Just doing some early research..

Realized that there's like a million companies out there and would like to hear from some ACTUAL ppl with their accounts of their shipping experiences.. (not renting truck and driving it yourself experiences - I think I would die if I had to do that right now)

So, feel free to include the companies name & website / phone number

I'm sure with all the visa approvals, this will be helpful to a lot of people

Happy shipping!

Ooooh, good thread. Thanks, Liz.

I'd also be interested in shipping companies or experiences with shipping computer towers (especially if you don't have the box that came with it... yeah, I know ), if any of you want to share.

I know I'd personally be moving cross-continent (from Vancouver to Philadelphia) so I know I'm looking at a ton of money, myself.

I used ABF U-Pack: http://www.upack.com

I give them two thumbs up!

My review starts at this post: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...st&p=805325

Nini, if you are moving your computer, I'd strongly suggest that you disassemble it, pack the HD and cards and bring them across the border yourself. Or at the *very least*, just the HD. Reassemble it later when the tower arrives.

A lot of people seems to be happy with ABF's UPACK... I'll be looking to use them when I'm ready to move... Hopefully this summer.

Some merit to the thought of "store, ship and forget"...

Scott.

My Sister and her family came up here to Calgary last week to collect all their stuff from the basement and get it to Nebraska (in anticipation of our moving to the States).

They used ABF/UPac and it went well. They chose to pack the truck themselves as it was 50% cheaper and have it delivered to a city 40 mins away on the other end (again, much cheaper).

They packed the truck last Thursday, should arrive tomorrow (Wednesday). The ABF people were friendly and helpful. The person there mentioned they are getting the Econo Cubes here in Calgary by the end of June (currently you can only use the portion of the full sized truck method).

One thing that did happen, ABF called me on Sunday (about 2 hours after they had headed out - they were driving). The truck was stuck at the border at Montana as ABF forgot to get a photocopy of their visa. Anyway, the truck driver kept an eye out for them and they met up at Sweetgrass a few hours later.

We are going to use UPac when we move.

How much was all of this?

Mine was about $1,100 USD for one relocube from Toronto to VA. Go to their website and request a free quote.

I believe it was just under $800. They charge by the foot and they pretty much used the 'base' (minimum) amount, which is 5 feet long, 9 feet wide and 8 feet high.

After that you are charged $27 per foot.

I'm planning on using U-Pack too, and I'll also be moving from Vancouver to the eastern US. I got an online quote last February or so when I first read about them here, and IIRC it would've cost me about $1100 plus $37 for each extra foot of space. I checked again a few days ago, and the price is closer to $1500 and $100 for each extra foot.

That's door-to-door pricing. Terminal-to-terminal pricing would be closer to $1000 for me now. The jump in gas prices is probably why the prices went up so much.

I used Premiere Van Lines, and they were excellent. Not one thing of mine was broken, misplaced, or scratched, which is a miracle considering my curio cabinet has glass shelves. They were very efficient, friendly, and had all the information and forms I needed.

It cost a little over $3,000 to ship from southwest Nova Scotia to Oklahoma, because I have a lot of heavy things, particularly books! And I got dinged with high gas prices.

After getting estimates and doing total cost comparisons, I chose to use professional movers. The cost was very reasonable, given someone else was doing all the paperwork and heavy lifting. As well, anything damaged in the move would have been covered by insurance.

I called 4 moving companies for estimates and chose United. Make sure when you're doing your cost comparisons that you read the fine print and check each line item for the rates. Each type of service is charged at a different rate, so you need to compare apples to apples. You'll see what I mean once you receive the estimates. Your best rates will come from the major moving lines because they can bundle your belongings with other deliveries in order to save on shipping costs.

I also used ABF U-Pack....... great service, very helpful..... I used them almost 3 months ago to move my stuff from Calgary, Alberta to Tulsa, Oklahoma..... it took exactly one week and cost me $1300.00 US.
I would highly recommend them.

Susan in Tulsa

Question in all of this:

How do I provide a copy of my VISA when I haven't crossed the border yet myself. When you get the VISA in the mail from Montreal...can you open the envelope or is it another of those 'don't open it' situations until the border guy has.

Sorry - haven't gotten to that step in the process yet to knwo any better

In my case I scanned all my documents (I-94, visa, and passport picture page) and emailed them with a signed letter to the moving company as soon as I got here. I then printed out the same scanned documents and sent them with the original letter by courier.

