International shipping by Elderly Instruments

foxfair

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disclaimer: no special relationship with the store, other than a satisfied customer. etc etc...

I put an order of various string sets from Elderly's online store in Sep 29, got a "shipped out" notice email in Oct 4th and waited for its arrival. The international shipment carried by USPS is suppose to take 2-6 weeks, but I had received my strings yesterday. About 10 days on shipping, and cost only $10. I would say that Elderly does an excellent job to take care of my case, and I recommend any intl user to order multiple sets at once, so you can save up the shipping cost.

Of course, if you are in a hurry to get new strings, you should always rush to local store.... This is for those who want to buy spares and dont care about waiting.
 
I looked at shipping strings to here from Elderly, but it would up being cheaper all-around to order them in-county. The strings were a tad more expensive, but when you factored in shipping, it still came out ahead. Guess it depends, where you are and what you're looking for!
 
I get them in 4-5 days...you pay for convience...I guess...in that sense, the two bucks is well worth it to me....
 
I have been salivating over the Cordoba Guilele for quite a while and considering pre-ordering from Elderly. Thanks for the tip.
 
Thanks for sharing your experience with Elderly.
 
I've purchased two very nice ukuleles, several cases, numerous sets of strings, humidifiers, etc, from Elderly. It is always a pleasure dealing with them.
 
I don't mean to rain on the Elderly Parade, but Canadians should think twice before ordering from Elderly. Perhaps the shop's international rates are good value for someone in Asia or Australia; they are hideously bad value for someone in Canada. Shipping on strings and other small objects is unnecessarily expensive. Shipping on instruments borders on absurd. I think Elderly is generally a great shop offering great products, but I really wish it would rethink its policy on international orders.

In order to back up this complaint with actual evidence, I just went to the Elderly website and started to process an order for a $200 Hamano Soprano. I was offered two shipping options: $100 via FedEx or $125 via UPS. I've never had anything shipped via FedEx before, but the last time I had something shipped via UPS--an acoustic electric tenor in a case, meaning that it weighed a great deal more than a caseless soprano--it was about $40 (until I was hit with the $100 "extra" fee at the door, that is). Sopranos shipped via USPS tend to cost around $30.
 
I don't mean to rain on the Elderly Parade, but Canadians should think twice before ordering from Elderly. Perhaps the shop's international rates are good value for someone in Asia or Australia; they are hideously bad value for someone in Canada. Shipping on strings and other small objects is unnecessarily expensive. Shipping on instruments borders on absurd. I think Elderly is generally a great shop offering great products, but I really wish it would rethink its policy on international orders.

In order to back up this complaint with actual evidence, I just went to the Elderly website and started to process an order for a $200 Hamano Soprano. I was offered two shipping options: $100 via FedEx or $125 via UPS. I've never had anything shipped via FedEx before, but the last time I had something shipped via UPS--an acoustic electric tenor in a case, meaning that it weighed a great deal more than a caseless soprano--it was about $40 (until I was hit with the $100 "extra" fee at the door, that is). Sopranos shipped via USPS tend to cost around $30.

same experience here. I've ordered many things from elderly over the years. First, their customer service and attention to detail is awesome, as is the express nature of their shipping. Whilst ordering some sets of strings is cheap for postage internationally, if you're looking at buying a uke(s) and cases, stands etc the shipping charges go through the roof. You're basically looking at a minimum $120 to get to Australia and once, I desperately wanted two ukes and it cost me $245+ for shipping them over together. That's cool if there's other smaller stuff you want...they can all go in the same box.

Best advice with elderly though is to plan in advance for a number of items you may want and bunch them in for the same shipment to reduce costs.
But NO argument here re their service quality, speed and reasonable shipping costs on small items. They're great!
 
I guess it's all about the destination and what item you are buying.
 
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