Send My Bag Review
Written by Jaillan Yehia
I’ve been a bit quiet of late on the blog – and that’s because I’ve been busy making a big move: giving up my base in BC, Canada and deciding to spend all of my time (or most of it at least) back in Europe – as well as bringing my Canadian fiancé home to Blighty with me full-time. Yikes.
Anyone who has been through the process of any kind of expat move will know just how all-consuming it can be when you change the status quo.
At times like this we all want any help available to take tasks and problems off our plate and make life easier. So I enlisted the help of Send My Bag to transport luggage for me – and this is what I thought of the service…
In moving myself, my fiancé and our cat – the ultimate precious cargo – permanently to England I have dealt with a lot of different companies, some of whom made my life far easier, and others which complicated things no end. I’m happy to report that Send My Bag falls firmly into the former category.
The cat – with all the money needed for his own flight. I just wish Send My Bag would start sending cats.
Send My Bag Review – Why Did I Use a Luggage Transportation Company?
When I decided that the hand-picked selection of clothes, handbags and shoes which had slowly crept across the Atlantic with me on various scheduled flights over the last few years needed to be repatriated to my full-time wardrobe in the UK, I was faced with decisions as to how to tackle transporting my beloved items of clothing.
I had looked into baggage shipping options previously for other trips but had usually given up (I’m very impatient!) once I reached a quote page or at any point where I had to measure or weigh things as I just couldn’t face it and would rather drag the suitcase to the airport than fill in too many forms.
Looking For A Send My Bag Review? Read on…
If you’re reading this review I imagine you’re interested to know how the Send My Bag service works in practice and whether it’s right for you, especially if you’re allergic to a lot of paperwork.
So here’s my experience in detail – it’s not often I write anything in the first person like this but I am hoping it will help you, as I know I wasn’t sure about the procedure before I started but now I’ve done it once it seems easy.
So if you’ve perhaps Googled ‘Send My Bag review‘ you’re undoubtedly wondering if using Send My Bag will be one of those experiences that leaves you to rue the day you decided to complicate your life with an external company (no!) or whether you’ll end up with an ongoing alternative to keep in your back pocket for the next time you need to travel light, move overseas or just don’t want to cart your bag round (yes!).
Of course all companies have good days and bad days, and so I can only share my own experience and hope every one of their customers finds it as smooth and straightforward as this.
The thorough tracking made me feel reassured
Send My Bag Review – My Experience
I only transported a suitcase not boxes so although the process is exactly the same for both types of item I can only share the suitcase side of things.
The first thing to note is that because your suitcase is travelling without you there are some rules about what you can and can’t put in it.
I was mainly interested in sending my bulky winter boots, coats, and other clothing items which I knew I wouldn’t need immediately after landing. But you do need to be careful if you want to send liquids, toiletries or electronic items as they can’t send that type of thing without you for obvious reasons so check in advance.
As it turned out one huge suitcase (all my suitcases are big, because I always shop on trips) was the ideal candidate for the service. I wish I was one of those people who could travel everywhere with just carry-on bags like my friend Marianne Cantwell, but I’m just not and I’ve made my peace with that.
I used an ultra light i.t. luggage four-wheeler which I’d recently bought in Manchester when my trusty Animal suitcase finally gave up on me, and which was big enough for all the things I needed to send.
This suitcase came *everywhere* with me. I still miss it.
I did need to measure and weigh my case to make sure it was within the Send My Bag limits (they offered 2 weight classes – 15 kg or 30 kg) and it was fine. Because the suitcase is ultra light to start with I was able to cram a lot of items into it without breaking my 30 kg maximum.
So I simply booked a collection online for the day before I was planning to fly myself, as I knew I’d be home all day packing and tying up loose ends anyway – collection slots are all day at the moment, but they are going to be more specific in future as this is obviously a little awkward.
I did use the chat feature to ask some basic questions about whether I could pack certain items and check delivery times and dates, and they were usually answered quickly.
The chat is only open during UK working hours (being a UK company), and not always when I was awake in Canada so it pays to book a few days in advance if you can. I personally left it to the last minute to book (a few days beforehand only) in case I wanted to add additional luggage items, and had no issue.
The only real paperwork you need to fill in is a packing list with values, which is a little tedious of course but I just kept a tally as I packed. It’s just so UK customs can see what you’re bringing in and as long as it’s not 100 Rolex watches worth a vast sum and it’s your stuff already it seemed fairly reasonable.
