Shipping rip-off from these UK guys

[weirdami]

Depending on how fast you want it, it can be quite expensive to ship overseas. With USPS, to UK, it can easily be over a hundred dollars if you want it within about a week and the weight is over a few pounds. I usually suggest the 4-6 week method when I sell to overseas folks because it's much much cheaper. If you pay that 100 GBP shipping cost, you should expect to get it pretty fast, or else file a complaint or something.

[da9000]

@weirdami:

I don't think so dude. Check your facts :rtfm:   USPS with EMS (Global Express Mail) is pretty darn fast and very reasonable.

I googled for CD32's weight and got someone's package at 6kg. That's 14lbs, and here's what USPS quoted me for destination UK:

http://ircalc.usps.gov/intl_speed.asp?CID=12062&MailType=package&Pounds=14&Ounces=0

I call EMS pretty darn reasonable: 3-5 Days = $69.30

Just as a refresher, the opposite (UK->US) was quoted at $200. That's 3x the price.

----------------

ANYWAYS, I was not trying to re-open the original subject. I don't care about that anymore. I just wanted to add useful information (the link to Royal Mail's site) to the thread for those looking to ship stuff from the UK to the outside, and of course for those of us in this side of the pond that want to get stuff from the UK at "reasonable" prices.

[weirdami]

I like to reply to things twice for the same reason.  :oops:

[motorollin]

sdyates wrote:
1 dozen eggs 1.85 to 2.00 pounds, loaf of break 1 to 2 pounds. Petrol (gas) about 1 pound per litre. Oh, and the pay odes not compensate for this either. Do the conversion and you will realise why shipping can be so much.

Where the hell did you get those prices from? They're roughly double what you would actually pay in the UK for those items.

--
moto

[jbuonacc]

i don't know exactly, but there is something up. it's not just on heavy items like this. i've bought several small items from the UK over the past few weeks, all about the same size/weight. one guy wanted almost 3x as much as everyone else. there's a midi interface up there right now i'm looking at that has a starting price of 10ukp, but will cost me 30ukp to get it here! that's $80, and only if nobody else were to bid on it. could jump to $100 or more pretty quick. from someone else it might cost me $15-30 shipping. what gives? this is money that i'm not able to bid towards the item so i may lose out on something that i would actually pay a lot more for...

 :-?

[dandelion]

Hmmm....I sold (just last week) a piece of RISC OS software to a chap in the States. It was just a single floppy disk that I slipped into a small jiffy envelope so it really didn't weigh very much at all. I'd asked for 2 GBP postage and packaging for within the UK but when I realised the winning bidder was in the States I told him i'd have to hold off with the invoice and get the parcel delivery priced first. Royal Mail wanted (gasp) 1.70 GBP for air mail delivery of this parcel, so I got back to him with the great news that the final price was less than what i'd initially asked for! Apparently this is the "small parcel" service which seems very cheap!

[da9000]

@ jbuonacc:

What you described is the exact predicament I'm in. I just want a dinky little card, which I know that in the US would cost less than $10-20 to ship to Europe. Yet if I get this from the UK (coz there ain't no such cards here, arggg), then it'll cost me $60-80 or something... Thus my search for better pricing... This double-standard is annoying..

[jbuonacc]

actually, i'm not even talking about the difference between US>UK and UK>US. i'm talking about two vastly different shipping quotes from two UK sellers for basically that same item. one guy wants 8-12ukp, the other wants 30ukp!! same size/weight just about.

[Boot_WB]

Kin-Hell wrote:
Further on & still RE: Shipping Rates from the UK, in particular to the USA ;-), Anyone wanting to Post FROM the UK should check these guys rates out.

 Parcel2Go

I've had no personal experience with Parcel2Go other than Recieving a Sunroof for a German Sports car. Service was fast over UK mainland. However, I could not imagine it being anymore Farsicle than "Royal Fail" or "Parcel Farce" & by the looks of it, much cheaper too! :roll:

But there is no tracking service ith these guys, iirc. That leaves the seller without any protection if the buyer puts in a claim for an item not received with paypal.
Paypal/Ebay are quite clear in their t&cs that international shipping requires a trackable-signed-for service, otherwise the seller is totally unprotected.

EDIT > seems there is a tracking service provided now (I'm sure there didn't used to be :-? )
Still, £38 for all items up to 10kg - not bad compared to parcelfarce, but still pretty expensive.
Regards



Rich

[da9000]

I fully understood what you said, nonetheless the 30ukp is still sitting like a nail in your eye, ain't it?

[amigakit]

@da9000

What do you need?  Is it something that we stock?

[jbuonacc]

da9000 wrote:
I fully understood what you said...

ahh, sorry. good thing though - after contacting him he cut the shipping in half. still $30 to ship, but far better than $60! some people aren't this reasonable though...