Removals

[shanagarry]

Rob

I appreciate you taking the time to outline your response.

In my case - it is partly accurate and clearly the reason for the mis-quote appears to be related to 12m3. You are right - the additional furniture was not as much as you calculated. Clearly - your back office was not functioning as efficiently as it could have which may or may not be the reason for you getting the price 'wrong'.

In any event, that was my first experience of dealing with your organisation and when I compared your offering with that of others who came highly recommended and who came to our UK home to assess the size of the task - it was an easy decision. I mentioned that I have awarded the project to Trans-Portugal whose services were written about in glowing terms mainly on the Expats Portugal site. I took the time to contact 7 people who had used them as well as one person whose comments were not very helpful to their cause. I was satisfied in the end with the references I received.

There are times in business when sometimes you have to 'fail' to succeed - hopefully you can now move on and put the experience behind you.

[Gary/Gaynor]

Totally agree James and well put.
Gaynor

[smilingassassin]

Putting all your argument's aside......I can say with an honest heart that we have used Algarve Fre**** since they first began trading here, and have had nothing but excellent, fast, professional service...this is from both ends of the operation, UK and Portugal. We have had deliveries varying from 1 msq to 25 msq, never a problem. We have recommended them to many people, from small deliveries to house removals, and their feedback was very positive. As with most businesses in the Algarve, recommendation is everything, and i would never recommend anything or anyone that I have had a bad experience with.....obviously it would come back and bite me on the bottom!! Treat others as you wish to be treated........that saying really does go along way in life.

[James Faro]

Putting all your argument's aside......I can say with an honest heart that we have used Algarve Fre**** since they first began trading here, and have had nothing but excellent, fast, professional service...this is from both ends of the operation, UK and Portugal. We have had deliveries varying from 1 msq to 25 msq, never a problem. We have recommended them to many people, from small deliveries to house removals, and their feedback was very positive. As with most businesses in the Algarve, recommendation is everything, and i would never recommend anything or anyone that I have had a bad experience with.....obviously it would come back and bite me on the bottom!! Treat others as you wish to be treated........that saying really does go along way in life.

This is your first posting and while I have no reason to doubt you I would steer towards those recommendations from people here who are well-known on this website forum and or personally. One person out of the blue means nothing to me - sorry!

[EMM]

We used Algarve fre**** when we moved our UK household over 2 years ago.
The price quoted was in line with others and the UK pickup went without a hitch.
At this end they realised that their large truck could not get to us and organised two vehicles to deliver our stuff over 2 days.
I have heard that other companies would have charged us extra for this service but Algarve Fre**** did not .
Nothing was " lost " in transit nor was there any noteworthy damage.

As we have all done at times it is all too easy to complain when things don,t come up to expectations and for every bad experience there are many more where all goes well.
We have more to come out and to be honest we have no reason not to use this company again.

[shanagarry]

We choose Trans-Portugal and having just about completed our unpacking here (43 boxes to go) in Carvoeiro - the only breakages was the stuff we packed ourselves - so far.

I am sure all the others offer and provide a good service but we selected ours on the basis of the personal touch and their visit to our home to assess the scale of the move. As it happens they mis-calculated but given that it was their oversight - the addition charge was insignificant - even though the increase in volume was significant.

Everything arrived on time last Friday morning and was unloaded efficiently and carefully - no complaints here

[James Faro]

Dear Shanagarries

I take it that you have now landed in CVO permanently? If so, that is such good news for you both.



There are a few of us who would love to follow suite(and will) so I will be keeping keeping an eye on all your postings which will provide invaluable information about living in CVO!

Us three' little' Faros(except me being a 5ft 11 inches brute) want to move out late this year or earlier next year so any of your postings will be invaluable to us.

- James

[jimmyp]

And a quick thank you to those who recommended using Trans Global - Booked a 10kg box to go out last Sunday evening - Was Delivered yesterday (Thursday) to the door in Rocha Brava! all for just over 20quid via DHL land parcel service. Astonishing!

