⌛ Best way to ship belongings ???

Im open for suggestions and/or experiences on the best way to get my thing to dumaguete when we move . The biggest things I have are my flat screen TV.s , 3- 50"er's, alot of clothes , some kids toys and alot of household memorabilia . No furniture . Im just concerned about the criminals at the immigrations/customs there in the good ol Philippines . Thanks for any info or help , .....Carl

 

Wow

Well I never thought I would get this much response . I truely appreciate all of your input . Couldn't have done it without all of you .You guys are the best . Thanks again ,.....Carl

 

Balikbayan companies accept, for the most part, all shapes and sizes of cargo. Light stuff can be shipped in well packed cardboard balikbayan boxes. Heavier and larger stuff I would recommend crating. I shipped 9 wooden crates (I made them) and 7 boxes to the Philippines summer of 2009 and every single thing arrived safe and undamaged. Balikbayan crates and boxes are classified as "household goods" and go through customs but skip the whole duty thing. The balikbayan company does all the paperwork and pays all the fees which are included in the freight price. If you ship your T.V.'s any other way except balikbayan and classified as "household goods" you will pay a VERY heavy duty.

 

Carl, my company paid to ship my belongings to Manila and I know it was expensive. The problem I encountered was 3 years later moving from Makati to Dumaguete. I used a moving company and they used Super Ferry, I had just a 20 foot container but the problem was getting space on the ferry. Took an extra 3 weeks for them to get a slot, lots of stuff being shipped domestically from Manila to the provinces. Sounds like Knowdafish found a working solution. Good luck with finding the way, everything takes plenty of patience here, to be sure.

 

Hey I had shipping questions answered here and it worked out for me and balikbayan was the key..My main package was long so not in normal box cardboard but in a heavyduty travel case that looks expensive(got it on sale for $400.oo) It took a month after dropping it off to board a ship and leave for manila or who knows what other stopovers like australia or so before philippines but its been almost 3 months and the tracking just logs that it left hawaii october 3rd after the vessel departed just before the typhoon hit manila...Any way how long should I hold my patience with balikbayan forex world??? I shipped an earlier package with generator and appliances and it arrived within two months smelling like gasoline cause I didnt empty the gas tank properly and the instructions for shipping said ship no gasoline. This makes me want to trust them in my other shipment but how Long..

 

Carl, it may help in getting replies if you let us know where in this solar system your "thing" is. I'm guessing Zimbabwe?

How long is a piece of string?

Larry

 

You are telepathic

How did you know Larry . Right smack dab in the heart of Zimbawah . Beautiful city but getting a little crowded , so gotta get out of here . My string is about ??? well you know , 12" , but you know how that goes . Remember when you used to go fishin and you told everyone that you caught a fish this big when in reality it was only this small . Your probably well aware of that story huh ??? lol Just kiddin . Come on baby , where is the humor on here ??? huh? If you would have looked at my profile you could have seen where I am from . But from is really not the question I was asking Larry . From really didnt matter to me . What mattered to me was truely getting things INTO the good ol Philippines . But Thanks for your reply anyway Larry as you were very helpful too . Love ya babe and keep up the good work , ....Carl

 

Balikbayan box from USA to the Philippines:
Send Balikbayan Box to the Philippines

 

My stuff started arriving after 2-1/2 months, but it took 13 weeks for the last bit to show up. The majority was all shipped at the same time, but the last smaller box was shipped 2-1/2 weeks later and was the lone straggler.

The company I dealt with in the So Cal area, has a contact one can call in the Philippines to verify status and location of the shipment. The lady I talked to was great and got to know my voice after a while when I called. My stuff arrived in Manila after 4-5 weeks, then sat for 1-2 weeks to clear customs, then was on a ship that went 1st to IloIlo, then Bacolod, then Cebu, and finally Dumaguete. I was told in CA that it would arrive in 5-6 weeks, which is true if it is going to Manila, but it sure takes a heck of a lot longer to get to Dumaguete! :D

I wasn't concerned so much with the time frame, but was more concerned about theft or damage. All my stuff showed up intact, undamaged, and unopened, but one of the boxes did show up with a sun tan! :D Everything looked almost exactly like it did when the truck came and got it. I plan on shipping more stuff from So Cal to the Philippines next year using the same shipper and same process. It was $60 for a "small" balikbayan box, $65 for a "large" one, and oddball sized stuff goes by the cubic inch, but the guy just eyeballed the total amount of crates and boxes and gave me a killer deal for everything.

Weight is no object, and there is no charge difference between a "heavy" crate or box or a "light" one. My heaviest crate approached 200 lbs and it took 4 Filipinos to carry it up the stairs to our apartment and put it where we wanted it. Thank God I had the sense to ask my wife to measure the distance between the door jambs before I made the crates! She had never used a tape measure before either!! My largest one fit with only 1/4" of an inch to spare when all the crates and boxes where put in our back bedroom!

Always pack everything very well so there is absolutely no movement of the items in the box no matter which way it is turned. All of my crates and boxes were marked with "top" and "up", but that was ignored as I saw some of them on the truck when it pulled up upside down and sideways. The same thing happened when they were carried upstairs by the delivery crew. Good thing none of them were marked "fragile"!! :D

All of my crates were lined with 1" high density styrofoam and the boxes were lined with extra layers of thick cardboard top and bottom to prevent a blow-out. I also used extra large trash bags to line each box and tied them off before sealing up each box to prevent any moisture damage. Large boxed items in each crate were also packed in large trash bags. I also used almost a full roll of strapping tape on each box along with 1/2 roll of clear heavy duty packing tape. The devil is in the details. It is better to do an overkill pack job, than to have items broken or damaged.

 

It wasn't too hard to figure out, Zimbabwe people always ask redundant questions without giving enough info for someone to give a good answer, and will never search a forum to see that there are other threads with lots of good information about their particular topic already on the forum!

A simple search for the word "shipping" brings forth in 3 seconds all your questions already answered.

http://www.dumagueteinfo.com/board/general-chat/shipping-hang-ups-6722.html

Cheers!

Larry