Hi All
Often, small components & materials for my stained glass business are
only available in the USA, or are much cheaper over there than here
(Ireland).
I've got an opportunity to buy some wholesale items, but the folks over
that side of the pond are often a bit clueless about shipping costs &
methods to destinations outside the USA - which pushes the overall price up.

Parcel2go have been pestering me to use their service - so I tried an
online quote (USA - Irl) - and their website declined to give an answer.
Contacted their online chat - and was told that I'd need to set up a
USA Rent Address - as per https://www.parcel2go.com/Rent-US-Address.aspx

This is a new one on me - anybody ever heard of this, and does it work ?
Sounds tempting, as lots of my potential suppliers offer free-within-the
USA delivery - so I'd be paying a properly-calculated
rate for the trans-atlantic delivery...

....somehow it all looks a bit dodgy - and I don;t want to get involved
in anything 'complicated' g

Anybody else come across this before ?

Thanks
Adrian

On Jul 30, 9:21*am, Dave Osborne wrote:


The US domestic market is so huge that a lot of suppliers have no clue
how to ship internationally.

I've never had a problem, but a different market segment.

Also, a lot of US suppliers have no clue
about their liability and/or their products' suitability for the
European market (i.e. they have no idea about CE marking).

Irrelevant, since CE is the importer's responsibility.

Biggest problem is hazardous materials or anything fragile that needs
careful packing. It can be a PITA and expensive to ship them back.

MBQ

On 30 July, 08:46, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
Hi All
Often, small components & materials for my stained glass business are
only available in the USA, or are much cheaper over there than here
(Ireland).
I've got an opportunity to buy some wholesale items, but the folks over
that side of the pond are often a bit clueless about shipping costs &
methods to destinations outside the USA - which pushes the overall price up.


what physical amount we talking here? large boxes, couple of hunderd
kgs when packed well?

if so I would be talking to "freight forwarders" in ireland to get
quotes for them to arrange (via their agents in US) to receive,
collate and trans-ship your stuff, properly insured etc by a method/
speed/price of your choice...

Cheers
Jim K

On Jul 30, 9:38*am, Jim K wrote:
On 30 July, 08:46, Adrian Brentnall wrote:

Hi All
Often, small components & materials for my stained glass business are
only available in the USA, or are much cheaper over there than here
(Ireland).
I've got an opportunity to buy some wholesale items, but the folks over
that side of the pond are often a bit clueless about shipping costs &
methods to destinations outside the USA - which pushes the overall price up.



If you use a USA shipping address like this, who completes the customs
declaration? the Uk VAT charge will be based on the declared value
(plusthe declared shipping cost).

Robert

In article ,
Adrian Brentnall wrote:
Hi All
Often, small components & materials for my stained glass business are
only available in the USA, or are much cheaper over there than here
(Ireland).
I've got an opportunity to buy some wholesale items, but the folks over
that side of the pond are often a bit clueless about shipping costs &
methods to destinations outside the USA - which pushes the overall price up.

Parcel2go have been pestering me to use their service - so I tried an
online quote (USA - Irl) - and their website declined to give an answer.
Contacted their online chat - and was told that I'd need to set up a
USA Rent Address - as per https://www.parcel2go.com/Rent-US-Address.aspx

This is a new one on me - anybody ever heard of this, and does it work ?
Sounds tempting, as lots of my potential suppliers offer free-within-the
USA delivery - so I'd be paying a properly-calculated
rate for the trans-atlantic delivery...

...somehow it all looks a bit dodgy - and I don;t want to get involved
in anything 'complicated' g

Anybody else come across this before ?

I've found some US companies only use couriers to ship even relatively low
value stuff to the UK even when there's no rush. Even sometimes costing
more than the item. My way round this is to get it sent to a pal in the US
who then forwards it by the cheapest method. And can sometimes avoid
import duty. ;-)
A pro service doing the same would be a good idea.