[James Faro]

And a quick thank you to those who recommended using Trans Global - Booked a 10kg box to go out last Sunday evening - Was Delivered yesterday (Thursday) to the door in Rocha Brava! all for just over 20quid via DHL land parcel service. Astonishing!

Great thing about this website is that instead of pondering for hours or days on whom to use the recommendations within the forum community are invaluable It is like an internet within the internet.

- J

[shanagarry]

We are delighted with the service we received from Trans Portugal. The collection in the UK took two days which involved the removal and wrapping of all our furniture and fragile belongings and taking it back to their consolidation depot in North London.

I had the usual issue with them regarding the volume - they initially assessed our load to be 40m3 but eventually recalculated it to be 51.4m3. As I had taken the precaution to invite them to our home to assess the size of the load and put everything in writing in finite detail - I was in a better bargaining position than I would have been had I not done that. In the end the additional volume cost me £700 - which was acceptable.

They arranged to be at our property here in Cvo at 8.30am on Friday 25th June and at 8.10am that morning I received a call asking for directions from Pingo Doce. They arrived with a 40' Artic and a crew of 5 - gave me the clipboard to allocate the places for the 198 boxes and furniture. They were done and gone by 1.00pm (just in time to catch the football en-route back to Setubal). They assembled all beds and furniture perfectly and took any packaging we had managed to unpack by that time with them.

I cannot recommend Trans-Portugal highly enough - they provided a magnificent service in what is a very difficult event. We have only moved twice previously in 27 years - so this was 'virgin' territory. Our previous moves were local so most things could be moved in our cars - this was a whole new experience - everything had to be packed.

We left the UK on Tuesday 22nd June via the Portsmouth-Santander ferry and arrived here on Thursday 24th. We stayed overnight in Evora (a really nice place) on the way here - and then drove the 2 hours to Cvo the following morning. It was an uneventful but very pleasant journey - great road network and only cost €7.90 in tolls.

We had made the error of inviting some friends with young children to stay with us (my fault - I got the dates mixed up) so the past 9 days have been something of a ordeal. Nevertheless, we are down to 62 boxes and have managed to find most of what we need - with few breakages (and they were items we packed ourselves) and are now beginning to settle in. Our two cats arrived via Pet Chauffeurs on Saturday last - so a degree of normality is beginning to prevail.

I read somewhere that people coming to live here go through a phase where they look on this initial period as a form of 'different' holiday. Each morning I wake up I realise that I have work to do and while the clear blue skies and temperatures are idyllic - I am not in holiday mode. I have found myself getting impatient with slow drivers (clearly lost) and am having a problem with getting PT to install my broadband - and that is the most difficult obstacle I have to overcome as I need broadband for work. I have also found myself being short-tempered with the guy in The Phone Shop in Intermarche as they gave me the wrong reference number to top-up my Larga Banda (dongle) and I created a lengthy queue in the process. Apologies if you were behind me this morning (Monday).

Having said all of that I am delighted to be here and once we can get ourselves fully unpacked - I can imagine life will be a whole lot better. I am now in the process of buying a return business flight to the UK for next week and am looking forward to experiencing that feeling.

My wife keeps reminding me that this is Portugal and this is the way life is going to be for the foreseeable future - so enjoy

[ditzy]

I have found myself getting impatient with slow drivers (clearly lost) and am having a problem with getting PT to install my broadband - and that is the most difficult obstacle I have to overcome as I need broadband for work. I have also found myself being short-tempered with the guy in The Phone Shop in Intermarche as they gave me the wrong reference number to top-up my Larga Banda (dongle) and I created a lengthy queue in the process. Apologies if you were behind me this morning (Monday).

Welcome to the Algarve

[shanagarry]

ditzy

I've had all the 'warnings' and after 25+ years as a non-resident property owner, I thought I had encountered everything - happy days

[James Faro]

Shanagarry,

I really enjoyed this article you contributed.

I found your impatient with slow drivers and response from people in shops funny, but that is the charm of Portugal. It makes you, after a while, realize what frantic and stressed lives we have to live in major UK cities or indeed any large European cities.

Waking up to clear blue skies and war weather is something I could 'suffer!'