The visa will be in your passport, not in the envelope.

Your visa will be in your passport...... I just made copies of everything and gave them to the truck driver. With using ABF they told me I had to prove that I was physically in the US before they released my stuff from the terminal in Calgary and sent it on it's way. So the next day after I arrived in the US I went to the ABF terminal here in Tulsa and they faxed a copy of my I-94 back to the terminal in Calgary and all was well.
ABF drops their trailer front of your residence, you load it.... I loaded over the weekend of March 10/11th, they came back and picked it up on Monday, March 12th..... I flew to Tulsa on Tuesday, March 13th, had ABF in Tulsa fax the copy of my I-94 on Wednesday, March 14th......and they released my stuff and sent it on it's way on Thursday, March 15th.

Susan in Tulsa

Not sure how you guys got such cheap quotes from UPack. Here's what they told me:

6 feet of space, door to door: 2464
Each extra foot: 73

This is from southern Ontario to Georgia. Maybe they were basing it on a winter moving date and having to deal with the snow? I remember the quote form mentioned something about weather.

Good Lord. I paid less than that for far more space with a December delivery date. The moving company (United) loaded the truck at my old house in Southern Ontario and unloaded the truck at my new house in Florida. Easy peasey.

Just an update on my Sister and her family using UPac from Calgary to Omaha.

Their shipment took a week and a half, which was longer than anticipated (but no big deal as it was just 'extra' stuff). Unfortunately something was loaded in the truck, behind their stuff, that was greasy.

They made sure they dodged the grease on the floor of the truck and thought all of it was ok.

On further inspection, when unloading from the U-haul at home, turns out there is a bit of grease on everything.
UPac is able to do what they do as, if you are using part of a large trailer, they pick up other goods to fill the trailer, be it fruit or tires. The UPac office did assure her (when she called to tell them about the grease), that they have strict guidelines on what can go along with a UPac shipment and this never should have happened. They are sending her out forms for a claim.

When they arrived at UPac in Omaha to unload their bulkhead (divider between their stuff and the other items that were loaded later) was down and that is apparently how they got grease on them.

One other thing - the prices quoted are in U.S. dollars. This was a bit of a surprise as the transaction took place in Calgary, she paid in Calgary and it says no where in the contract that it is U.S. dollars, she just noted it on her Visa statement.

All that said, we are still going to use them when we move.

Quick note about ABF Upack. The last item on the quote (number 9) says:

All U-Pack shipments are quoted in U.S. dollars. Any applicable custom fees are not included.

Interesting! It really is - as my Sister and the customer service person she had with her on the phone both went through the contract and neither of them could find any reference to the charges being in U.S. dollars (he was kind of shocked too!).

I also got quotes from 3 moving companies and ended up using United as they provided the most information and assistance regarding crossing the border, plus had a price in the same vicinity as the other two. My belongings amounted to a third of a full moving van but a lot of that was heavy books. The transport from Southwestern Ontario to Georgia was $3500 but that was mainly because it was a heavy load and involved going up and down a flight of stairs on pick-up. Basically, I had already packed and labeled everything except for the fragile china dishes which they packed. I left on the Friday and had already given the company the credit card information. A friend of mine met the van at my former apartment and made sure they got all of my instructions. They picked up my belongings in Canada on the Monday and were scheduled for delivery on the following Thursday. After I arrived in Georgia (it was a 2 day drive) I faxed back copies of my stamped passport and I-94 to the moving company. The following Wednesday I received a phone call saying they expected to deliver my belongings around 10 am. They had the belongings for 3 individuals/families in the van and made their first stop north of Atlanta (for a returning American), our stop south of Atlanta was next and then the last stop was in Savannah for another Canadian. I thought it was really interesting that they had three individuals/families moving from approximately the same part of Canada to the same part of the US at the same time. Anyway, they said they did need to show the documents at the border but everything went smoothly. They unloaded everything into our new house and unpacked what they had packed. Everything arrived - framed art, china, some fragile furniture - exactly the same as when it was packed. We were pleased and impressed and have no problems recommending them for a move.

While using Upack, is it possible to have my stuff shipped before actually moving to the US ?

