Shipito.com / Reshippers

[d00dz]

hmnn if the retail box for the green grocer is that big then it is not really LEGO's fault is it? Unless you want LEGO to use smaller boxes just so you can have shipit fees reduced... But then I think that smaller boxes will make the boxes more fragile when being transported. hmnn.

Yea I figured that. Dammit it will cost me $185 x 2 in postage for those two sets. >.< I'll see what shipito says when I get them to consolidate it.

[Svelte]

doodz, how were the Toy Story sets you received from Amazon packed? More economically than S@H?

I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to order something like the Grand Emporium direct from Amazon to shipito rather than S@H if the package is likely to be smaller, since everyone says that the US S@H is terrible for using oversized boxes.

[Ralph_S]

I don't know what shipito's rates are, but shipping costs from the US to most of Europe aren't great. One thing you should also be aware of is customs. I know of several cases where friends of mine in the UK who ordered stuff from the US (via bricklink) had packages held up at customs and were charged with a hefty surcharge.

I live in The Netherlands and with the exception of exclusives, amazon.co.uk can be a good deal. They deliver in The Netherlands without any problems, postage isn't ridiculous (a few Pounds) and you pay the usually considerably lower UK prices. I don't know what other mainland European countries they deliver to, but it might be worth checking out.

Cheers,

Ralph

[Svelte]

Amazon.co.uk doesn't post anything apart from books/ CDs/ DVDs to Australia.

We are quite lucky in that we have a high customs limit - they won't pursue you for duty unless the value of the goods is over $AUD1000.

[peterab]

doodz, how were the Toy Story sets you received from Amazon packed? More economically than S@H?

I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to order something like the Grand Emporium direct from Amazon to shipito rather than S@H if the package is likely to be smaller, since everyone says that the US S@H is terrible for using oversized boxes.

The problem is, the size of the set boxes for the Modular buildings is too big for the air freight standards, so it won't really matter where you order it as far as shipito shipping costs go. Shipito will fairly cheaply repack, so as long as you dont collect the set boxes you can significantly reduce the shipping to Australia.

hmnn if the retail box for the green grocer is that big then it is not really LEGO's fault is it? Unless you want LEGO to use smaller boxes just so you can have shipit fees reduced... But then I think that smaller boxes will make the boxes more fragile when being transported. hmnn.

Well, in one way you're correct, however by having boxes larger than needed to hold the content, you could argue the marketing of the product is misleading, and that to gain that marketing advantage they are willing to increase the cost to all consumers in shipping, not to mention the environmental cost.

I'm not sure about your box strength argument, but my physics training would lead me to believe that, all other things being equal, a smaller box of similar materials will be stronger.

About the only argument I can see for a larger box, is there are a range of sizes, which are spcially chosen to stack well together, thus making shipping cheaper, and sets are packed in the smallest that will hold the content, from the available sizes. Given that almost all lego sets have a lot of space in them, I'm not sure thast this argument holds, unless the ammount of free space is deliberate for some reason I can't understand.

I'd be happy if the larger boxes were at least more square, or less long, that tends to be what makes shipping them cost more rather than the volume itself. For example the modulars coul be half as long and twice the width.

[Svelte]

peterab and doodz, one question - can you choose to consolidate a package later?

as far as i can see it on the shipito website, you can choose either the (a) individual package, flat $8.50 fee plus postage (b) virtual mailbox, $50 a year, which allows repackaging. the individual package option says "INDIVIDUAL PACKAGES does not offer consolidation of packages (merging several packages in to one bigger package). Please select virtual mailbox service if you need this service."

it's a bit confusing as under the (a) invidiual package option it also says "We can try to make a package smaller to fit USPS size limits. Use Special Request on your account for that"

i don't really want to sign up to a year long $50 package, especially if i've never used the service before. is this what you guys have done, or have you had them repacked some other way?

do they charge you an extra repacking fee? if so, how much?

[d00dz]

doodz, how were the Toy Story sets you received from Amazon packed? More economically than S@H?

I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to order something like the Grand Emporium direct from Amazon to shipito rather than S@H if the package is likely to be smaller, since everyone says that the US S@H is terrible for using oversized boxes.

Im not sure yet I havent received my S@H packages yet. They should arrive next week on Wednesday.

So far the amazon packages for the toy story sets were packed well, tightly and had some airbubble wrapping.

I think if you were to order Grand Empourium from S@H best to order 2 or 4.

