even features two beautiful Macaws sitting on a branch. So Naturally we thought Petair would be the perfect people to take Geri to Vienna. A quick phone call though and apparently they don't deal with Parrots. Apparently, when they say 'other pets', they mean chinchillas and things. Ironically, they get a lot of calls about moving Parrots, but they have no idea why. Maybe the Macaws would give them a clue.
They did however recommend a different company that does deal with Parrots and the quote is around £800 door to door. Its a fair deal to ensure my best friend gets to us safe and sound.
There have been a few other questions about getting Geri to Austria. The biggest has been 'what are the rules on importing a bird'. We just didn't know whether to expect a period in quarantine for him, or what tests he'd need to travel. Well after searching around for the last few weeks, we have an answer. According not to the Austrian Government's own Health department, and I quote:
As I type, Britannia want to have a look around and GB liners hoping the same. But at the moment, Fox movers are winning the battle. We should know more around August, when we get the companies in to provide a detailed quote.
Parrots aren't Pets.
In other news this post, Apparently Parrots aren't pets. At least that's the way Petair see poor Geri. Petair deal with moving your pet to your new home. Most of their website deals with cats or dogs. However, they also have a page that says they deal with more than just cats and dogs. It even features two beautiful Macaws sitting on a branch. So Naturally we thought Petair would be the perfect people to take Geri to Vienna. A quick phone call though and apparently they don't deal with Parrots. Apparently, when they say 'other pets', they mean chinchillas and things. Ironically, they get a lot of calls about moving Parrots, but they have no idea why. Maybe the Macaws would give them a clue.
They did however recommend a different company that does deal with Parrots and the quote is around £800 door to door. Its a fair deal to ensure my best friend gets to us safe and sound.
There have been a few other questions about getting Geri to Austria. The biggest has been 'what are the rules on importing a bird'. We just didn't know whether to expect a period in quarantine for him, or what tests he'd need to travel. Well after searching around for the last few weeks, we have an answer. According not to the Austrian Government's own Health department, and I quote:
"Pet animals defined above may enter Austria when travelling with private persons without
health certificate."
Allowing for government speak, it means that we can take Geri into Austria without restriction. Just turn up and that's it. It explains why there's a lack of infomation out there. It's just not a big deal. Its worth noting though that these rules only apply for travel within the EU/EEA. If your taking your pet from outside this area, the rules are much harsher.
So 15 months to go, and it's all going off.
Jess