My situation is as follows. Im moving back with my parents at the end of July because my lease ends and I can't renew it for an undetermined period of time. At first, we thought we'd store my belongings in a Uhaul storage center until it was time to move, rent a Uhaul and cross at the POE when I get my visa. Then my husband suggested that he and his dad come up, rent a Uhaul in Montreal, take my stuff and bring it to Burlington, transfer it to a new Uhaul truck and return the first truck to Montreal and go to Colorado with the one rented in Burlington(from my understanding, we'd save 1000$ doing so, dropping from 3000$ to 2000$). Im still waiting on my estimate from Upack, but if there's a big difference, I'd most likely consider it. My question is though, can I send my stuff to my inlaws house through Upack months before I move(therefore not have to store it here in Montreal until my Visa is approved) ? Is that possible ? Or I need the Visa to be able to send my stuff ?

We were all excited about using UPack from what everyone on this post said, but we just called for a quote and found out they don't service our area because we live *sob!* in the BOONDOCKS!
We've had quotes from other regular moving companies for between $4000 and $7000 US (for a move from Eastern BC to Southern New Mexico). Yikes! We don't even have much furniture. Since we've been totally ripped off before by big moving companies we didn't want to use them. OTOH we don't want to drag a rental truck across the border ourselves either.
Now we don't know who to use! I hate the companies that won't give you a price until the stuff is delivered to your new home. 'Surprise! It's going to cost you ten thousand dollars more than we told you!'

No can do! You have to have a proper visa in hand to be able to ship your stuff over. Sorry.

From when gas prices were a lot lower?


Maybe you can use a regular company to ship just to the nearest UPack location in the right direction, and get UPack to take it from there. You'd have to find someone to reload everything in the new van, though.

Thanks, we were thinking of that, but in the meantime today a friend gave us the names of a couple of other (possibly) reliable smaller moving companies in our area that we are going to check out.

Husband used UPS. No problems, even with shipping his computer.

wow, I just did a quote for UPS and it's so cheap!!

cuz I'm really not looking at shipping any furniture really
just TONS of clothes and books
and a few glassware type things

A couple of points..

1) Unless you want some real problems with your move, only use one of the large transnational van lines to deal with your stuff. They know how to do cross country moves, have plenty of trucks to get your stuff when you need it in a timely manner, and know how to deal with CUstoms. If you use a smaller mover, you're asking for trouble... (lost stuff, customs issues, late arrivals, etc.)

2) Your good cannot be entered into the US before the owner of those goods does. Meaning your mover will not ship the goods until they have two things in hand.. The first is a completed CBP Form 3299 and the second is a copy of either a validated I-94 or the validated CR-1 visa to show that you have entered the US.

The price my Sister had wasn't door to door - that is probably the difference. Door to door would have been around $1000 more than what she paid.

Make that around $600 more, here is the quote from Calgary to Omaha:

Move Type 6 Feet of Space

Terminal-To-Terminal $872

Door-To-Door $1497

Adjustment Price Per Foot + / - $43

This is also using a 'lower rate' date. When doing the quote if you click on the little calendar icon beside the dates it is color coded to let you know which days are 'peak' days and which days are cheaper.

I used UPS and would ABSOLUTELY NEVER recommend using them. I had no furniture to ship so I figured UPS would be great plus it was cheap. When my boxes arrived, every single one of them that had "FRAGILE" written on it was SMASHED!! The boxes were so badly smashed actually that they ripped and had to be retaped. There is NO WAY that could have happened unless they actually threw them or kicked the crap out of them. All my stuff was broken. I was SO mad I can't even express it into words. To top it all off, when I put in a claim with UPS to get some kind of monetary compensation, they told me I was entitled to NOTHING because I shipped "used goods" and they were shipped from Canada and "used goods" are not insurable in Canada.

I was livid!! I demanded they provide me with that policy in writting, but of course never received anything. I demanded an appology letter and NEVER got one either. I messed with them for months and never got anything.

So yeah, really really bad experience and I will NEVER use them again for my personal shipping.

uh oh..

there goes my plan...

I was considering UPS to ship my computer, but now I'm rather hesitant. I know they'll insure it if I let them package the tower, but neither do I want broken bits when I get to PA. *sigh*

All my electronics were destroyed. Thank God I sold my computer and TV before I moved! I had a VCR, stereo, etc. All of them were destroyed, not to mention dishes and a lot of stuff that was irreplaceable. I had a beer mug from the 1976 Montreal Olympics that my parents bought. It was older then I am! And it was broken in a ton of little pieces. It still make me want to cry when I think about it.