There will be a few of us appreciatively envious of your move to Portugal. After all, Judith Chalmers, Cliff Richard, Clive Dunn, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Paul Nicholas and loads of other celebs all have properties in the Algarve and stay there for a good part of the time. They appreciate the area. Judith Chalmers who has traveled around the world to nearly every country on the planet loves the Algarve. You can't get a better endorsement than that!

- J

We are delighted with the service we received from Trans Portugal. The collection in the UK took two days which involved the removal and wrapping of all our furniture and fragile belongings and taking it back to their consolidation depot in North London.

I had the usual issue with them regarding the volume - they initially assessed our load to be 40m3 but eventually recalculated it to be 51.4m3. As I had taken the precaution to invite them to our home to assess the size of the load and put everything in writing in finite detail - I was in a better bargaining position than I would have been had I not done that. In the end the additional volume cost me £700 - which was acceptable.

They arranged to be at our property here in Cvo at 8.30am on Friday 25th June and at 8.10am that morning I received a call asking for directions from Pingo Doce. They arrived with a 40' Artic and a crew of 5 - gave me the clipboard to allocate the places for the 198 boxes and furniture. They were done and gone by 1.00pm (just in time to catch the football en-route back to Setubal). They assembled all beds and furniture perfectly and took any packaging we had managed to unpack by that time with them.

I cannot recommend Trans-Portugal highly enough - they provided a magnificent service in what is a very difficult event. We have only moved twice previously in 27 years - so this was 'virgin' territory. Our previous moves were local so most things could be moved in our cars - this was a whole new experience - everything had to be packed.

We left the UK on Tuesday 22nd June via the Portsmouth-Santander ferry and arrived here on Thursday 24th. We stayed overnight in Evora (a really nice place) on the way here - and then drove the 2 hours to Cvo the following morning. It was an uneventful but very pleasant journey - great road network and only cost €7.90 in tolls.

We had made the error of inviting some friends with young children to stay with us (my fault - I got the dates mixed up) so the past 9 days have been something of a ordeal. Nevertheless, we are down to 62 boxes and have managed to find most of what we need - with few breakages (and they were items we packed ourselves) and are now beginning to settle in. Our two cats arrived via Pet Chauffeurs on Saturday last - so a degree of normality is beginning to prevail.

I read somewhere that people coming to live here go through a phase where they look on this initial period as a form of 'different' holiday. Each morning I wake up I realise that I have work to do and while the clear blue skies and temperatures are idyllic - I am not in holiday mode. I have found myself getting impatient with slow drivers (clearly lost) and am having a problem with getting PT to install my broadband - and that is the most difficult obstacle I have to overcome as I need broadband for work. I have also found myself being short-tempered with the guy in The Phone Shop in Intermarche as they gave me the wrong reference number to top-up my Larga Banda (dongle) and I created a lengthy queue in the process. Apologies if you were behind me this morning (Monday).

Having said all of that I am delighted to be here and once we can get ourselves fully unpacked - I can imagine life will be a whole lot better. I am now in the process of buying a return business flight to the UK for next week and am looking forward to experiencing that feeling.

My wife keeps reminding me that this is Portugal and this is the way life is going to be for the foreseeable future - so enjoy

[shanagarry]

James

Thank you for your kind words.

At various times over the years we have seen the celebs you mentioned and many others at Faro Airport - and none of them bar Judith Chalmers puts on the 'airs and graces'. I think she believes she is 'royalty'.

When you get around to your move and feel you would like some input - I am happy to let you have the benefit of our experience - as will the many other contributors to this forum

[James Faro]

I think this 'Royalty' thing rings true about our Judith I knew a builder once who was doing a job for Ms Chalmers and she was talking to one of his labourers! "I expect you have seen me on the television" she said! He replied "I haven't a clue who you are - I haven't got a tv!"

So, she bought him a television set! The minute he received it he sold it for beer money! If the tv was a gift out of generosity or for her vanity I am not sure!

I know she is thought not to be amused by Victoria Wood's obvious send-up of her! Cruel but funny!

- J