Re: US Postal Service Express Mail to the UK - update

[Dave, G4AON]

Further to my earlier posting about a package ordered for USPS Express
Mail International (not from Elecraft), I have to report some progress:

The parcel was tracked as follows:-
Attempted Delivery Abroad, October 27, 2007, 9:25 am, GREAT BRITAIN
Out of Foreign Customs, October 26, 2007, 5:11 am, GREAT BRITAIN
Into Foreign Customs, October 23, 2007, 5:33 pm, GREAT BRITAIN
Arrived Abroad, October 23, 2007, 5:13 pm, GREAT BRITAIN
International Dispatch, October 18, 2007, 2:18 pm, O'HARE APT/CHICAGO
Processed, October 18, 2007, 11:49 am, CHICAGO, IL 60666
Processed, October 17, 2007, 6:35 pm, DETROIT, MI 48242
Electronic Shipping Info Received, October 17, 2007

Today (30th October), I received an invoice by Royal Mail for the value
added tax (vat) and a £13.50 handling charge. The invoice was dated 26th
October and was sent by 1st class post! Having paid by credit card via
the web site for Parcel Force I tried to arrange delivery to my local
post office... The web site didn't understand so I had to phone the 0870
premium rate phone line (why do they do that), speak to a robot thing
and arrange re-direction to my post office. That seemed to work. I could
have driven a round trip of 70 miles to collect the parcel or taken
tomorrow off work to be at home when someone may (or may not) have
delivered the package.

Oddly enough, the option of having Parcel Force leave the package at my
local post office involves 48 hour delivery and a 50 pence collection
charge.

All in all, not an exciting experience. Hope this is of use for those in
the UK buying Elecraft kits and planning to take delivery by USPS
Express Mail International.

73 Dave, G4AON
K1 delivered in 4 days back in 2002
K2 delivered in a week back in 2001
K3 delivered in weeks... Sometime this year I hope!
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[Julian, G4ILO]

The other USPS option, Priority Mail, is cheaper and therefore
presumably would take even longer. There is little to choose between
the two UPS options Elecraft offers - they are both about twice as
expensive. I wonder what an air courier would cost? I have heard a lot
of bad things about DHL, but when I did get something through them a
few years ago, they invoiced me for the customs charges so it didn't
hold up delivery. Another possibility would be FedEx.

Still it all seems a bit academic at the rate the K3s seem to be
trickling out of Aptos. I don't know how to speed that part up. Any
advance on S/N #27 anyone?

--
Julian, G4ILO K2 s/n: 392  K3 s/n: ???
G4ILO's Shack: www.g4ilo.com
Zerobeat Ham Forums: www.zerobeat.net/smf
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[Vic K2VCO]

Julian G4ILO wrote:

> Another possibility would be FedEx.

The USPS has another option, slightly more expensive than "International
Express Mail" that involves Fedex, but is sent from the post office.
It's called "Global Express Guaranteed" and is supposed to be several
days quicker. I don't know what will happen on your side, of course.
--
73,
Vic, K2VCO
Fresno CA
http://www.qsl.net/k2vco
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[Karl Anderson-3]

I mailed a KX1 to a client using International Express from Oregon to Exeter
and it arrived within a week. Hopefully your next experience will be better.

73
Karl NM7N

----- Original Message -----

From: "Dave G4AON" <[hidden email]>


> 73 Dave, G4AON
> K1 delivered in 4 days back in 2002
> K2 delivered in a week back in 2001
> K3 delivered in weeks... Sometime this year I hope!

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[Don Wilhelm-4]

For those interested in shipping times to England, I recently sent a
KPA100 from North Carolina to a ham in Barnstaple, England by USPS
Priority Mail and it was in his hands 13 days later.  Times will vary,
but if I understand correctly, much of the time variation seems to be
time waiting for the customs and VAT collection people to do whatever
processes that they do.

73,
Don W3FPR

Karl Anderson wrote:
> I mailed a KX1 to a client using International Express from Oregon to
> Exeter and it arrived within a week. Hopefully your next experience
> will be better.
>
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