Best way to ship computers from overseas

[Hans Franke]

Am 18 Oct 2005 8:41 meinte Chandra Bajpai:

> I need to ship about 200 pounds of computers, documentation and spares from
> South Africa to Boston.  

;)

> Any suggestions on shipping this economically (and safely).  It seems FedEx
> is quite expensive does not make economic sense for me..are there alternate
> carriers or methods (e.g. via Ship) that make sense to Look at?

Well, FedEX (and DHL or UPS) are don't care shipers ... you
shoule never care about the price :)

If it would be about a larger shipment, I'd say go for one
of the real ship (ed. the things that float on water) companies.
I had quite good experience with TTC (totaltrans.com). THey spend
quite some time to help a total beginner like me to get my stuff
arround the globe at quite good rates. I also tried to get quotes
from the bigger players (like Menlo - except, they where the
incompetent and unresponsive I ever talked to).

Regarding the small amount of Computergear you have, what
about a trip to Boston with your Whife and maybe a friend?
70 pund free each (maybe more if you're some kind of elite
card holder) If you're lucky, you get a flight for arround
400 Euro per person ... still way below whe UPS & Co charge.
And a few days off...

> How do I deal with customs?

Declartation is everything. The shipment company will require
detailed papers. It also helps quite a lot if you're present
at the deciveing customs office. Usualy, when I get stuff
from outside the EU, I make them to foreward it 'sealed' to
Munich, and handle customs myself. This is the perfect spot
to use you Geek-Powers: talk to the customs officer, explain
what it is, give him dreamy comments about all the technical
details. The result is a win-winn situation, you have fun
telling, and they somehow speed up the process quite much.
The last 6 palletes of stuff I got from california, I had
a tax payment of less than 20 USD :)

Now, if you take the stuff in your baggage, the checks in
the US are rather nominal. Even before TSA, did the US pay
the larges boarderservice I know with the least intense
checks I know.

Gruss
H.
--
VCF Europa 7.0 am 29/30.April und 01.Mai 2006 in Muenchen
http://www.vcfe.org/