Shipping furniture/household stuff question

[Chuck Bao]

Has anyone here used an international moving company to ship furniture and household stuff? I spent 30 minutes on the phone this morning and I still don’t understand it.

It’s a door-to-door service. They’ll come into my condo in Bangkok and pack up my things and deliver it to Madill Oklahoma.

They previously quoted about $10,000 for a full 20’ container. I was like okay, let’s fill that sucker up with as much as we can stuff into it. Now, they’re saying that the original quote was from Bangkok to Houston and I’ll need to pay extra to get it to Madill. Alright, I’m fine with that.

But what really puzzles me is that they said that the shipping charge would be calculated based on the percentage of the container used. Since only my stuff would be in that one container, there would be a base price for actually shipping the container halfway around the world. Their minimum shipment (4.35 cubic meters) would cost about $3,300 (based on that original quote). If I wanted to ship half of a container (or 15 cubic meters) the price would be $8,700. Again, it would be about $10,000 for a full container (before calculating the Houston to Madill leg).

Do these numbers make economic sense to anyone? I mean labor to pack stuff up in Bangkok is very, very cheap, a small fraction of $5-7,000 additional to fill up the container.

Do you think I made a mistake by telling them “fill that sucker up”?

Do you think they’re price gouging me? I don’t know to try to negotiate or not. I’m quite okay if it is not substantially over $10,000.

Any suggestions and recommendations would be very much appreciated because I have a very tight window to get this done. After I transfer the title of my condo this week, I have two weeks to clear everything out. The shipping company said that its crews are currently very busy in their peak season and won’t be available for another two weeks, or the day before I’m scheduled to fly home. They also said it would take two days to pack everything, so I’m not going to make that flight.

I know that I’ve got to start giving stuff away that won’t go into a 20 foot container, but I have no clue how much that is and probably won’t until they start packing it. I guess that I have three times that in just tables and cabinets after 20+ years in Thailand.

I suppose that moving is always a big mess. Anyone willing to help me move?

[olevetonahill]

Bro, Ill tell you MY ideas about moving. IF I ever leave the Hill, Im packin My personal stuff, Like clothes and pictures and such. A few things That I CANT replace, then Im walkin out the door.
The furniture is stayin.

For 10Large you can buy a Hell of a lot of furniture,Plus you said you only want about a 1000 Sq Ft house, You gonna have room for all this stuff you shippin home or are you gonna end up keepin it stored in a ****in barn?


Good Luck

[Chuck Bao]

Bro, Ill tell you MY ideas about moving. IF I ever leave the Hill, Im packin My personal stuff, Like clothes and pictures and such. A few things That I CANT replace, then Im walkin out the door.
The furniture is stayin.

For 10Large you can buy a Hell of a lot of furniture,Plus you said you only want about a 1000 Sq Ft house, You gonna have room for all this stuff you shippin home or are you gonna end up keepin it stored in a ****in barn?


Good Luck

Heh! I do plan on keepin it stored in a ****in barn. Hell, I might end up having to live in a ****in barn. Anyway, thanks for that advice, Olevet. I'll worry about unloading all that crap when it gets there and decide then that that was a whole lot of wasted money.

[olevetonahill]

The storin it in the Barn temporary is Fine, Im talkin after ya ger yer shack built you gonna have ROOM for everything you ship? Or store what ya dont need in the barn forever for the Rats and ****?

What Im suggesting Bro, Is Make sure what ever you ship this far and at this expense are things you are gonna Use and that you really want

[rock on sooner]

Chuck, How did you settle on Madill, OK from Bangkok? I lived in Madill just before I
went into the Air Force and was there for a few months after discharge. Then, I went
to college and the rest is history. Haven't been back since. If they still have the Sand
Bass Festival, don't miss it!

[jk the sooner fan]

good advice by Vet - stimulate the OK economy instead of the one you're leaving

my experience with moving - limited to military moves - but i cant imagine its a whole lot different - is that they are going to co-mingle your stuff with somebody elses in that big box

unless you specify that you only want yours and nobody elses - then you're paying for what they'd lose being able to share the box

or if you're the only dude moving from Thailand to Houston/Madill at the time - they're going to charge you what they'd get for a full box

but i sorta thing they are being charged at the shipyard for full weight and nothing else - which is what they should base your fee on

i think

[olevetonahill]

Chuck, How did you settle on Madill, OK from Bangkok? I lived in Madill just before I
went into the Air Force and was there for a few months after discharge. Then, I went
to college and the rest is history. Haven't been back since. If they still have the Sand
Bass Festival, don't miss it!


