Shipping Experience Portland to Bangalore - 40 foot container

reddy1000 · Post by **reddy1000** » Sun Sep 05, 2010 8:59 am

We moved from Portland Oregon to Bangalore Karnataka ? 40 foot Container
Here are some of the dates which should give you rough timeline just in case

March 15, 2010: I started a massive search for reasonably prices movers, I had requested for quotes on some web sites
March 16, 2010: Yogesh was the first to call, I said Thank You and I kept doing more searches as I had no experience doing international moves, I was moving by myself and no company was paying for my move and I was very sensitive to price.
I started getting quotes ranging from 12K to 15K for the entire move door to door, meaning we don?t have to do anything, they will do the estimation, bring the boxes and do the packing, ship it and unload it in Bangalore we don?t have to do anything; At this point I was worried, we had to sell our Van and all the money I got back from the Van I thought I will pay for the move, I had paid the loan for 5 years I hoped to buy at least a car in India, anyway all this is my personal story that has got nothing to do with the move, I kept searching for another month
Then I decided forget Corporate movers stevensworldwide, rainieros ? I will pack it myself, they scared me that I will not be able to pack professionally; I was confident that once I start any work I can do it myself with the right kind of tools and bubble wraps; I spent about 500 dollars on packing materials; we hired some movers from Thunder Movers, they charged me about 1000 dollars for 8 hours moving big furniture. I at least took professional advice on how to arrange the stuff in the Container, I am happy I did this because this was pretty crucial and predominant to ensure no breakages happened on the way, we are yet to open all the boxes, I don?t know when we will get to that when we find some time.

After much research I decided on 21st Century Relocations as mr yogesh was available in US and they also have office in Bangalore; I think I did good in my selection and I am happy with the Services of Yogesh. He is a nice guy and he will send email promptly.

We had some trouble as the Hanjin Shipping Company did not have many containers for the shipping dates of April 24th; He was ready to return the money, I asked Yogesh to try harder and finally he came up with another date, some how he got the 40 foot Container in front of your house, then me and my wife and lot of friends came by to help pack and move everything into the Container. It is not only how you pack with lot of bubble wrap but how you arrange the stuff in the Container that matters. The mattress is used as a partition for every 8 feet, the mattress is secured to the Container with ties

I needed an extra day to load the 40 foot container and I had requested Yogesh for additional time, there was still time next day until 4.00 P.M before the Container should be in the Port, I live only 15 mins from Portland, so that was doable and the Container was picked up; the driver put the seal and asked me to write down the tracking number, the tracking number is on the Container itself; I guess I also took some videos, you know for the sake of memories how the Container drove away, I cannot say how I felt, I have a lot of mixed feeling, I lived in USA for the past 20 years now we are back to where we started, back to motherland, I hope she will be kind

It took about 2 months for the ship to reach Bangalore, there was some slight change of dates, initially it was supposed to go to Chennai from Souel Korea, but somehow Singapore port got added in the last minute, once the Container leaves your house the Shipping Company will handle the logistics. I didn?t mind the delay as my wife was searching for a new school for the kids and we had to rent a house in Bangalore, so it was quite hectic, we are still settling down, I think it will take at least 6 months to get some rhythm.

While the Ship was talking about 2 months to reach Chennai I was in touch with Yogesh to get the paper work ready for Customs in Bangalore. Yogesh was quite helpful and we did the paper work, everything was done electronically over email, this was pretty good; I scanned the photocopies of the passport and other signed documents were sent to Yogesh as PDF files, he handled all the paper work very smoothly I had no trouble whatsoever, we had 2.5 months to get our act together.

I was really worried about Customs in Bangalore, once the Container reached Chennai with a gap of 2-3 days the Container was put on a train (Indian Railways) to Bangalore, the Container arrived in Bangalore, and there was 21st Century Relocations guys to follow through.

I had some trouble with the Bangalore Customs as I had 2-3 old computers, 1999, old TV and Yamaha Amplifier, I had lot of old electronics but the Customs wanted duty for it, I kept saying it is not worth that much money and new Amplifiers and laptops are 2-3 generations better but they don?t care they count it as the number of Computers and number of TVs, lucky I had 1 LCD TV for my kids to play computer games. Anyway my wife knew somebody in the police dept. who knew somebody in the customs department and we did not have to pay the originally requested customs duty of over 2 lakhs, we got away for less than 25000; my wife says some items were missing, we had a box of chocolates and wines that went missing, we had planted this for Customs, they need something, they will not leave without getting their dues. I would say Customs is the only hard part of the entire move.

We did another small mistake the door to door move happened quite late in the night, the customs office is in North Bangalore and we live in South Bangalore, my the time all the goods was loaded into the truck (lorries) and moved to my house it was quite late 3.00 A.M dark, the guys were tired and the broke an expensive furniture, we have a lot of stuff, 20 years? worth of items, it is pretty remarkable if so many items have reached Bangalore 20,000 Kms away, I am quite happy with the move, the entire move including packing etc, etc, was about 11K, we did the packing ourselves and we are quite proud that nothing broke except for one little mishap in late night, it is wood and it can be repaired, it is okay, nobody to blame, things happen when you move more than 210 boxes in a 40 foot container 20K miles away anything can happen, we had some insurance just in case.

I am quite happy with the Services provided by Mr. Yogesh and I will take his services again if needed, I recommend 21st Century Relocations from my personal experience

May 15 to July 27 Door to Door Portland Oregon to Bangalore on a 40 foot Container

Good Luck on your moves
Thanks