--
*On the seventh day He brewed beer *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

HI Jim

On 30/07/2010 09:38, Jim K wrote:
On 30 July, 08:46, Adrian wrote:
Hi All
Often, small components& materials for my stained glass business are
only available in the USA, or are much cheaper over there than here
(Ireland).
I've got an opportunity to buy some wholesale items, but the folks over
that side of the pond are often a bit clueless about shipping costs&
methods to destinations outside the USA - which pushes the overall price up.


what physical amount we talking here? large boxes, couple of hunderd
kgs when packed well?

Not quite in that league ! g
More like 1 cube ft boxes, a couple per month - that sort of thing....
not quite in the 'freight forwarding' area


if so I would be talking to "freight forwarders" in ireland to get
quotes for them to arrange (via their agents in US) to receive,
collate and trans-ship your stuff, properly insured etc by a method/
speed/price of your choice...

Very much smaller scale than that - just annoying when you price up a
purchase at $130 for goods and $60+ for postage.....
- when you know full well that there's barely $30 of actual postage
costs if packed in a 'standard box' - but the supplier insists on using
a much bigger, unnecessary & more expensive box....

Thanks
Adrian

On Fri, 30 Jul 2010 09:21:07 +0100, Dave Osborne wrote:
Consequently, the only way to get stuff out of the US is to get the
supplier to ship to a valid US postal address (valid in the opinion of
FedEx/UPS/USPS, where someone will sign to accept the delivery) and then
sort out the international expedition from there.

Quick note on that front - everything I've had sent to me via FedEx
recently (to my address in the US) has been marked as not needing a
signature. AFAIK it's up to the seller to indicate that.

Jim K wrote:
On 30 July, 08:46, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
Hi All
Often, small components & materials for my stained glass business are
only available in the USA, or are much cheaper over there than here
(Ireland).
I've got an opportunity to buy some wholesale items, but the folks over
that side of the pond are often a bit clueless about shipping costs &
methods to destinations outside the USA - which pushes the overall price up.


what physical amount we talking here? large boxes, couple of hunderd
kgs when packed well?

if so I would be talking to "freight forwarders" in ireland to get
quotes for them to arrange (via their agents in US) to receive,
collate and trans-ship your stuff, properly insured etc by a method/
speed/price of your choice...

Cheers
Jim K
You can actually book that yourself.

as a 'collect there, deliver here'

Try www.parcel2go.com for an online quote

This is good for clueless ****s. You pay FOB price and arrange own
shipment.

Essentially anything you can hold in your hand thats not much bigger
than book size, post is cheapest up to around 5 quid cost. Once over the
'small packet' size/weight you are into Fedex territory, customs
bull****, fees for additional paperwork, Vat on fees for additional
paperwork blah blah and its a min of around £15, and £40-60 is not
unusual even for small items.

It is not unusual for a cheap virgin Atlantic flight, a large suitcase
and an overnight hotel in New York to be the cheapest way to get
something into the country ;-)

On 30/07/2010 14:40, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Jim K wrote:
On 30 July, 08:46, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
Hi All
Often, small components & materials for my stained glass business are
only available in the USA, or are much cheaper over there than here
(Ireland).
I've got an opportunity to buy some wholesale items, but the folks over
that side of the pond are often a bit clueless about shipping costs &
methods to destinations outside the USA - which pushes the overall
price up.


what physical amount we talking here? large boxes, couple of hunderd
kgs when packed well?

if so I would be talking to "freight forwarders" in ireland to get
quotes for them to arrange (via their agents in US) to receive,
collate and trans-ship your stuff, properly insured etc by a method/
speed/price of your choice...

Cheers
Jim K

Thanks for the comments

You can actually book that yourself.

as a 'collect there, deliver here'

Try www.parcel2go.com for an online quote

Might help if you read the original post - where I wrote

"Parcel2go have been pestering me to use their service - so I tried an
online quote (USA - Irl) - and their website declined to give an answer.
Contacted their online chat - and was told that I'd need to set up a
USA Rent Address - as per https://www.parcel2go.com/Rent-US-Address.aspx"


This is good for clueless ****s. You pay FOB price and arrange own
shipment.

If you're going to go round calling people clueless ****s - you might
want to make 100% sure that you aren't being one yourself...g

Try it if you don't believe me - www.parcel2go.com, 1 parcel, Fron USA
to Ireland, 15kg, 30cm x 30cm x 30cm - and see if you get an online
quote.... I didn't....

