CT to Northern Italy

[MidniteAltima21]

Hello.

We will be moving to northern Italy and want to bring some of our things with us. I estimate this to be between 100 to 200 cubic feet. I'm flexible on the amount as I won't be taking everything and it will not include furniture (only personal belongings). The items will leave from a port in NY and be delivered to a port in the town we will be living in (therefore actual travel distance is very minimal from/to a port from both directions.

I've been quoted $5,579 for door to door service, including packing for ocean freight and $4,045 for groupage (on the same terms). Seems high compared to other comments on here for similar. ANy thoughts on this quote?
Quotation Includes:
• Pre-move survey
• Supply of all approved international packing materials and cartons, including packing materials for delicate items
• Full international export packing and wrapping
• Inland Transportation to port of departure and from port of arrival
• Inventory preparation (required for customs purposes and tracking of your belongings)
• Ocean freight to destination port
• Normal custom clearance assistance/filing
• SOLAS Compliance fee
• Terminal handling at destination – See above
• Delivery of shipment to ground floor residence with normal access at destination
• Unpacking of cartons onto flat surface and basic assembly of items disassembled at origin (Unpacking NOT included in the groupage rate)
• Removal of debris on day of delivery

[Noone]

The quote seems to include everything it should. Without knowing the destination city, I can say Milano is about 150 KM from the closest port, and there is still plenty of Italy north of MIlano.

I would suggest getting two more quotes from respected companies to compare.

[MidniteAltima21]

Hi

The destination city is La Spezia which is on the Italian North West Coast. We went with Suddath International on the groupage rate. It was going smoothly until they asked us to pay an additional $1100 for shuttle service at destination, the day the items were to leave the port in NY.

At the time of the quote we did ask Mike if there would be or could be any additional charges for delivering the goods to the scheduled address, other than the potential inspection charges which are outwith control. The answer was no. $1100 seems very high for 1086lbs of goods.
We've asked for an invoice from the Italian agent and the basis this was prepared on. Any other tips on this shuttle issue?