Three years ago this month I moved from Boston, USA to Bonn, Germany. The move required substantial preparation and was stressful in many ways. Prior to the move, language was the least of my concerns, although I had begun classes at the Goethe Institute in Boston. The challenge at the time was deciding on an international moving company.
The German Consulate at Copley Place provided me with a list of credible firms to choose from. They also, however, disclosed the Consulate’s preferred moving company for its own employees. That company is Deutsche Möbelspedition (DMS) and it is the company I ultimately chose. They weren’t cheap. I spent €5.250 which at the time equaled well over $6,000. So what did I receive for this amount of money? DMS international moving services includes basically 3 things:
- Packing items in the US,
- Shipping over seas and
- Delivery in Germany.
You might ask, if it would have been possible to save money had I packed my own items. Due to custom regulations, however, that wouldn’t have been possible.
Yes, the price was rather steep, but it was not nearly as disconcerting as the time to delivery. I’ve worked for a few Global 500 companies, therefore my context of shipping things oversees is FedEx international. I figured, if FedEx can ship my contract to Europe in a few days, then DMS can mange to ship my sofa in a couple of weeks. Right… ? I couldn’t have been more wrong. I was told to expect 6 weeks between the initial packing in Boston and the date of delivery in Bonn.
So I spent the weeks in Bonn, Germany biking along the Rhein, always wondering if the huge cargo ship in the river would finally be the one shipping my couch.