Take it apart and bring the cards and the HD with you. Let UPS ship the case, power supply, monitor, keyboard and mouse.

Oh Wise man.... what if the stuff is the property of the USC (Bren)? Can it then go before he does?
I need your advise you folks.... contribute to ameliorating my insanity plzzzzz

Damn... I just read this post. So you moving to Omaha too lol. Or was that your sister?

She actually lives in Fremont, they just shipped to Omaha and picked it up. We are in fact moving to Fremont next year too!

Are you heading for Nebraska?

Word of caution if you use UPS to ship your computer, I shipped my computer to Texas it was packed good in the box it come in when I bought with peanuts and bubble rap the whole bit but UPS still managed to ruin my monitor I was told that if it's turned upside down something will happen to it and it did, when I unpacked it, it was upside down ( not the way I had it packed) they had repacked it for some reason, anyway long story short had to buy new moniter!!!! Man was I

Hi,

My understanding of zyggy's post was that the goods can't enter the US before the owner does - however it's was based on the fact that they (as in the immigrant) will not have any status in the U.S. until their visa is validated.

As Bren is already a USC, he should have no problem shipping his stuff. When my Sister shipped her stuff all the shipper asked for was documentation that she was 'allowed to be there' (she is a USC). In fact their stuff would have crossed the border before them if it hadn't been for the truck being stopped at the border because the shipping company forgot to get photocopies of their documents.

I would recommend calling the border patrol if you would like further reassurance.

Yes Fremont isn't really far away from Omaha, Closer than Lincoln.

Ya, UPS isn't looking good..

I'm thinking we either might do the truck rental thing when the time comes if he can get a few days off

or the U-pack thing .. (which will suck cuz I'll have to do that by myself...)

I'm happy with UPack so far - good price and they have a good record - cannot imagine driving the truck ourselves and hauling the car . What really suckked was having to pay (hang to your pants everyone) 481.50 for 2 dudes coming over to load the trailer after my so calle friends backed off . I will need the funds from the scam... who was it that had them???????

aww, I'm sorry hun...

make your friends split it amongst themselves and write out a cheque to you..

and then never invite them to the US.

oh, and make sure they put "USD funds" in the memo line of the cheque.

Yeah, I also called UPS and FedEx yesterday about shipping my (few) boxes and computer to PA.

FedEx told me that they had to ship my stuff through the air using their Express system - apparently they can't ship personal belongings through Ground, so that's automatically four times more expensive. Also, the girl sounded really annoyed and terse, which got on my nerves very quickly.

UPS was a little better, but the girl on the other end also wasn't sure about which procedure would work best for me - she said that I could do it through ground, but couldn't ship anything ahead of time (which I expected anyway) and she didn't know which form I needed or what I should do to prepare for the shipment.

Both places quoted me roughly $100 to ship my computer through ground. They also told me that I'd have to pack the desktop myself, which is contrary to what I've heard (apparently they won't insure it if it's self-packed, but FedEx said that they'd offer liability coverage anyway).

I am seriously considering renting a car or a u-haul and driving across the continent.

Just bumping up this topic for the new folks.

I live so far away from anything that I'm going to rent a U-haul. As of right now, for 4 days it will cost me $722 Cdn plus tax I'm sure....

I shipped three boxes of personal belongings, plus my monitor and my computer. UPS packaged the computer for me in a carton and I had the original box for my monitor. All in all it cost $350 and hours of paperwork That was through ground shipping, which takes between 7 to 9 business days. Mind you, this is from Vancouver to Philadelphia.

Yes.. but then he may have to pay duty on anything that was over his exemption.... unless he can prove that he owned the items in the US and subsequently took them to Canada. He can do that through showing a manifest of the items that was stamped by Canada Customs when he entered the goods into Canada.

SInce he is a US Citizen, he does not have the duty free exemption that immigrants have. You woud be better off if you entered the goods under your exemption since his is rather small ($1,600)... and yours is unlimited.

And the Border Patrol has nothing to do with entry of goods. They are responsible for policing the border outside of a POE. CBP is responsible for entry of goods.