Hello,
I would like to add some information to this, from the point of view of
someone who lives outside the USA.
The USA is a pretty special case, it seems, regarding shipping of goods.
In most countries in the world, the default shipping method used by
everybody is mail. But in the USA, mail seems to have a bad reputation,
and people in the USA prefer to use courier services, which might work
well inside the USA, but are not always good in other countries. Also,
courier services are typically several times as expensive as mail!
I live in Chile, and I regularly order lots of stuff from overseas - the
USA, several European countries (including less known ones such as
Latvia), China, Australia, South Africa, you name it. This stuff is
electronic parts, music CDs, books, photo equipment and supplies, and a
lot of other stuff. My most recent import was a chain saw spare part,
and right now I'm awaiting a Fresnel magnifier for SMD work, and some
movie DVDs.
Whenever I order any of this stuff from any country EXCEPT the USA, the
default shipping is by airmail, and the shipping charges are reasonable
or outright cheap, such as 23 dollars for a 15kg parcel from China to
Chile. And the items arrive well. It takes some time, up to 4 weeks
sometimes, but they do arrive.
When I try to order from the USA, things are different: Many sellers
refuse to ship by mail. Others do offer shipping by mail, but try to
discourage this. Some will ship by mail, as long as the address is not a
P.O.Box. And some, fortunately, are willing to ship by mail, with no
fuss and no restrictions. Those are the ones that get my orders. But
even mail shipping from the USA is far more expensive than from some
other countries, even if they are farther away and don't have direct
flights to Chile! It's crazy.
Courier services such as Fedex or UPS are fast (3 to 4 days), but often
have very poor service in Chile (and many other countries). I had a case
when Fedex sent back a parcel because they didn't find my street
address, which was correctly printed, and located in a well known road
of a big city... go figure. Another time I was sent a parcel by UPS,
which arrived when I was on a family trip for three days. They sent the
parcel back on the second day, when no one opened the door!
Another time Fedex paid the import and sales tax for a parcel for me,
then charged me that amount (which is fine), but ALSO charged me sales
tax on the tax they paid! That's unfair, incorrect, no law requires them
to do so. I guess they pocketed that money. But they would not give me
the parcel if I didn't pay that inflated amount!
With mail, instead, all works well. It's slow, but pretty safe, and if
there's nobody home the mailman will leave a note and take the parcel
back to the post office, where it can be picked up up to one month
later. They will emit further notes every week and deliver them to the
address, before sending anything back. If there are custom charges, the
parcel is held in the post office, they send a note, one goes to the
post office, pays the taxes and gets the parcel.
Three years ago I moved to the countryside. Now my only shipping address
is my P.O.Box in the nearest city. Neither the mail service, nor any
courier service deliver to my rural location. I get everything through
my P.O.Box, from letters to an outboard engine. It works great. But 80%
of all US sellers, at least, are now out of reach for me, because they
refuse to ship by mail, to a P.O.Box!
When I have to ship anything overseas myself, I use registered airmail.
That's reasonably priced, simple, I get a legally valid document to
prove that I actually shipped the parcel, the addresse has to sign when
he gets it, and it is trackable online. It can also be insured, for 2%
of the value.
About that amplifier to be sent to Japan, I would suggest to have a look
at the different services offered by the US Postal Service. Very often
International Priority Mail is the best performance/price tradeoff. It's
likely that it will be far less expensive than a courier service, and
that the Japanese ham getting the amp will be happier!
That said, shipping a heavy amp overseas aboard an airplane will be
expensive in any case. I canot recommend surface mail, as it takes
almost forever (four months to one year!), and the risk of theft or
damage (moisture) is high. But maritime cargo services do exist, which
put lots of stuff from different customers into one container, and ship
that. They can be surprisingly inexpensive. I got two big generators
from China by sea cargo. Each weighs 120kg. Shipping for the two of them
was only a few dollars, Shanghai to Valparaiso! I couldn't really
believe it until I got them. They took two months. But here I had to
hire a customs broker to get them out of the port, and he charged about
again as much as the shipping from China to Chile was. Still it was very
inexpensive, overall.
Good luck with that far-travelling amp!
Manfred
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Visit my hobby homepage!
http://ludens.cl
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