I'll report next week on the packagings of each companies when I get them.

One thing you should also be aware of is customs.

Yea as long as on the custom slips for shipito you lower the value it's fine. I just normally put $100USD for each package.

peterab and doodz, one question - can you choose to consolidate a package later?

as far as i can see it on the shipito website, you can choose either the (a) individual package, flat $8.50 fee plus postage (b) virtual mailbox, $50 a year, which allows repackaging. the individual package option says "INDIVIDUAL PACKAGES does not offer consolidation of packages (merging several packages in to one bigger package). Please select virtual mailbox service if you need this service."

it's a bit confusing as under the (a) invidiual package option it also says "We can try to make a package smaller to fit USPS size limits. Use Special Request on your account for that"

i don't really want to sign up to a year long $50 package, especially if i've never used the service before. is this what you guys have done, or have you had them repacked some other way?

do they charge you an extra repacking fee? if so, how much?

Well apparently when they consolidate they always do it into a USPS box 26"x13"x13" (This is standard and free). anything else must be sent via FedEx and you must request that it be sent via FedEx limits (pay the extra $8.50) for it.

Yea you need to have a virtual box in order to consolidate. If they cannot consolidate anythign they will let you know.

In the end, I ended up having to pay $273.44 for two packages to be sent to me via FedEx MPS. They contained 3 x Green Grocers and 2 x Build-a-Zurgs. Prolly would have cost approx $250 if it was sent as one box anyways. Overall still works out to be cheaper than buying it from S@H Australia.

Oh yea when you have a virtualbox you get 45days free storage space so you can have as many packages as needed for up to 45days. (and consolidate all the packages on the 44th day)

I have a few other packages to be sent 4 more but awaiting for 1. Then I'll get them to try and consolidate them all into one big one and send it via FedEx

Edited January 14, 2010 by d00dz

[Svelte]

Well apparently when they consolidate they always do it into a USPS box 26"x13"x13".. (

Aaah, I see. I was mainly asking about Amazon as I thought their box sizes might be smaller than the S@H ones. But the standard big exclusive box is 23 x 17-19 x 4 so they exceed the USPS standard size anyway.

Maybe even BL is still cheaper. I imagine that the 10211 will quickly settle at about $US180 on BL (and after a while, even closer to retail at $US150), so if you're paying $US70-80 per box it still is quite a saving and seemingly less complicated.

[peterab]

peterab and doodz, one question - can you choose to consolidate a package later?

as far as i can see it on the shipito website, you can choose either the (a) individual package, flat $8.50 fee plus postage (b) virtual mailbox, $50 a year, which allows repackaging. the individual package option says "INDIVIDUAL PACKAGES does not offer consolidation of packages (merging several packages in to one bigger package). Please select virtual mailbox service if you need this service."

it's a bit confusing as under the (a) invidiual package option it also says "We can try to make a package smaller to fit USPS size limits. Use Special Request on your account for that"

i don't really want to sign up to a year long $50 package, especially if i've never used the service before. is this what you guys have done, or have you had them repacked some other way?

do they charge you an extra repacking fee? if so, how much?

I made an order from US S@H which was shipped in three parts, PAB, Two modulars and some other stuff. When they first arrived I reaslised I had a problem as I was on the individual package deal, but it was held initially waiting for customs paperwork, so I was able to swap to a virtual mailbox to consolidate. They had a $10 per month virtual mailbox option, which you can change to/from a per package account easily a month at a time, which works for infrequent customers.

Once you have a virtual mailbox, it costs 2$ per consolidation, a special request (ie open all the lego boxes, and put the bags into standard size boxes) would be more expensive, but also save a lot more in shipping. I might be wrong but I think the speacial requests were somewhere between $6 and $10, I didn't bother because before Xmas they were swamped, and suggested special requests might be delayed.

Once you sign up and have a go, the process becomes much clearer, I had no trouble finding the options I wanted from the control panel you get when you log in. I also found that although they charge a fee on everything you ask them to do, they were reasonable, and tried to make it clear which was the most cost effective way/order of doing things. Their fees were a small percentage of the cost, most of which was shipping, and given they have access to lower bulk shipping rates than a lot of places since they do so much, I think they are a pretty good deal all up. (I've just realised this sounds like an ad, so I should add apart from using them once I have no affiliation)

[d00dz]

doodz, how were the Toy Story sets you received from Amazon packed? More economically than S@H?

