It's great to hear you had a good experience. I had a terrible experience with one company, I won't mention them on here but do be careful (they advertise weekly in the costa blanca news and many free papers)
I will explain my experience:
I wanted to transport my two huskies and cat to Spain. They were in Kennels in the UK whilst we did our move and the transport company in question were planned to collect them from the Kennels and bring them to us. Firstly they changed the date of collection several times which was annoying as I had to pester the british kennels to keep them on (and they were very booked up).
We decided that we would rather bring the animal documentation (passports etc ) to Spain and deliver it to the transport company rather than leaving these important papers with the Kennels for fear they would be lost. It was agreed I could visit their Spanish kennels near Alicante to deliver the docs but then they offered to collect them when they were in my area.
Some time passed and the date for the transportation got closer and they called to say that they were too busy to collect the documents and that they couldn;t collect them. i said I would drive to Alicante to deliver them but they said this was not possible as they were going back to the UK early and were leaving that day.
I was concerned about the animals but the transport company said they didn't need the docs as they dont get stopped on the UK-SPAIN leg of the journey. Now I have driven through France many many times to Spain and not once have I ever been stopped BUT nevertheless the law states that to enter spain the dogs must have at very least ha a rabies jab. We went to a lot of trouble and expense to ensure they had passports (which they have had for over a year). My worry was that IF they did get stopped without the legal papers who knows what would happen.
Not only that but they were due to go to Kennels in Spain (belonging to the trasport company). What kind of Kennels accept dogs into their care without at least seeing the stadard vacination certificates, never mind traveling with them accross Europe with no proof of microchip, no proof of Rabies jab and no proof of any kind of vet care at all.
I emphasises my worries to the company and they told me to stop worrying because they never get stopped. HOW IRRESPONSIBLE.
Anyway I was put in an awkward situation because the UK kennels could keep them no longer and sadly although I looked into other companies nobody could pick them up for several days.
In the end, for my own peace of mind I had to Pay DHL more than 100 euros to send the paperwork to the UK kennels on a secure AM delivery service. That way at least I knew they had the paperwork incase they did get stopped. i also instructed them to deliver the animals straight back to me rather than kennel them (who knows what the kennels were like!)
I also pre warned the transport company that my huskies are very pack orientated and the reason I wanted them transporting by road rather than air was because they are inspereable and will literally howl if split up. I was told that they would be kept together.
When the dogs arrived the driver compalined about how noisey they were (and they are incidently brilliantly bahaved boys), and said that they wouldnt be seperated and so they had to put them together. The Kennel they were in inside the van was no more than a large cat box and the dogs were literally on top of each other - imagine being in a box that small for 3 days and nights!
If you use any company make sure that you check their vehicle, check their credentials and get references because if you love your pets like we do then you wouldnt; want to take any risks.