Hope you can help me remedy a frustrating experience I had the other day. I was trying to mail two flutes back to England to the maker, and the postal folks were of absolutely no help. They didn’t seem to know what they were doing on an international send! The first fellow couldn’t find the address in the system, and the second guy who took over for the first wanted to charge me $400 to post the flutes! So, clearly I need to go in there knowing what I want to happen in the first place. Can anyone suggest a safe, reliable and affordable way to ship 2 flutes back to England?
Call around and find a shipping service (perhaps Mailboxes) that mails Priority Mail packages using Endicia online postage or similar. Endicia offers its own private insurance on shipments with rates more reasonable than the Post Offices. The Post Office is limited to $400 to the UK. Not enough for one of my Folk Flutes even.
However, there is a limit to even this. Shipments over $2500 declared value are not allowed unless you have a specific type of export permit. Some get around this by declaring that or less value. Better yet sending the flutes or parts of flutes in separate packages under $2500 value each. That is what I do when I ship using my Endicia Account.
If you ship frequently you might simply consider getting an Endicia account. $15 a month. See http://www.endicia.com
I don’t have as much experience as Casey, nor do I generally ship packages as valuable. But I’ve never had trouble shipping to the UK, including a package to England about three days ago. I’ve always shipped from the Post Office. The one thing I have discovered is that you can’t get the same rates posting from the 'net as you can at the PO. I shipped a whistle the other day for about 13 dollars; I think the last flute I shipped fully insured was maybe$30-40? So no idea what’s up with your local PO.
I routinely make international shipments and I’ve shipped a couple of dozen flutes to England over the years. I use USPS Priority Mail and I’ve never had a problem. Costs about $40 to $50 depending upon insurance.
But Casey is right about the value limit. I’ve never shipped anything that was valued at over $1000, so I never ran into a problem with special permits, etc..
If you’re returning for repairs or to return trials, the customs paperwork is quite different and must be filled out correctly. You will get the maker charged improper duties if you don’t do it right on your end.
I would suggest using a service like what Casey recommends.
If you are selling something it may not matter but, for me, returning a flute to England was a nightmare and I will never take advantage of a makers return policy ever again if it is going back to England. If you get it and don’t like it you would be better off selling it in whatever country you are living in.
Even with the customs slip marked “returned goods” the local postal authority in charge of wherever it lands can still assess the full amount of the insured amount at their discretion. So you have a choice to send it uninsured or take a chance on the maker refusing shipment for a refusal to pay the VAT and postal fees of 20+%. When it is shipped back to you, since there is no return postage, it can take months to get back. Almost six months in my case. I then sold it here in the States at a loss. So much for a full if not satisfied.