Bound for London – perhaps I should have bought this luggage?
So you don’t have to work out how much a second hand pair of knickers is worth the website helpfully includes guide values and auto-adjusts the value of everything to make sure your items all add up to the right amount.
You do have to attach this packing list to the outside of the item, and a copy inside, so you will need access to a printer, and the same goes for the courier label. Send My Bag sell a luggage wallet you can attach to make sure this important paperwork isn’t lost but this is sent to you by post and I didn’t have time to wait for it.
The solution I found was by chance – I went to Staples to try to buy something similar and they simply gave me a handful of those clear plastic wallets with one sticky side which are used to stick on packages to slot the paperwork into. Because of my material suitcase I then further secured this with gaffer tape going all the way around the entire suitcase because you can’t be too careful.
I happened to be waiting for something to be delivered via DHL on the pick up day too, and when the chap turned up to drop off my documents I mentioned I was also waiting for a pick up and he said he could simply take my case there and then rather than come back later as was marked on his pick up sheet. So by 1pm all my courier tasks were done and I was able to go out and get lunch.
When you book online with Send My Bag you’re given an estimated delivery date, which in my case was for the day I was landing. I was a little worried the bag would get to my house before me! I then got an email saying the bag would probably be delivered the following day after all.
I knew I’d be jet lagged and would not want to go anywhere the day of landing so I concluded that if the bag turned up that afternoon it would be ideal – but it would be safer to wait in the following day – I asked Send My Bag and they said no problem if I’m not home on the first attempt they will redeliver.
The bag turned up just a couple of hours after I got home, and the nice man from DHL carried it up the four flights of stairs to where I needed it to go – so I was delighted.
The bag on arrival, everything intact!
In case your situation isn’t that fluid I would point out that the bag was tracked the entire journey, and I knew where it was every step of the way, and I was also getting SMS updates. I felt very reassured and I never once felt that my bag was AWOL.
I had so much going on the day I flew and to have a large heavy suitcase magically appear at my house was one of the few aspects of my trip which went totally smoothly and made my life easier, I honestly was over the moon with the service and would love to use it again.
For more info visit SendMyBag.com
Tags: Send My Bag
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Paul
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This is close to a scam
This is close to a scam. They ask you for your bags dimensions. Then after they deliver the bag they claim your dimensions were wrong and charge you more money. If you don't pay they send in the debt collectors. They have no evidence of this claim, just saying that their contractors measure accurately. They acknowledge mistakes can happen but then expect you to revalidate the first measurements you provide. They hope you just pay more and go away.
If you over state your bag, they don't give you a refund and if you don't pay the will commence legal action against you. Remember, no evidence just pay up or we will send the debt collectors.
My tip, Go to UPS or DHL directly. That's who they use to ship your bag anyway, plus you can save a significant money by avoiding these middle men scammers. My quote from DHL was 25% cheaper than these scammers.
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Benjamin Wolf
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I had property STOLEN from my bag and after 3 weeks of dithering, they offered me $ 50 in compensation for over $ 200 of stolen property, even though I had purchased extra insurance. They have NO control over the chain of custody and NO IDEA what is going on. Plus, they obviously have thieves working there since my property was stolen. Shameful behavior and service.
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Itsnottheendoftheworld
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Another bad experience with Send My Bag. The DHL driver asked for additional copies documents that were not included in the list provided by SendMyBag. DHL said that they always have this problem with SendMyBag users. We followed the instructions to a T, spent an entire exhausting evening packing everything exactly as instructed. Only to have to rush back and forth up the stairs like crazy printing extra copies and signing them before the driver left. We would have been completely screwed if we didn’t have a printer. Terrible experience, and hardly what you want to be dealing with before a vacation or a move. Contacted SendMyBag to complain. They wouldn’t budge from their position that it was driver error, and yet they didn’t really have a solution for what to do if our bags had been refused. They said that they would have dispatched another driver on another day. That’s hardly workable if you are traveling soon. And it begs the question – would they have believed us if we contacted them claiming the driver didn’t accept the package because of missing documents? Or would they have called it “sender error,”, taken our money, and left us with our bags?
I will be looking into their competitors MyBaggage (similar rates, better express rates) or First Luggage.
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LBM
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My advise. Don’t book with this company. Unreliable and NO customer service. I have been a customer for years and this is how they have treated me today.