In my best Mack Brown voice " I'll Answer that fer Chuck"
He was born an Raised there. Been werkin in Thailand fer 20 plus years and is coming home .

[rock on sooner]

In my best Mack Brown voice " I'll Answer that fer Chuck"
He was born an Raised there. Been werkin in Thailand fer 20 plus years and is coming home .

Thanks Vet. Do they still have the Sand Bass Festival?

[olevetonahill]

Thanks Vet. Do they still have the Sand Bass Festival?

No Clue, I dont live there.

[KantoSooner]

Chuck, I shipped a damn near 20' load from Tokyo to Bartlesville, door to door with an internationally recognized company. It cost about $8000. I think you're getting poked a bit and might want to call up one of the ex-pat removal companies. Far from being the most expensive, most have been beaten down by Fortune500 HR departments and are more or less docile now.
Oh, and make sure they handle customs clearance. They won't cover duty, if any applies, but you don't need to be summoned to the port or to have to arrange for a customs agent on short notice. And, if they clear it, my impression is that the procedure is sort of "yeah, yeah, Hi Bob, what's new? Papers to stamp? sure." as opposed to the attention you'd gain if your container was the only thing your agent was there for that day.

[Jacie]

I'd take a long hard look at all your stuff and try to calculate the replacement value (purchased in the U.S., not Thailand). Maybe your $10k would be better spent on new stuff . . .

[Sooner24]

Thanks Vet. Do they still have the Sand Bass Festival?

Yes they do. It's in early June so this years is already come and gone.

[Chuck Bao]

The storin it in the Barn temporary is Fine, Im talkin after ya ger yer shack built you gonna have ROOM for everything you ship? Or store what ya dont need in the barn forever for the Rats and ****?

What Im suggesting Bro, Is Make sure what ever you ship this far and at this expense are things you are gonna Use and that you really want

You're right, Olevet. My problem is that I have too much stuff for the minimum shipment ($3,300 and the cost difference between half of a container and a full container isn't that much($8,700 vs $10,000). So yeah, I'm going to probably give a lot of stuff away rather than seeing it become a home for rats.


Chuck, How did you settle on Madill, OK from Bangkok? I lived in Madill just before I
went into the Air Force and was there for a few months after discharge. Then, I went
to college and the rest is history. Haven't been back since. If they still have the Sand
Bass Festival, don't miss it!

As Olevet already explained, I'm from Madill. I am very happy to go back home and be a farmer/rancher, drive my mother to sports events or something. Yes, they still have the Sand Bass Festival, even though the sand bass in Lake Texoma have been virtually wiped out. That's a pity. I remember as a kid going to shallow creeks surrounding the lake and catching them my hand in the spring when they were spawning.


good advice by Vet - stimulate the OK economy instead of the one you're leaving

my experience with moving - limited to military moves - but i cant imagine its a whole lot different - is that they are going to co-mingle your stuff with somebody elses in that big box

unless you specify that you only want yours and nobody elses - then you're paying for what they'd lose being able to share the box

or if you're the only dude moving from Thailand to Houston/Madill at the time - they're going to charge you what they'd get for a full box

but i sorta thing they are being charged at the shipyard for full weight and nothing else - which is what they should base your fee on

i think

Thanks for the input.

I think that you are right that the minimum and the substantially lower cost ($3,300 vs $10,000) would be because they are mixing my stuff with others in one container. Even though they assured me that they wouldn't, it only makes economic sense. And, 4.35 cubic meters for the minimum would be just a few clothes, a few personal effects and maybe a few paintings, two painted by one of our resident artists, PG.

I want to take some of my Thailand with me and you can't buy this stuff in the US even though I'd like to help out the local economy. Besides, how much furniture is made in the US these days?

I'm less sure about the weight issue. I had assumed that container transport was all mechanical and I don't think my furniture would be that heavy. I suppose that they know what they are doing and will not go over some maximum weight limit.


