ELC international shipping problem

[zhz]

My friend in China recently bought the A2 Manual book from ELC directly and asking them to ship to China. ELC charged £50 for shipping!!! With such amount of money, you would expect it is send through a fast fully trackable recorded service. But turns out they used the cheapest service you can buy from Parcel Force. It took one and half month to get to my friend, and it is totally untraceable.

I am shocked when my friend told me about all this. IMO, this is not something a well known maker should do.

 

[Gav]

This is typical of parcelforce. Depends how big the parcel was and how heavy, but shipping from the U.K. with parcelforce is expensive.
Books are 0% vat in the uk

I don't think Eastman robbed your friend.

 

[zhz]

This is typical of parcelforce. Depends how big the parcel was and how heavy, but shipping from the U.K. with parcelforce is expensive.
Books are 0% vat in the uk

I don't think Eastman robbed your friend.

I know parcelforce is not very good. And I am not talking about the shipping time, for £50, at least you can track your parcel online right? But this one does not!!! Also, I have shipped many things back to China with parcelforce. For a leather jacket that about 3-4KG, it is cost about £35 to ship to China and it is fully trackable and arrived within 14 days!

And I admit that I forgot about the book is 0 VAT.

So yes, ELC does robbed him.

 

[Gav]

Ok let's play!

Parcelforce online price calculator.
Your 3kg jacket costs £61 with no tracking and estimated 40-60 days. No £35 option as far as I can see???

So perhaps you went through a 3rd party booing website to get a cheaper price.

I really doubt elc robbed your friend.

 

[ton312]

Interesting as I was about to say the fastest international shipping I've ever been a party to with was thru ParcelForce. Jacket shipped Friday from UK to my door in Chicago on Tuesday! Flew thru customs...faster than even domestic service between states here!

 

[wdw]

I sent a 2.5kg jacket to Europe with Parcelforce. With full insurance to £500, buying online, I paid £76. Big mistake. Even the post office guy said I was stupid to buy online, as you pay the full amount for the weight band, as opposed to actual weight.

This week I did the same using DPD through a broker, paid only £25 for a 2.5kg £230 jacket and it arrived in 3 days.

 

[Gav]

You were blessed!

 

[ton312]

Paying for it now tho...another coat coming from Montreal to Chicago has been parked in NYC for the past 4 days....

 

[Gav]

The lord giveth and he taketh away...

 

[l0fielectronic]

I sent a relativity small item to China today and was told at the Post Office that there is no UK - China tracked service for small items, only option I had was 'Signed for'. As for large, bulky items, I agree it seems Parcelforce price themselves as if they'd rather not handle them. Lots of better, cheaper options.


Am waiting for a parcel shipped from the US to the UK at the moment shipped USPS Priority, I thought it had got lost as there was no update on the tracking for 11 days, since it landed in London, I contacted them and it seems USPS passes the parcel to Parcel Force in the UK which explains that as its always takes them an age to put an import invoice together.

A more cynical man than me might think that they hold items deliberately longer than necessary and only send out the pre delivery VAT/Import invoices to arrive on a Friday - When you have the option of paying an additional £12 to receive your item the next day, or else you have to wait another three days for your parcel. But perhaps thats only because I only ever have got and import invoice from them on Fridays

I'd much rather US companies used UPS as the always arrive with a few days, even if the VAT invoice arrives in the post a few days after.

 

[s4rmark]

My niece works in china and her mother had to send her a bank card to her , it cost £80 postage

 

[HPA Rep]

I'd much rather US companies used UPS as the always arrive with a few days, even if the VAT invoice arrives in the post a few days after.

USPS EMS (Express Mail) is really quite good; we avoid Priority because it doesn't come with "true" tracking. UPS is fabulous, but infinitely few want to pay for fabulous; in fact, many don't want to pay for USPS EMS.

One major downside for consumers shipping USPS is that they cannot get insurance above $500 for the UK; even less or not at all for other nations beyond Canada. And it's not actually insuring for the amount you think you're buying, which I think needs to be disclosed when buying the insurance.

