Of love, life and the internet

I’m sitting here in India now and thought I’d follow up with Part II.

Here were the inspiring moments.

1. Discovery of Shiply.com - (beautiful, poetic, stroke of genius)… basically the funda is that if you want to ship anything (ranging from a small table lamp to a few streets down all the way to all your household belongings to another country) to anywhere then this site rocks. You put the basic information of what you’re sending and where and you will have shipping agencies bid for the project. I shipped a chest of drawers from north west London to South East London for about 15 quid. amazing. once again - simple user interface.. no confusion.. got the best dealer out there.

2. Meeting celebrities - Sold some good furniture and knick knacks to this young lady. As we put the stuff in her car I noticed a cricket helmet.. got chatting and turns out she’s this mega superstar cricketer. Kicking myself for not taking an autograph.

3. Landlady - Long story short, I had to slimey-ly bypass my property agent during the August long weekend to go get my security deposit from the landlady. She was an orphan from WW2 sent to UK from Czechoslovakia. She’s got a broken spine, kidney failure, she can barely walk. When I walked into her house it was almost as if it were a film set from the 1960s. She sat chain smoking as we chatted about her grandkids and my moving woes. She’s being sued by a previous estate agency where we had initially contracted but got acquired in the interim.  Anyway - kind soul.. gave me the whole deposit. God Bless.

Other interesting pieces:

- Barclays bank at first told me that non EU residents can’t have a bank account in the UK and I would need to shut the account or open a ‘high charges’ offshore account with them. On the day I was leaving, a different branch was able to change my address to my new India one and rubbished the earlier advice.

- Seven Seas has yet to tell me the expected date of arrival for my stuff. They had estimated 77 days on their site and it’s been about 45 days already.

- I’m designing creative solutions for vengeance on the property agent. Once I’m a millionaire, I’ll hire a private investigator… etc etc..

- After London, my wife and I went for a holiday in the US on US airways. No major goof-ups, but I have to say that is by far the worst service I have seen. My fears were confirmed when the immigration officer said “It’s not a joke. I will never let any of my family fly that airline”

- British Gas, Virgin Media sent refund cheques to our previous address a few weeks after we left. It’s quite a pain dealing with that sitting far away. Council tax refund took 3 weeks as well.

Hope that helps some poor souls who have to go through moving houses. That over - here’s to a new life back in India!

Aug 14 - Happy independence day Pakistan and advance wishes to India.

Been a busy time - elder bro’s wedding in Delhi. Now back to UK for final pack and move (I’m nearly independent). Before I get to my main topic, here’s a bit of my usual randomness:

- My TV was bought by a photographer whose last assignment involved Indian vineyards and Chinese surfers. Talk about the offline long tail!
- I’ve become hooked to the US TV show, Entourage. Better late than never.
- I’m having shouting matches with the estate agent whilst I attempt to sell some of our stuff. Not easy being a charming salesman when someone’s stealing your deposit.

So here’s the serious bit. I hereby present to you: The OLLATI Guide to moving outside the UK - Online! (Let’s begin..)
- Mobile Phones: My wife and I are with O2 for mobile. I was on a simplicity plan and the helpline lady suggested that I just convert my number to a pre-pay rather than have to give 30 days notice to cancel my simplicity account. Great suggestion - bonus points to her. My wife’s on an iphone contract which is water tight so we’re going to live with that one for a while.
- Broadband and Landline: Virgin was relatively painless and agreed to cancel our contract a few short of the initial agreement since we were moving abroad. I can’t image BT or any other provider being that nice.
- Utilities: Thames Water had a good online form for movers. We need to call them with our meter reading on our last day. British Gas was not so ‘internet friendly’ for people moving abroad. They only catered to moves within the UK - so had to make a phone call for that one!
- Council Tax: It was a simple online form but I had to call Camden council to actually process the paperwork. Turns out we have a credit balance (!!). Anyway - short email for authorisation .. hope to see that moolah soon!
- Income Tax: Apparently 2/3 of people leaving UK do not claim a tax refund. On average people leaving are due £700 in income tax refund. Very simple and friendly section online- http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/incometax/refund-reclaim.htm. When we called the office, they sent the case for assessment and so let’s see how this works out for us!
- Shipping: I look at several online services and got quotes from many. For some 3 weeks notice was too less. The quotes for about 10 boxes ranged from £150 - 600. While price was a big consideration, I also found Seven Seas to be the most responsive, the most friendly online interface. The box deliveries were prompt on the next day in the hourly slot they emailed beforehand. The online reviews that I have read are mixed. For a relatively straightforward case (no midway change of plans), I’m hoping they’ll do an OK job. I’ve asked for Door to Depot cause it’s much cheaper and they allow more weight per box. There will be charges to pay at the other end but I’m hoping it will be less than the £80-100 they ask us to budget
(the best part of the seven seas site was they offer an income tax refund service based on no refund-no payment. Their tax consultant on the phone was very polite as well)
- House Contract: This is the sensitive one. The landlady is very old and hence we deal with the agent. We’ve definitely been misled on our contract. During signing and the renewal we had asked to include a 6 month break-clause in our contract. This was inserted and when we exercised the break clause during month 9 in the 12 month term, the estate agent insists that we could only exercise the break clause at month 6 (not a day before, not a day after!!). Anyway, I know how to read English - that’s not what our contract says. Two lawyers (one independent, one friend) agree with my interpretation, so it may be that we’ll have to go to court over the security deposit. Apparently - this 6 month thing has become a common dispute around the break clause in London tenancy contracts. The recurring theme is poorly drafted contracts with ambiguous wording (I smell a rat or two).A great discovery was the Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme. There are big penalties attached to the landlord/ agent in case they don’t comply. http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/tenancydepositschemes.
- County Court: to understand on how to make a small claim, this artcile was useful - http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/bargains-and-rip-offs/article.html?in_article_id=417663&in_page_id=5. I’ve been trying to look online for a good/ cost effective lawyer. This site promised to help, but never heard back http://www.qualitysolicitors.com/find-a-solicitor/locations/find-solicitors-london.html
- Selling second hand stuff: This is the interesting part. My experience with online classifieds.

1. In London, there’s no beating gumtree. The interface, the features, the service may be perfect - but the classified service will only be as good as the network. Half of London is on gumtree. The analytics around the number of views is very welcome.
2. Craigslist was the simplest and easiest for posting and ad.  
3. OLX allowed me to upload as many pictures as I wanted - that was important for someone who has many things to sell
4. Vivastreet was mediocre in all senses
5. Gumtree only allowed 3 photos and was charging for posting an ad for house rentals. Not so happy with that.
6. For specialist stuff, like my 4 pet terrapins (cooter, columbus, baba and chutki), I was advised to advertise on specialist forums (with a 1980s design and interface) - but it worked! the offer I received was about 3x the best offer for gumtree.
7. Separate ads worked better than the combined ‘house clearance’ ad.
8. TV and microwaves are hot items - several enquiries!
9. Anyone want to buy a 1964 Encyclopedia Brittanica?

That’s all from the OLLATI guide. Happy Moving! (or as they say in India - Shifting!)

By the time the author finished it was Aug 15… Independence Day in India. Not quite there yet in London.