FWIW - the best option for my purposes (so far) looks like
http://www.shipito.com - which allows for consolidation of diescrete
packages into a single shipment, delivery via USPS (which wasn't an
option with parcel2go) and a reasonable pricing structure...

Adrian

Adrian Brentnall wrote:
On 30/07/2010 14:40, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Jim K wrote:
On 30 July, 08:46, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
Hi All
Often, small components & materials for my stained glass business are
only available in the USA, or are much cheaper over there than here
(Ireland).
I've got an opportunity to buy some wholesale items, but the folks over
that side of the pond are often a bit clueless about shipping costs &
methods to destinations outside the USA - which pushes the overall
price up.


what physical amount we talking here? large boxes, couple of hunderd
kgs when packed well?

if so I would be talking to "freight forwarders" in ireland to get
quotes for them to arrange (via their agents in US) to receive,
collate and trans-ship your stuff, properly insured etc by a method/
speed/price of your choice...

Cheers
Jim K

Thanks for the comments

You can actually book that yourself.

as a 'collect there, deliver here'

Try www.parcel2go.com for an online quote

Might help if you read the original post - where I wrote

"Parcel2go have been pestering me to use their service - so I tried an
online quote (USA - Irl) - and their website declined to give an answer.
Contacted their online chat - and was told that I'd need to set up a
USA Rent Address - as per https://www.parcel2go.com/Rent-US-Address.aspx"


This is good for clueless ****s. You pay FOB price and arrange own
shipment.

If you're going to go round calling people clueless ****s - you might
want to make 100% sure that you aren't being one yourself...g


I meant at the far end, not you.


Try it if you don't believe me - www.parcel2go.com, 1 parcel, Fron USA
to Ireland, 15kg, 30cm x 30cm x 30cm - and see if you get an online
quote.... I didn't....

FWIW - the best option for my purposes (so far) looks like
http://www.shipito.com - which allows for consolidation of diescrete
packages into a single shipment, delivery via USPS (which wasn't an
option with parcel2go) and a reasonable pricing structure...


Thats nice to know.

Adrian

On 30/07/2010 17:32, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Adrian Brentnall wrote:
On 30/07/2010 14:40, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Jim K wrote:
On 30 July, 08:46, Adrian Brentnall wrote:
Hi All
Often, small components & materials for my stained glass business are
only available in the USA, or are much cheaper over there than here
(Ireland).
I've got an opportunity to buy some wholesale items, but the folks
over
that side of the pond are often a bit clueless about shipping costs &
methods to destinations outside the USA - which pushes the overall
price up.


what physical amount we talking here? large boxes, couple of hunderd
kgs when packed well?

if so I would be talking to "freight forwarders" in ireland to get
quotes for them to arrange (via their agents in US) to receive,
collate and trans-ship your stuff, properly insured etc by a method/
speed/price of your choice...

Cheers
Jim K

Thanks for the comments

You can actually book that yourself.

as a 'collect there, deliver here'

Try www.parcel2go.com for an online quote

Might help if you read the original post - where I wrote

"Parcel2go have been pestering me to use their service - so I tried an
online quote (USA - Irl) - and their website declined to give an answer.
Contacted their online chat - and was told that I'd need to set up a
USA Rent Address - as per https://www.parcel2go.com/Rent-US-Address.aspx"


This is good for clueless ****s. You pay FOB price and arrange own
shipment.

If you're going to go round calling people clueless ****s - you might
want to make 100% sure that you aren't being one yourself...g


I meant at the far end, not you.

Ah well - that's different g

"Uh .... Ireland .... is that Ireland, Urup ?"


Bless 'em!

Good day today - got the US Addfress thing sorted - also managed
to make contact with a US manufacturer who supplies one of the clueless
retailers I deal with - and is V happy to sell bulk to me direct,
and send via USPS....

Grand altogether!

Adrian

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Adrian Brentnall
saying something like:

Good day today - got the US Addfress thing sorted - also managed
to make contact with a US manufacturer who supplies one of the clueless
retailers I deal with - and is V happy to sell bulk to me direct,
and send via USPS....

