Finally the day has arrived. The day where I get to move out of my rental apartment and into the new service apartment.
I awaited the arrival of sat with great anticipation. Primarily, I can finally rid myself of the loud neighbor upstairs who always keep me awake with the noises from 10pm -2am every nite. Secondly, I am looking forward to the use of the new gym and the fantastic lap pool. Of course, the fact that I dont have to do anymore house cleaning daily is also something worth celebrating.
I didnt know how the service of the storage and moval people will be. I didnt have any referal nor could I find any feedback from the internet. Finding them was frankly quite a stroke of good luck because they are really excellent. I have relocated on average once/twice a year for the last 6 years but this is the first domestic move in HK.
I had narrowed my choice down to Tradewinds or HK storage from a long list of at least dozen other local movers. I didnt want those storage companies which outsourced their movers, and I am hughly suspicious of those which are too cheap (because I found out they had to cut corners esp in terms of packing and materials used in order to compensate for the lower price when they did the job bidding)
Tradewind had come highly recommended on those expat forums. In terms of cost, Tradewind had come slightly cheaper esp in terms of storage. The quote was rather different. HK storage estimated the size of 1200cubic volume storage while Tradewind had estimated 900. Plus Tradewind storage comes only with dehumidfier without airconditioning nor insurance for storage in event of accidents.
In the end, I settled on Hong Kong Storage. Primarily, I think from the fact the survey quote was done by the experienced guys who are doing the packing and moving to store is a motivator that he knows what he is talking about (esp when I ask about methods to protect my furnishing). Secondly, his estimate was closer to my own since I know how much stuff I have from all the container size from my international relocation. Thirdly, they was no hard sell or pushing. When I spoke to Candy the lady from the office, she assured me their guys are experienced and very careful with packing the furniture. I wasnt let down.
Not only are they efficient, the degree of care and top quality of packing materials impressed me. Compared to major movers like Santa Fe, the staff at HONG KONG Storage win hands down. The level of wrapping for my mattress and caring for the wooden furniture almost made me wanted to cry. Of all the moves, none of other movers ever thought of inserting extra folded boxes to the side of my wooden console so that the will not be any accidental dents to the sides. Not even santa fe whom I paid double the price previously thought of that. The guys are friendly, good attitude without the usual cynicism that comes with the nature of the job. This good experience came totally unexpected.
At the end of the move, we had wanted to tip them for all the hard work but the guys declined. They said it was company policy not to accept any extra gratuity. That impressed me even more with their intergrity.
If I ever have to move again or recommend a company that helps with domestic move or moving your stuff to storage, I would say go for Hong Kong Storage. I would not say they are the cheapest (but they are reasonable!!!), but they are definitely the most attentive, cautious bunch with the best packing materials. These guys are the best and this is coming from a highly critical customer.
However, it would be better if you speak cantonese so that one can communicate better with the movers. If you are completely unable to speak cantonese, I would say then go for Tradewinds (+852 2803 2561) since some of the packing staff are Filippinos..
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