As dogs are not allowed to fly in and out of the UK in the cabin, I have to take a train from London to Harwich and then a ferry from Harwich to Hoek Van Holland and then another train to Amsterdam’s airport Schipol. This is the reason why I have booked #sendmybag on a quite a few occasions.
This year, in November, I booked the collection for today so that it would arrive in Spain on Dec. 22nd, as the site indicated. I asked to work from home because pick-up can be anytime from 9 am until 6 pm. At 4 pm I thought it was strange that no one had come so I contacted #sendmybag. They assured the driver was on route. At 5.30 pm still no one had come, so I called again, they said the driver was on route but that I should call back if at 6 pm no one had arrived. At 6.05 pm I called back and they insisted the driver was on route but just running late. They informed me that DHL was the carrier. I called DHL myself at 6.22 pm only to find out that the pick up had been “exempt”, I asked what that meant and they said “cancelled” but could not tell me more. I called #sendmybag again and they said that the driver had attempted delivery at 6.11 pm, which is not true as I was home and no one rang the door (also, DHL said it had been exempt). If that had been the case, why would DHL said it was exempt? My guess is that the driver was running late all day, finished his shift at 6 pm and left (I doubt they get paid extra time so why would he bother?). I told #sendmybag that, even if it had been true that the driver had come (which is not) he had been late.
The only solution #sendmybag offered was to re-book the service for Monday. That would mean, that I have to carry the 25 kg suitcase to work all the way to other side of the city and, worse of it all, they could not guarantee that I would get it before Dec. 27th (great, considering that the suitcase has my Christmas gifts, clothes and that I leave on the 28th). I told them that none of this was my fault, that I had waited all day and that the least they could do was book me for the express shipping so that I could get the things in time. This is not a caprice considering the journey I have to do. I SPENT OVER ONE HOUR ON THE PHONE. ONE HOUR, only to be told that they apologise but that they could not offer me an upgrade. I literally told the supervisor on the phone “it is not that you can’t, it is that you don’t want to”. Of course they can offer the upgrade! I would even have been willing to pay for the standard rate and have them pay the difference. Their empathy was none. They could not care less and much less take any responsibility. So you have someone who truly needs your services, books them way ahead to ensure the delivery, the driver never shows up and all you do is apologise and offer a re-book in spite of knowing that, because of Christmas, the things will take 10 days.
This is the type of no-service you can expect from this company. So, my advise to you, don’t book it. If anything happens, THEY WILL NOT ASSIST YOU AT ALL NOT TAKE ANY RESPONSIBILITY. They have lost a customer and, hopefully, thanks to my post, many more. I only hope now, that I least they will refund me…
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Bee Gold
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That is absolutely NOT my experience with Send my bag!!! I spent a whole frustrating day scanning, printing, photocopying, packing, unpacking, listing…I ended up in tears and swore to give Send my bag the dreadful reviews they deserve!!!
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Jaillan Yehia
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I’m really sorry to hear that – it sounds like you didn’t have a good time at all. It worked out great for me so I’m sad to hear it didn’t make your travels more convenient. I did have to list everything I packed, for customs reasons but I just wrote it all down as I packed it and I also had to print off a label but I found the service really efficient. Wishing you safe travels!
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Bee Gold
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Thank you dear for taking the time to read/respond. I had no clue you should list each item as you packed, until my 2 suitcases were all manually wrapped and I had to unwrap and re-wrap!! Also, I found their home page deceiving. I live in Canada, and assumed the quote was in CAD> Lo and behold!! It was in USD, but written in such small and pale font, I did not see it…. until came time to pay! Kind of dishonest. I did not know you have to have a scanner, a printer, all those things I do no have, as I travel extensively. Many frustrations, a whole day wasted… and yes, I did end up in tears. I told them about my awful experience, their response was “Sorry, it’s all in our Terms”, never offering, I dont know,maybe a gift card for a cup of coffee? I told of this catastrophic experience in our company’s internal newsletter, and nobody will use/recommend Send my bag. Awful.
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Jaillan Yehia
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I lived in Canada too so I can sympathise with the currency difference, USD is a different price altogether! It’s such a shame you didn’t realise about the admin side until afterwards, I guess maybe they could make it a little clearer so you don’t end up having to repack, and I’m sad to hear they didn’t offer you something to restore your faith. I hope your future travels are a lot less stressful 🙂
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