Shipping US to UK?

J

Jason Fry

Joined
Jun 5, 2008
Messages
3,224
Need to ship a couple of slipjoints from Texas to the UK. What's the best service for that? Any ideas on cost?

My brother lost a $700 engraved hunter in the mail from TX to UK, so I'm a little extra jumpy.
 
We recently shipped a knife to Australia, I think it was around $45.00 through the USPS. We insured the package but it was only trackable until it made it into customs. The USPS website has a lot of information posted regarding this, and there's definitely a lot of options, some services can be insured while others can't.
 
I have yet to have any problems with international shipping. Think it's been 12-15 times. I've shipped a couple blade washers in an envelope to the UK that thought for sure would be lost but didnt. Africa,Australia,Italy, Canada all made it to there destinations. I think you could ship those slippies to the UK for around $10 with first class mail and would get there just fine. Just make sure you wrap them up properly and write everything on the label correct.
 
Depends on the value of the package. If over a couple of hundred bucks worth the extra to use UPS. Just shipped about $1500 worth to UK using UPS it was around $85 if I remember right. Customer had his product in about a week.
 
I do alot of personal transaction overseas and never lost anything.
high value items go Fedex 2-3 day and it might cost $125, but it's pretty certain.
almost anything with tracking should be just fine.
 
I have never had any problems with USPS. although the Brits do complain a bit about their contractor one there, Parcel Force, taking a long time to deliver. The sometimes refer to their customs clearing facility as "Mount Doom" The only problem these days is that the prices increased quite a bit when the fuel got so expensive and with the USPS still hemorrhaging money, they won't be going down anytime soon.
 
Last edited:
Yep wait till postal employees steal your stuff (4 times for us). Ya go through all the rigamaroll, hours of phone calls and mountains of paperwork and then they deny the insurance even with the theft report from the postal inspector attached (paid on appeal but more paperwork). Then a year later you see it for sale on Ebay. Thats fun. So you provide the info to the PO and what happens? Nada, zero, zilch, nothing. Time spent jumping through all their hoops exceeded the value of the insurance claim. UPS or Fed Ex exist because of the USPS and its service.
 
I shipped a $600.00 knife to the UK by USPS Priority mail insured and it never arrived. Then had to wait 30 days to file a claim. I would use UPS.
 
Home much did it cost? That was typically the issue with UPS and Fedex to the UK and EU in the past.
Mike Read said:
I had a package shipped from the US on Friday and delivered in the UK on Monday morning. - UPS
Click to expand...
 
Are there customs brokerage fees when shipping UPS to the UK? I know there are in Canada and it's about the same as the shipping cost. For the customer, a $260 forge ships to Canada via UPS for $65, but the customs brokerage fee is also $65. Which is paid by the customer when the package arrives, I think, I don't know because I wasn't actually there. USPS costs $85, but no brokerage fees.
 
UPS cost out the ass but they track it religiously. Cost $90 to ship a hunter and $150 to ship a big bowie
 
jdm61 said:
Home much did it cost? That was typically the issue with UPS and Fedex to the UK and EU in the past.
Click to expand...

I don't know as I was on the receiving end.

Customs fees (Duty + handling fee +VAT) are payable by the receiver but it seems to be a bit of a lottery who gets charged and who doesn't.
 
We ship at least 15-25 times a year internationally...Austrialia many times..The UK many times, even Israel..Japan several times,etc..Havent had a package lost but dang if we didn't have several packages lost in the northeast US last year:mad: Though many of the packages are not high dollar packages either..
 
I know there are threads about shipping to the UK from the U.S. over on British Blades. Might be worth a look since things change and I know that I read folk there saying that a change in post handling meant that fewer locking folders were getting confiscated by Mount Pleasant (Mnt. Doom) at one point, but that too might have changed again. Missing through theft is one issue, and missing through Customs confiscation is another. The inspectors for FedEx,UPS, DHL etc weren't the same as for USPS-Royal Mail/Parcel Force.

Regarding tracking, I don't reckon the tracking service offered by Royal Mail and USPS is worth squat. I sent my tax returns to Austin TX using RM with full tracking, but when it gets to the U.S. the service is handed over to USPS along with tracking. USPS decided that no such address existed and that my package had no return details...tracking told me it was being held in Austin and that was the last I saw or heard about it. Nothing I could do, hours on the phone being passed around but no one could tell me how to get my pack back. Resent with DHL, printed address from same file and it was delivered correctly no mess, no fuss. Reckon you would have the same problem tracking a valuable item heading east as I did going west
 
Jason, I've shipped several knives to a collector in the UK and I used FedEx Global Priority. It gets there pretty quickly and seems to be very dependable. Adam DesRosiers told me that they always ship overseas with USPS and have never had a package lost. No matter how you go, I highly encourage you to be honest when filling out the customs paperwork. If you under-value anything, they can refuse your future shipments and they will just assign their own value for VAT.

Bob
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top