i hope i posted in the right forum. help is what i need.
i’m just seeing if anyone out there can help me get my new frame from the east coast of the US to melbourne.
i got it sent to my friends house in pennsylvania with the plan that he would ship it out to me but he’s been quoted $350 (in person) and $400 (online) by USPS (united states postal service) !!! insane !!!
can anyone offer any suggestions as to how i can get it here any cheaper? i, along with many others was expecting it to be about $100. it’s 51cm, frame only.
do you know anyone in the US who might be coming here (soon) that might want to bring it back with them? i’m guessing that paying excess baggage on the plane for a 4kg frame would have to be cheaper than any of the postal services…
any suggestions would be muchly appreciated! thanks!
I’ve done it a couple of times in the past and the first cost me $75 USD, then the next I ran into your problem, facing $350. I ended up joining a freight forwarder Access USA http://www.myus.com, which brought the cost down near $200 USD (which left the bike as a bargain still).
More recently I bought a wheel set there and they wanted to stiff me over $300 and I tried everything to get it down. In the end, I got a mate to keep it in his garage, until another mate was going over and would carry the set for a bottle of Bundy. I don’t think there is any other way, now - happy to hear if I’m wrong!
When and by whom? I bought mine on ebay, from a guy who worked in a bike shop. He repacked it three times to try to get it in dimensions to go cheaper, but it wouldn’t work. So if you know how it can still be done and by whom, spill the beans. I’m guessing you were lucky, before they changed the charging system, some time last year?
From the Wheelandsprocket ebay store. They sent it through Fed Ex, not UPS, it took just over a week and arrived perfectly fine. They’ve got Deeeeeep V’s in their store with $65 expediated postage right now. I’m pretty sure all their wheelsets cost that much in postage.
I got a set of Mavic’s with Formula hubs from them about six weeks ago, maybe even less.
thanks heaps! yeah i found a very similar site http://www.bongous.com yesterday just like access usa!
these sites seem to good to be true. one quoted me US$128 and the other quoted $95. i’m going to have my friend call them and suss it. my major concern is that there is nowhere in the rate calculation process to add the dimensions of the frame…so we shall see what happens! fingers crossed!
i’m feeling a little bit more positive about it now though!
i’m trying to get a set of mudguards from the states. shipping from a place in england was going to be 80quid which is crazy. the plan was that my mate who is in the states now was going to bring it back but he forgot that he was also bringing back a 20" monitor which soaks up the rest of his allowance. i could be interested in getting the mudguards sent to your friend’s house and sharing the costs of shipping with you if you’re in melbourne.
yeah i’m in melbourne. i think that joe has already cut the box down to fit tightly around the frame to make it as small as possible but if that’s not the case then i’ll def let you know.
This may, or may not help, but Wheelandspocket used Fed Ex to ship me my wheelset, not UPS, which may be cheaper if you can’t use the other places to ship your frame.
yeah i’ve gotten online quotes with usps, ups, dhl, fed ex and they all seem to be over the $400 mark. i just re did an online quote with fed ex. $465 and $418 OUTRAGEOUS! :? thanks for your reply! i appreciate everyone’s advice!
Can I suggest you check what the online shops and some other eBay sellers in the US are using, as they still appear to be shipping OS for much less than that. Also, online calculators aren’t always best to use.
Checking here for costs from the US is a bit like doing it all in reverse?
yeah i’d already bought the frame before i found out it would be more than about a hundred bucks for postage. oh well. my friend was getting quotes from the other end as well. we both got the same answers pretty much.
BUTTTTT good news. i was waiting on a reply and didn’t want to depend on her answer but a friend/housemate who’s over there at the moment is going to bring it back with her in 3 weeks! woooo!
thanks everyone. hopefully others got something out of this too. us post sucks!!! heh
sorry i won’t be able to help you out chromeo. now i have a deadline to get the frame to the west coast and my friend is posting it tomorrow. sorry i couldn’t help with your mudguards!