I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to order something like the Grand Emporium direct from Amazon to shipito rather than S@H if the package is likely to be smaller, since everyone says that the US S@H is terrible for using oversized boxes.

Just replying to this. I got both my S@H USA and S@H Australia packages today.

Compared to Amazon, amazon's packing process is alot "minter" if you get me. The boxes sent from S@H both look like they had came from the storage sitting there for ages. It's like S@H does not care about the boxes being "mint" >.<

I ordered 3 green grocers (from S@H USA) and that was a mistake. What S@H does is put 2 into one package (27"x22"x10") then another 1 into the same one (27"x22"x10") filling it with lot's of air bubble packs.

I ordered 2 imperial flagships (from S@H Aust) they neatly packed the two large boxes into one larger package, unsure if dimensions, but it looked pretty snug.

In summary if you order large sets from S@H order in even numbers. So 2, 4, 6, 8 sets etc....

Just built Zurg! Not as good as Buzz though.

Edited January 19, 2010 by d00dz

[GI blockage]

anyone else used viaddress successfully?

I've been using vpost.com and it has all gone smoothly for importing into Australia

- US purchases ship via Oregon so no sales tax

- Ships via EMS - which is the advantage for me because I can collect the package from my local post office at my leisure - I don't have a work address and I can't predict when I'll be home for a courier.

- Slow versus courier (and more likely to get caught up in customs???)

- Pricing seems fairly comparable to the other services. Always has coupon codes to make it 10-25% cheaper than their standard rates.

- they consolidate packages but i've never tried

[d00dz]

anyone else used viaddress successfully?

I havent used them personally but after reading this... http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1401265

Im sticking with shipito.

[Shadows]

REMINDER!

Dealing with a secondary shipping company or reshipper is a serious business transaction and should not be entered into lightly or based solely on information collected in this topic.

It is your money and your product and in the end, your responsibility to determine if you wish to take that risk, so research it carefully and make your decision wisely.

Good luck!

[Siegfried]

Im sticking with shipito.

Thanks for the link. I read the whole first page; viaddress sux.

[Bennie]

Okay, this is my honest review and I hope that I can provide some insight for someone not to stumble through the frustrating steps I’ve been already.

Life is full of expenses and there’s simply never a time to really buy what you want. Nevertheless, I got my annual bonus, and I wanted to import stuff from the US, at least for the last year and a half. I have searched many forums, and read about user experiences of other people – all about what and who they suggest to use as a shipping forwarded company.

After a lot of research, I already decided a year and a half ago, that I’ll use Ship It To, when the time has come to order from the US. So the time has finally arrived, and I decided to order a Nokia N900, Some Otterbox protection for the nokia, two Bluetooth headsets, a Bluetooth mouse and a Bluetooth dongle. Mmmm I think that’s about it. I ordered it on the 15th of October 2010 at amazon.com

I did not want to spend a lot of money on amazon.com, and I’ve selected only items with free shipping and sold by amazon. I chose items sold only by amazon, cause I wanted one single package. Nevertheless. I checked my calendar and the frees hipping option would’ve taken a couple of day just to deliver the items to Ship It To. So I then gave it much though and chose the 2 day air shipping.

However, just before I placed the order, I opened my Ship It To account. The once-off shipment option had no consolidation and even though I knew I just order items to ship in once single package, I purchased the monthly plan which include consolidation – just for in case I might need it. Ummmm….

I’m not a person to badmouth others, but I’m really trying to be honest here.

So, I wanted my items to be shipped to the Memphis warehouse. Cause one has multiple warehouse options in the shipping calculator, before purchase. Nevertheless. From the accounts panel of Ship It To, after signing in, I apparently did not have enough verification status to have the addresses, other than Torrance and I think Hong Kong, available to me. The verification process include sending a signed form by mail to shipito in the US.

Earlier this year while I was in the US, my sister sent me a christmas and birthday card in November 2009 and I only received it in March 2010. So I will have to wait at least 2 months , at least, for my signed form to arrive in the US, unless I courier it.

Nevertheless, I had no other option than Torrance, US. Also, the max. spending amount is US$75.00 until you get 100% verified. I uploaded all the verification docs that I have, and apparently I am now “+30%” but that does not apply to increasing the US$75.00 one is allowed to “spend”. I phoned shipito to discuss this and to ask a couple of questions I’d like to know, because this is the first US shipment for me, I have not done it in the past, and I just wanted a peace of mind. I mean, I just spent a couple of hundred dollars on my purchase.

