Customer Reviews

When I found out from the company in Germany, Michels, which we had the contract with, that Conroys would be the NZ agent, I was happy because I thought Conroys had a good reputation. Unfortunately I was very dissapointed overall.

I will start with the good: The guys who came and delivered our stuff were really nice and friendly and did a great job. They get a great review from us!

The main problem was that it took 27 days from our container arriving at the port of Tauranga, through to it being delivered to us (it breezed through the MPI inspection), and the lack of communucation during this time and leading up to it. That is rediculous and made everything to do with our moving into our new home difficult to plan, as well as having us rent an empty home for ten days needlessly, and me having to commute two hours daily to work and me, my wife, and two y.o son extend our stay with a friend in his small apartment from "a long weekend" to close to two weeks.

In planning to begin our rental agreement, I had very much in mind that we were to start paying storage fees on the 20th of November, therefore we needed a rental before then. I emailed Conroys in September, asking how this date was calculated (i.e. from arrival in port or something else, it would have been helpful for my planning), and all I got back for an answer was "storage will be charged from the 20th November". Not helpful for planning.  

As of 7th November, the last update from Conroys on the progress I had on its delivery status was 13th September. That email said it was due in port on the 9th November. On the 7th I emailed Conroys to say that apparently our container had already arrived in port on the 2nd Nov. This was according to the German company, Michels. The reply I had back from Conroys was "your container is due to arrive on the 9th". I then found out that I could track the container directly (i did not know the ship name once it changed in Hong Kong). A 30 second task for me with google showed that yes, according to ship tracking it did arrive on the 2nd. On the 8th I called Conroys, and the coordinator again said, "it is due to come in on the 9th". I told about the container tracking, then your coordinator actually checked themselves, and said "Oh, its been sitting down at the port since the 2nd, I'd better get onto the guys down at the port about that...". I.e. they didn't know. The excuse that I was later told was that the shipping line did not update Conroys that the container arrived on an earlier ship. My question to Conroys: is it not your job to be tracking your customers containers?? Six days were lost right there.

I quickly got an email on the 8th to confirm arrival and that it would be 5-7 days before being ready for delivery. On this basis I started our rental tenancy on the 18th November (remember, all our possessions except those we could fly with, are in this container).  On the 9th I had an email to say it would be unloaded on the 13th and then a quarenteen inspection will occur. All good. Except that when I called on the 15th, I was told it hadn't been unloaded yet, it would be the end of the week (16-17th). The MPI inspection actually happened on the 21st - so eight days after the email saying it would be ready for inspection on the 13th. Not very accurate and not once did I get unprompted communication from Conroys about its updated (delayed) status.

The final problem was the wait to be delivered. You apparently have one container truck! On the 22nd I was finally able to arrange delivery - again I instigated the conversation, but the first available delivery slot was the 29th, so an entire week later. This meant that our delivery was nine days after the date that we were supposed to start paying storage, the day which I had in mind to ensure that we had everything arranged at our end.

The delays cost us ten days rent of an empty house ($640) and me commuting daily from Taupo to Rotorua to my new work, while we stayed with a friend in Taupo. This was a time of constant uncertainty, because the communication and updates from Conroys was terrible, I only got updates if I called your staff. The excuses that they didn't know the ship had changed was poor. The excuse that this is the busiest time of the year is also poor - this is something you can plan for in advance, and even if you can't be prepared fully for the volume - you could at least give realistic updates of timeframes, instead of unrealistic timeframes and silence. Finally, the week delay to get it delivered - either hire more trucks during this time, or put our things into a non-container truck - I do not understand why our things had to go back into a container for delivery.

All in all a frustrating experience, which I am trying to put behind us. We have our stuff now, which is mostly in good shape, and we can get on with setlting into our lives in our new home. I hope you take this critisism constructively.

Kind regards, Grant Nicoll

Great service overall.  Everybody was nice & easy to deal with.  Times of pick up & delivery were perfect.  A few boxes got a bit munted, but it was very minimal and way less than I would have expected in a big move.  Nothing was broken.

Removal people and delivery people were very pleasant, efficient & cheerful.  Thanks for an easy & stress free move!