Expensive shipping costs from the UK?

[Wandy]

I'm currently selling my Optima Mid bits on the bay and have had several people asking me for prices to ship abroad, in particular to North America. Now after a call to my local post office I was quoted £45 to ship a 5Kg parcel to Canada/USA and consequently notified the interested parties of this....cue a response of abuse asking if I "am on crack?" and "people like you make me never want to ship to the UK"...

Now all I did was quote the prices given by my local post office and I must admit that even I thought it was expensive...so all I can say is if there are cheaper prices to ship from the UK then can someone tell me where they are so that I can avoid abuse and accusations that are unwarranted?

[Shodog]

The key here is to weigh up the package to get an accurate shipping cost.  5KG is equal to roughly 11 pounds which is a pretty heavy package if you just shipping a car. 

if it's really an 5Kg package then the £45 is not too out of line. It would cost me about $52 to ship that weight to you and I know that royal mail is much more expensive than USPS. 

[Guest DImblum]

Wandy,

I hear ya man.. I remember a while ago when the UK announced their new shipping rates. It's no fun for us US folks since 45pounds translates to  roughly $90.00, but sometimes it cannot be avoided.

It's possible they may have quoted you a higher price than they should. I know that in the US, depending on the method I use to ship, the same item can cost either $20.00 to ship, or $5.00 to ship - and it will still get there in the same amount of time!! 

 

[Wandy]

No, the 5Kg weight was for car with battery, R/C equipment and original box plus two other seperate auction items, a bodyshell and tyres. I did weight the car with box and this was 4Kg so I estimated that with the the other two relatively light items and external packaging the weight would be about 5Kg. Not my fault Royal Mail prices are exorbitant!!

[Wandy]

Wandy,

I hear ya man.. I remember a while ago when the UK announced their new shipping rates. It's no fun for us US folks since 45pounds translates to  roughly $90.00, but sometimes it cannot be avoided.

It's possible they may have quoted you a higher price than they should. I know that in the US, depending on the method I use to ship, the same item can cost either $20.00 to ship, or $5.00 to ship - and it will still get there in the same amount of time!! 

 

Thanks for the vote of confidence mate, but when I called the post office I got them to confirm that it was the absolute cheapest price and they said that it was. The next service up, which got the items delivered a couple of days earlier, was another £15 on top of that!!!!

[Singapore_959]

 

Well that's rude. Clearly not an experienced ebayer.  Yes, postage can be a shock to the inexperienced.

 

Basically the only 'cheap' postage I find is when it is (non UK) EU internal.

 

If I buy things from outside the EU, I know to expect a big slug. And unfortunetly the only thing that I have ever lost in the mail, came from the US.

[]

[au]

[Bin ^jammin^]

Interestingly i got a quote for postage from the US yesterday for a complete car in box built and it was "$45 for surface 4-6 weeks. $70 for air 4-10 days.

I consider that a lot of dosh for a relatively small and lightweight package.

What do you think is that an ok price?

[Rat Fink]

I sold a static model to a guy in Germany and the shipping came to a frightening 29 quid.

I tried some couriers and they were worse!

When I told the guy he nearly freaked so I suggested he arrange pickup and then he can stay in control of the costs.

I know it sounds a bit like passing the buck but there are so many cretins on Ebay that pad the price with excessive postage that we all seem to be tarred with the same brush.

I recently sold a mountaineer NIB to a guy in Devon, I have told him that I will drive to a half way point to give it to him by hand and this will cost about 20 quid in fuel or he can arrange the shipping from his end. I personally wouldn't trust 1500 quids worth of history in the hands of Parcel force. I have made my feelings more than clear in both mails and by phone so it is down to him to arrange the transport and whatever insurances he wants to cover it. I will not be accused of rippingpeople off for shipping as I try to be as fair as possible As it stands I pack the goodies well and take on the cost of all packaging.

There are times when you wonder wether its worth the aggro!

Just wondering if it would be possible to negotiate some form of discount with a courier if all TC members were to use the same one.

Just an opinion

Gee

[Rusty2903]

Having just sold my MB on ebay i know what you guys are on about.

I had several emails from US and one from Italy asking about the shipping cost, i too was quoted £45 from Royal mail and i had taken it into my local branch and got it weighed!!!

It had several "watchers" but i'm sure a lot were put off by the shipping costs and thus possibly cost me £'s in lost bids.

Funny thing is, i reduced the price and included free P&P withing the UK and i'd subsidise the cost of shipping abroad and low & behold i sold it........To a guy who lives about 30 mins from me!! Typical!!!! One quick car drive later and the deal was done lol

[Tipsy]

I must admit, I was looking at 1 or 2 items you had for sale, and was a little put off by the postal costs, and im a UK buyer.

[peejay]

It is amazing how a large number of Left Pondians that use ebay don't understand that the UK is a place that is at least 3,000 miles away from them, and that even airmail takes several days.  The newsgroup uk.people.consumers.ebay is full of amusing stories.

 

[fatboyslim]

Yep once again 'Rip Off Britain' strikes!!

I posted a Pajero MTW to a guy in Madrid (Spain) and it cost £36, that was with Parcel Force guaranteed delivery within 3 days,fully tracked and insured to £250, I could of got it posted for £22 using normal Royal Mail but that had no tracking and as it was an Ebay sale payed with Pay-Pal it had to be trackable!!

[Tamiyabigstuff]

Shipping costs from UK can be frightening - especially if over the 2KG 'Small Packet' limit.

Sometimes worth splitting items into 2 packages to get below 2kilos.

[dinodog]

Hi Guys, has anyone tried parcel2go.com or postvan? They seem to be very keen to undercut Parcelforce on price. Up to 25 Kg about £10 for UK? Not 100% sure, the wife is the expert and shes gone out! Used the 2 parcels trick via the small packets service, sometimes breaking the weight down to below the 2kg mark can certainly save money, not much good for a BNIB though! Happy trails dino[&]

[Wandy]

I must admit, I was looking at 1 or 2 items you had for sale, and was a little put off by the postal costs, and im a UK buyer.

Well all you have to do is go online and get a quote from Royal Mail on a 5Kg parcel. You'll see that I'm not fleecing anyone.

[Tipsy]

I'm not going to dispute the prices. We do pay alot more than in US or Japan, when posting out an item, and I find that the jump is very big once over the 2kg barrier.

[TWINSET]

Once you go over 2kg you're looking at either int. standard or int. economy with parcel force which is, unfortunately, very expensive.

Airmail to USA for 2kg is £19.69 (£23.69 for insured)

2.1kg for USA (now using parcel force) is £37.70 by standard (about a week)

or by economy £31.15 which could take up to 28 days.

 

For 5kg you're looking at £44 or £57 (eco/stand)

 

Not good [] 

 

[Wandy]

Once you go over 2kg you're looking at either int. standard or int. economy with parcel force which is, unfortunately, very expensive.

Airmail to USA for 2kg is £19.69 (£23.69 for insured)

2.1kg for USA (now using parcel force) is £37.70 by standard (about a week)

or by economy £31.15 which could take up to 28 days.

 

For 5kg you're looking at £44 or £57 (eco/stand)

 

Not good [] 

 

Thankyou mate. Outrageous really isn't it?

[Typhoon]

I have been using Parcels2Go for the last year. Its £38 (via FedEx) to the US for any package up to 10kg. Best bit is you can organise collection over the net and pay via paypal, and if it a eBay sale theres a 10% discount []