Sergey, to whom I spoke to, as really unfriendly and he “doesn’t care” and can do “nothing about the situation” – my concern was that I think the shipping costs will be more than 75 dollars. And since I’m only allowed to spend 75 dollars, what will happen to my package if it costs more than 75 dollars to ship with FedEx?

Sergay was really unhelpful, and told me after 6 minutes and 34 seconds, that I’m wasting his time for keeping him 20 minutes on the phone, etc etc. And honestly, I really kept is short and simple.

I was really astounded by this response, but I decided that its okay.

My packages arrived on time at Ship It To. Impressive.

I phoned my local fedex just to ensure that everything will be in order and how I should proceed to get my package, because we only have two FedEx branches in the country, which is located in the larger towns. I also phoned FedEx’s import and customs agent – to ensure how I should proceed in regards to paying the import taxes, etc.

So, FedEx – Checked.

Import Customs – Checked.

Everything was checked. I’m so afraid that something might go wrong!

In the meantime, I sent an email to shipito – but with no response after a day.

I sent 4 emails to Daniel – and no response since.

I sent 4 emails to Mandi – no response since.

I phoned shipito – and after being treated as if I am really disturbing them – I decided not to call again.

Sergay spelled it out last time that if I have a problem, its my problem, not theirs, whatsoever.

I also tried to load funds to my account – but my card failed. Which is impossible, but the response time was so instant after trying a couple of times, it seems impossible that they’ve actually tried to authorized it.

So, as Sergay said, I have to do a wire transfer, and in addition to the fees charged at my local bank for wiring a payment to the US, which is more than an arm and a leg, they charge 4.something percent as well as 16 dollars something, for receiving a wire payment – and that’s all my problem.

So, the 2 packages is now in the warehouse, and through my admin I chose to have them consolidated. The shipping for both packages should have been 120 dollars something, but after having them consolidated to actually pay less for the shipment, I now own shipito 192.52 dollars.

I emailed shipito just to get a confirmation in regards to this, but no response.

I emailed and asked them to please please just respond – but no response, since.

So, I don’t like to give bad scores. Honestly, I don’t know what to score them. At some stage I though of just forgetting a package and if it arrives some day, be happy, if not, forget about it. But then I have to remind myself that I cant just give up, and that I’m paying shipito a lot of money, for providing a service.

So, to score them, I’ll rather do this – to get my score.

1) Living up to their promises : 2/10 – I don’t know why I score them 2, cause it should be 0.

2) Responding to a question – mmmm, do I really have to score them 0? Yes. 0/10

3) Customer support and providing polite support - … 0/10? Should I really be this harsh. No, I’m just being honest.

4) Well there must be a good point… Okay, consolidation service, 10/10. But no, my packages now cost far more after the consolidation. So it cant be 10/10. Okay, 3/10

5) Okay, advertising a good product, even thou not living up to their promise, lets give them 5/10

Just a note – for some reason I have a lot of invoices in my account stating NOT PAID and I phones them in regards to this, and the lady said I should just wait until they disappear by themselves.

I’m really really sad. Really. This is not just disappointing. The thing that really upsets me the most, is that I don’t get any response from Ship It To, not at all. And when calling them, they are really really impatient and rude.

I’m so so so sad. Not because that I wont receive my package in the projected 7 days (that’s why I paid Amazon far more for shipping, to have it delivered at shipito in 2 days time) and not because , well, yeah, not because I can only “spend” 75 dollars in my account.

I’m so sad, I feel like just forget about the package, totally. I’m sad because I feel like being mislead and now that I’ve paid them and now that the package is in their warehouse – I simply cant get a way communicating with them.

I’m really disappointed. Really.

My average score based on my single scores above : 10%

I am so so so sad, and so disappointed. I feel like being ripped of.

And I know the costs just to get it here in Namibia, is about to cost me far more than what I paid for my items.

[Siegfried]

Okay, this is my honest review and I hope that I can provide some insight for someone not to stumble through the frustrating steps I’ve been already.

You know what's funny? You joined up and wrote that giant rant in three minutes and then logged off. Sure you might be a honest person who is so pissed at Ship It To that you're going around to sites insulting them, but you could just be a competitor or a company that is against the concept of dodging export restrictions.

Thus your "honest review" is rather worthless...