Chuck, I shipped a damn near 20' load from Tokyo to Bartlesville, door to door with an internationally recognized company. It cost about $8000. I think you're getting poked a bit and might want to call up one of the ex-pat removal companies. Far from being the most expensive, most have been beaten down by Fortune500 HR departments and are more or less docile now.
Oh, and make sure they handle customs clearance. They won't cover duty, if any applies, but you don't need to be summoned to the port or to have to arrange for a customs agent on short notice. And, if they clear it, my impression is that the procedure is sort of "yeah, yeah, Hi Bob, what's new? Papers to stamp? sure." as opposed to the attention you'd gain if your container was the only thing your agent was there for that day.

The shipping company offering the quote is supposedly a professional American company, which was highly recommended by my friends. The agent that I'm dealing with has a northern US or Canadian accent. By the way, his last name is Switzer and I haven't asked him yet if he is related to Barry.

Very interesting comment, Kanto, about HR departments of multinational corporations no longer footing the bill to move entire household contents across the world or at least negotiating a better price. I had several cousins working for oil companies in Singapore and Indonesia before moving back to Houston. That's almost as bad as British civil servants working in Hong Kong who retired with the hand-back to China in '97. Based on a 200-year old tradition, they could pick their mode of transportation back to Britain and they all chose an around-the-world cruise liner.

Good question about customs. I specifically chose an American company that can handle it. I was told that my household belongings are duty free. I assured them that everything being shipped was purchased more than 6 months before. I assured them that I'm not shipping any electronics (none of it would work in the US anyway). They were concerned if I loaded the container with a lot of new flat screen TVs and such. As that is not the case, they said that it would be very easy to clear customs without fee or hassle. I hope that they are right.

[rock on sooner]

Well, Chuck, welcome back. Too bad about the sandies being fished out.
I remember the long lines for the fish and cornbread but this was nearly 50
years ago...

[Chuck Bao]

Well, Chuck, welcome back. Too bad about the sandies being fished out.
I remember the long lines for the fish and cornbread but this was nearly 50
years ago...

Sand bass weren't fished out. I think that there were more aggressive, non-indigenous fish introduced into Lake Texoma that ate the sand bass winnows and caused the virtual distinction of the sand bass on the lake. Fraggle could probably explain it much better than I ever could.

I do remember the townspeople, my friends and kinfolk frying the sand bass and hush puppies and french fries for everyone to enjoy, yeah some 40 years ago. Today, it is so totally different. The people selling their fried foods are not locals and it certainly isn't sand bass.

A lot of people in Madill want to end it or move it out of town. They're complaining about the blocking of the square and roads, the awful traffic and the difficulty in parking.

I know that I shouldn't comment on this because I live outside the country for the next month or so. Thanks for the welcome home, rock on sooner.

[BajaOklahoma]

Yes, they do have the Sand Bass Festival. It was June 4th through the 9th. I went last year.

Pack the most important stuff first. You will be surprised how quickly it fills up. You may have to leave a few things.
They might as well drop the container next to the ones for sale in Durant.

Welcome back, Chuck.

[rock on sooner]

Sand bass weren't fished out. I think that there were more aggressive, non-indigenous fish introduced into Lake Texoma that ate the sand bass winnows and caused the virtual distinction of the sand bass on the lake. Fraggle could probably explain it much better than I ever could.

I do remember the townspeople, my friends and kinfolk frying the sand bass and hush puppies and french fries for everyone to enjoy, yeah some 40 years ago. Today, it is so totally different. The people selling their fried foods are not locals and it certainly isn't sand bass.

A lot of people in Madill want to end it or move it out of town. They're complaining about the blocking of the square and roads, the awful traffic and the difficulty in parking.

I know that I shouldn't comment on this because I live outside the country for the next month or so. Thanks for the welcome home, rock on sooner.

You know, it's like most things today. People see a shot at some bucks
so tradition be damned. Same way with the Iowa State Fair...almost none
of the vendors are local and the prices, wow, $8 20-ounce beer, $3-$4
corn dogs ($6 for foot long) and $4 lemonade but still a million people
show up every year (not me, anymore).