I've bought a fair bit of gear from the US over the past decade. Before
USPS dropped their slow-boat rate, it was the cheapest by a long way, if
slow. Sometimes the smaller slow-boat stuff was lobbed on a plane and
got here within 48 hours.
Now, the cheapest USPS service is 1st Class International, which is
quick enough and ok for items up to around 5kg, iirc. Unfortunately,
most US retailers don't know about it and tend to quote silly rates, eg,
Express, UPS, DHL, etc, so need to be reminded.

Grand altogether!

Ah sure, you're picking it up, so.

Hiya Grim

On 04/08/2010 14:52, Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Adrian Brentnall
saying something like:

Good day today - got the US Addfress thing sorted - also managed
to make contact with a US manufacturer who supplies one of the clueless
retailers I deal with - and is V happy to sell bulk to me direct,
and send via USPS....

I've bought a fair bit of gear from the US over the past decade. Before
USPS dropped their slow-boat rate, it was the cheapest by a long way, if
slow. Sometimes the smaller slow-boat stuff was lobbed on a plane and
got here within 48 hours.
Now, the cheapest USPS service is 1st Class International, which is
quick enough and ok for items up to around 5kg, iirc. Unfortunately,
most US retailers don't know about it and tend to quote silly rates, eg,
Express, UPS, DHL, etc, so need to be reminded.

Yes - I've decided to try out www.shipito.com -
who offer a US mailing address and then re-ship to Ireland.
I'm currently ordering stuff from US-based suppliers and will ask
Shipito to consolidate the whole lot and send it on its way...

Sounds like a good service - I'll report back on how successful
it is in practice...

Grand altogether!

Ah sure, you're picking it up, so.

And there was you thinking I didn't have a rashers! g

Adrian

On 30 July, 10:21, "Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
In article ,
* *Adrian Brentnall wrote:





Hi All
Often, small components & materials for my stained glass business are
only available in the USA, or are much cheaper over there than here
(Ireland).
I've got an opportunity to buy some wholesale items, but the folks over
that side of the pond are often a bit clueless about shipping costs &
methods to destinations outside the USA - which pushes the overall price up.
Parcel2go have been pestering me to use their service - so I tried an
online quote (USA - Irl) - and their website declined to give an answer..
Contacted their online chat - and was told that I'd need to set up a
USA Rent Address - as perhttps://www.parcel2go.com/Rent-US-Address.aspx
This is a new one on me - anybody ever heard of this, and does it work ?
Sounds tempting, as lots of my potential suppliers offer free-within-the
USA delivery - so I'd be paying a properly-calculated
rate for the trans-atlantic delivery...
...somehow it all looks a bit dodgy - and I don;t want to get involved
in anything 'complicated' g
Anybody else come across this before ?

I've found some US companies only use couriers to ship even relatively low
value stuff to the UK even when there's no rush. Even sometimes costing
more than the item. My way round this is to get it sent to a pal in the US
who then forwards it by the cheapest method. And can sometimes avoid
import duty. ;-)
*A pro service doing the same would be a good idea.

--
*On the seventh day He brewed beer *

* * Dave Plowman * * * * * * * * London SW
* * * * * * * * * To e-mail, change noise into sound.

The 'pal' connection is the best; my 'pal' I don't really know as he
is the brother of a close mate and I've only met him a couple of times
over a long time period. I chatted him up a year or so ago for a
spare that was only available in the US and they wouldn't ship out of
the US.

I should have tried him again recently when I bought blades for my
Bosch multitool; the seller coped with the posting OK, but it got
intercepted by customs - VAT I could cope with but the PO then slapped
£8 for their handling of a small box.

Rob

If I have a work colleague travelling over that is always best route ....
for times when it can't wait .... I ask the seller to send by USPS

Note this is NOT UPS

Take a look at http://www.usps.com/international/sendpackages.htm

I request priority mail international.
Most of the time I do not incur duty charges ... on the odd occasion there
is, I pay on-line and no problem, it's delivered.


If the seller uses UPS you WILL get duty charges and also get a UPS handling
fee of £10 on top of charges and VAT on the lot.