Shipping costs and snow!

Pete Howlett

Pete Howlett

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Using the UPS dimentional weight calculator, shipping a 30" x 12" x 6" box to the US will now cost $246.19!!! If I use our PO service and have no tracking outside the US it will cost $75 and with tracking it'll be $125.

Related to this, a shipment I put into my local PO early Friday was still sat in the Post Office - we have had no collections or deliveries in North Wales for 4 days now.

All of this is immensely frustrating for me and my clients who were expecting their ukes before Christmas.

Has anyone else had a year where external elements have so conspired against you as to think you that someone, somewhere is sticking pins in a small image of you?
 
Aloha Pete,
I sent a gift soprano ukulele over to the UK from hawaii ...it took 14 days to get there...cost 42.00...get this the customs wouldn't release without paying close to fifty dollars...what's with that, it was a gift and
and a christmas card inside...who do complain to about this...the person didn't want to deal with the hassle and paid it...wow extortion..eh no money no package???
 
It is very difficult exporting these days. The value of the goods must be less than $25 or £18 to avoid any charges. What happens then is the whole of the package is charges with VAT - this includes the stated value which you have to have for honesty and insurance purposes, and the cost of shipping. This VAT charge is like US sales tax but is charged at 17.5% and wuill be 20% in the new year. On top of that there is another additional charge for the processing of the package through customs - the Post Office has the lowest charges.

Up until 9/11 and the recent oil crisis shiping was tough but OK. Now everything is charged and the dimentional weight idea first used by UPS I believe is now standard. Trouble is if you want to have the benefit of full insurance then you have to pack well. if you pack well you end up with alarge box...de da, de dah, de dah... I was conversing with a US maker who also epxressed the reservation that he may no longer export. I think this will be my last year for seriously looking for work on any market other than Europe.
 
I've had those days where you feel like anything that can possibly go wrong does. I've had whole months like that!

As a buyer, I never get upset with the sender if the package is delayed as long as the shipper got it when they were supposed to. Anything that happens once you hand it over is out of your control. I never understood how people blame the seller when something is late when it got delayed in transit.

Oh well. Hope you're enjoying the snow at least.
 
I live in a rural area, so I have to be careful what days, and time of day, I ship because they will put packages in a truck in the parking lot for a day or more until it fills up to go to the regional hub. My local hub doesn't have a temperature controlled space. I was also told that if I ship on a Friday, that most ground packages will sit in a trailer at the regional hub all weekend then will be moved on Monday am. I always ask my driver what their shipping schedule is like to make sure that it wont be sitting around.

For what its worth, a lot of large trade organizations have discounts with shipping companies as a membership benefit. I get a 50% discount off retail shipping through UPS and FEDEX. You might see if there is anything in Europe that you can join. Most trade organizations don't care what you actually do as long as you pay your dues. I pay $500 a year for membership and easily get that back in shipping. I'm surprised that some of the string instrument trade organizations don't pursue this kind of discount for its membership.
 
Which is a shame because when I started shipping back in 1994 it was peerless.
 
I'm not certain of the derivation of the word, but members of the Old Woodworking Machine group here in the states often rucker machines across the country for each other. They post their needs (points of origination and destination) on the website and more often than not someone is traveling between the two points on business or liesure and can help out with transport. Perhaps not suitable for commerce, but they are able to save each other a lot of shipping expenses.
 
I use US post office Priority Mail for all my foreign shipments. Cheaper by orders of magnitude than UPS. I do admit to underestimating value for the benefit of my customers but I have never, knock on wood, had a lost or damaged shipment out of hundreds. It roughly costs about $35 to ship a uke set to Europe or Japan. That comes down considerably (per set cost) with larger orders.
 
Yes, international shipping has been a problem this year for me as well. I had a customer in germany buy a uke from me. He wanted the lowest possible shipping costs and said he wanted no insurance or tracking. I said that if there is no insurance and it is lost its not my fault! Well, the german post claims it was delivered and has his signature. He said it was never delivered and it must be lost or stolen. I put an inquiry in with US post, but they back up whatever german post says. that means: no uke, no refund from german post, no insurance money. everybody looses!
 
Pete, you should move to the U.S. Preferably near the coast of Massachusetts so I could visit your shop.
 
As a letter carrier for the US Postal Service I can't say for sure how it works in Germany, but here in the US all foriegn packages big enough to hold a Ukulele have to be signed for and that signature is available for viewing online, if not by the customer because he didn't pay for the service, at least by the superviser in the delivering post office. If your German customer goes to his local post office they should be able to show him the signature as a digital image. I'm not sure if we can get that image here from the USPS for a German delivery, but I will ask tomorrow and get back to you. I would think that they could get it using the customs number. You might want to wait to enquire further til after Christmas though. The supervisers tend to be a little cranky right now.
 
i saw the document with a signature on it. he claims it wasn't his! i still think it may be a scam, but it could have been stolen!
 
Fortunately Aaron, your duty has been discharged. I am seriously thinking that exporting to the US is not for my business... besides you have such a great bunch of brilliant builders you don't need another to be feeding around the bottom of the pond :)
 
I ship everything via Express Mail with the USPS. My boxes are 10" X 12" X 36", double walled with corrugated liner, and average about 12 pounds. Shipping, with an average of about $2000 insurance, costs about $75 domestically and is delivered within 48 hours. Internationally it costs about $85 and takes about 10 days, although the last package I sent to the UK took only 4 !!!! Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the USPS. The only bad thing is that I can only get $650 worth of insurance for most International destinations. It's Customs that have me reluctant to ship overseas anymore. That's where the night mare begins. I've had ukes sitting in customs for several weeks (with proper documentation) for no apparent reason. Also, I never let a customer try to talk me into stating a lowing value on the documentation. You don't want to mess with these customs guys. They don't answer to anyone. With CITES and Lacey and customs delays, with doubtful and questionable procedures and legislation, it's rapidly getting to the point where it's not worth the hassle to ship abroad anymore.
 
I use USPS Priority Mail for all my shipping, as it's a whole lot cheaper than anybody else. I make my own wooden crates and use crumpled up newspaper for cushioning. Nothing has gotten lost or broken yet (knock on wood!). I charge a flat rate of $30 for the US and Canada, $60 elsewhere. Sometimes the $60 doesn't really cover it, but it all evens out for me in the end :)
 
I am sorry to see international shipping getting so expensive. I send everything US Postal Service First Class, and I have had only one international package go missing (to the UK), and one local package disappear (California). I know that import duty fees can be pretty stiff, and that can really make my simple product expensive. I am considering licensing the manufacture to someone in the UK or Europe. Do people in Germany have to pay import duty on things assembled in UK?
–Lori
 
Lori,

As far as I understand it trade is free between European Union member states.

Pete,

It's another instance of you get what you pay for. In the UK we seem to want Scandinavian service on US tax rates! We had a sign for parcel left by the back gate in the snow the other day. That'd what you get for part privatisation and deskilling and devaluing the work force!

6sc
 
Hi Pete,

From Time to time I recieve a package from your islands ---- Always Royal Mail.
Always cheaper by leaps and bounds one package was around 250 from UPS
Royal Mail got it to me for around 40 but it did take 2 weeks. Never had a run in
with Customs(knocking on wood). Happy Holidays.

Cheers.
 
I've found that in England, UK postal service will keep an international parcel at the local post office and not even notify the reciever it is there. They expect you to come get it and pay duty, but you'd think they would at least notify you that you have a package waiting. If it is not claimed after a couple of weeks, they send it back to where it came from.
 
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