USPS insurance outside the USA is limited by the SDR value, which is a value weighted against a basket of currencies, so if you buy $500 of insurance, you likely really have about $375.00, which will vary by exchange rates determined in advance. UPS and Fed Ex insurance is full value, but it's not really insurance (they like to call it "declared value" so they get to wiggle out of paying claims that "insurance" would imply coverage for).

If you have, say, a jacket exchange going to Aero, it's important to note that you will not be able to insure this for full value via USPS, but you will via DHL, UPS, and Fed Ex, but be sure to understand the terms of insurance or declared value. Having full insurance is important if disaster strikes, and thinking disaster only strikes others is not insurance.

Thankfully, we aren't players in this game; many years ago we purchased our own insurance policy for far less money per package and with superior coverage than what shippers offer.

 

[AdeeC]

Bought about a half dozen books from Amazon UK or Ebay UK. Paid between £7 and £12 for shipping as I recall. Shipping has been generally fast and one book arrived in Australia in an incredible 4 days. This week I ordered an 8 DVD box set which is comparable to a small book in size and charged less than £4 shipping from Amazon UK.
A recent leather jacket purchase cost me £35 to ship from the UK. Arrived in just under 3 weeks.
£50 for a book is a gross ripoff unless sent by the fastest/securest imaginable service.

 

[Blackadder]

There are sellers (especially on ebay) who do not care much about savings on shipping since it is on the buyers. I would think most people factor the shipping into the total costs and in stead of purchasing from said seller directly, I'd look for forwarding services and compare the prices. If I can't find such forwarding service or the costs is still the same, I'd simply let it go. IMO, it is too late to complain after paying. Technically, seller is not the service provider but the "true" customer of the said postal service and the buyer is merely the party who agrees to reimbursing the seller. Afterall, we are not talking about commercial trading where buyer would put a delivery date on the order.
BTW, you do know that Eastman has dealers in China and Taiwan who would in turn complain if Eastman makes life too difficult for them, LOL.

 

[HPA Rep]

Technically, seller is not the service provider but the "true" customer of the said postal service and the buyer is merely the party who agrees to reimbursing the seller. Afterall, we are not talking about commercial trading where buyer would put a delivery date on the order.

I understand what you are saying, but in the USA the seller is responsible for the safe delivery of goods unless the buyer provides shipping (such as your own shipper account or a prepaid label). Most sellers are fully ignorant of basic business law and erroneously think that because they sell on Ebay and the like, this somehow makes them immune from the law or that the law only applies to businesses in a brick-and-mortar storefront. The overwhelming majority of sellers do not ship with insurance and have no idea that they are fully liable for the goods if anything happens to the shipment, thus setting themselves up for a nasty surprise one day.

 

[Blackadder]

I understand what you are saying, but in the USA the seller is responsible for the safe delivery of goods unless the buyer provides shipping (such as your own shipper account or a prepaid label). Most sellers are fully ignorant of basic business law and erroneously think that because they sell on Ebay and the like, this somehow makes them immune from the law or that the law only applies to businesses in a brick-and-mortar storefront. The overwhelming majority of sellers do not ship with insurance and have no idea that they are fully liable for the goods if anything happens to the shipment, thus setting themselves up for a nasty surprise one day.

Oh I am not talking about the safe delivery. Of course seller is responsible for delivery and would have to refund if the good does not arrive at the buyer's or if broken in transit. Sellers I dealt with do care about that. The complaint here was not non-delivery just not within reasonable time given the costs. In that regard, the sellers do not seem to care as much. I live in a city of China where the postal service is probably the best in the country. I bought some sweaters awhile ago from a German store and the shipping wasn't exactly cheap by any standard. The seller used the cheaper DHL service (DHL handles only the Germany part). Similar story to a fellow lounger here, the tracking only works up to the moment it left Germany then nothing until it reaches the local port where the local postal service would take over. I was particularly worried that it got lost and was my fault because I forgot to fill in the full address (forgot to put the street name, only filled in the building name) when I made the order. 2 weeks after it left Germany (according to tracking), I called the local postal service and the local postal service kindly took down the details and 2 more weeks later I received the goods. I know the month-long delivery time was not due to the incomplete address because as I said, I talked to the local post office. It is just the good has made a lot of transit stop in its half way around the world journey.