Shipping goods back home
 

BEWARE BUYING GOODS OVERSEAS AND SHIPPING THEM BACK TO THE USA!
We are experienced travelers, and just visited Vietnam & Cambodia in April. For the first time, my husband bought something we could not carry back with us. I've heard of others shipping good back, and it sounded pretty straightforward. My husband fell in love with some marble tiger & lion statues, and bought them. We had already visited several other marble shops, and they all had these price schedules for shipping to various countries, so the merchants seemed well familiar with the process. We paid about $200 (over the cost of the statues) to ship a crate with the 4 statues (about 1 ft by 2 ft each, 300 lbs total). According to the merchant, the price included all shipping handling and insurance to deliver them to our house. Well, here we are 8 weeks later, and the shipper finally contacted us, and the items are sitting in LA, (we live near San Francisco) and the shipper is trying to charge us an $150 extra to ship them to our door! This is over and above the normal customs fees (we haven't heard yet how much the customs fee will be), the shipping company is trying to double charge us shipping which we already paid for! And they wont even take a credit card, they want a wire transfer or cashier's check, and we haven't even seen the statues yet to make sure they aren't damaged! If we paid and then they arrived damaged, we wouldn't even have a way to dispute the charge. We contacted the merchant, and they wont help. So now we're having to dispute the charge through our credit card company, hopefully that will be successful. This is the last time we buy something we can't carry home with us!

They certainly have the ability to get you by the short and curlies and only real way around it is to take the time to look up a shipper and do that part yourself when overseas.

That doesn't help now but first thing I would do [if you have clear documentation from the merchant re what was to be for cost charged] is to contact the credit card company for here in Oz., I think its if within three months you dispute something they will look at the transaction.

That Marble stuff is good ain't it?; got myself a water buffalo with a kid sitting on top just like I had actually seen in some fields - amazed at just how docile those buffalo were!, and then also got a gift of a tea set too and found some other great mementos to buy as well, fortunately able to take them all with me, except for a motorbike I had bought as part of my travels.

Did you get to that little village at foot of Marble Mountain as they refer to it, just south of Da Nang.

this is standard shipping, except for air shipment....

why not drive down to la and pick them up??

What Bob says is true. What you paid the merchant for was crating and shipping to the nearest port. You are responsible for picking up the merchandise and paying duty. This is standard, no matter where you are shipping it from. If you'd bought antiques in Europe, it would be the same thing.

Unfortunately, you weren't prepared for this. The $150 for "to your door service" from the port in LA is certainly within reason. So this really isn't a double charge. You paid the merchant for shipping to your nearest port (LA), and if you aren't going to pick up the statues yourself, another company will have to charge you to bring them to your door.

Yes, Kathie and rhkkmk are correct, <b>shipping</b> is from port to port. I would pay the $150. Sounds like a reasonable price from LA to SFO to me and you won't have to learn about paying the dockworkers their prices for opening a shipping crate, forklift charges, etc.

It would have cost much more for <b>door to door</b> FEDEX,UPS,DSL service for 300lbs. so actually you are getting a deal and you are going to have those beautiful statues and all those memories they will bring for a long time to come.

Aloha!

Yes, but my nearest port is Oakland and that is where it was supposed to be shipped to. It is 10 miles away. I would have no problem picking it up there. San Francisco is 6 hours EACH way. I emailed the merchant, and confirmed, it is supposed to be already paid to the port of Oakland (though when we purchased they originally said it would ship to our door!) Now the shipper has my stuff in LA and wants an extra $150 just for LA to Oakland!

If you have written confirmation that it was to be shipped to Oakland, then provide that to the shipping company and it is their responsibility to get it to the Port of Oakland. If the shipping company is offering to bring it to your door for $150, I'd do it. From Oakland, even though it is close, you'll have to go to the port, negotiate a price with the dockworkers to move and open the crate and to load it into your vehicle. That could well add up to $150.

I've never heard of goods from SE Asia coming to Oakland.

We've shipped furniture 3 years in a row from Thailand and every time it's port-to-port, but always to Long Beach (Los Angeles) since that's the main port-of-entry for ships coming from overseas. I think the idea is it's the "closest" port-of-entry (meaning west/south/east coast)...not the closest port to your house.

And to add to the chorus of echoes on the door-to-door, in my experience it's NEVER included in the shipping price. It was, however, the shipper's responsibility to inform you of this--and kind of shady that they didn't.

Fine, I'm willing to pick it up at the port, instead of delivering to my door. I talked to the shipper, and they say the extra $150 is NOT to my door. They say I have to pay that even to pick it up at the port. $75 is 'Handling fees' at this end, the rest is overseas charges (referred to as 'destination delivery charges', etc. What a crock. Well, I have emailed the merchant, and they agree that we did pay all shipping/handling fees to get it to the port of Oakland, there should be no unpaid "overseas" charges. So someone in the middle is trying to increase their profit.

When you order a book from Amazon, and it is shipped via UPS (or other compnay), and you prepay the shipping, the delivery guy doesn't charge $20 to get it off the truck. And he doesn't add on tolls and gas fees. I paid shipping and handling all the way to the port of Oakland. I should be able to just pay my customs fees and pick it up, but the freight company at this end wont release it unless I pay all these extra 'handling' fees, ridiculous.

BTW, I did indeed make it to the little village at the base of Marble Mountain, and that is why I'm in this mess! That is where I bought these statues.

Good luck on getting the shipping company to transport it to Oakland. You can deal with the dock workers once your merchandise is in Oakland.

When I order stuff from Amazon with shipment to Thailand I have to pay handling fees, customs and tax. Usually cost more than the the stuff I ordered.

Yeah, but I don't think an order from Amazon can compare to an intricate exporting situation...

You should be happy--you're going to have something exotic in your home from a far-flung place that you actually found and purchased in that place. Don't let the little things stress you out. At the end of the day, even with all the hidden fees (and believe me, there are many in these types of transactions) you're still paying less than you would here had you found it at an antiques dealer...plus you have the bragging rights of saying you bought and shipped it from Vietnam.

Just my two cents...

Hanuman,

Are you even reading what I wrote? I already paid the shipping, handling, insurance, and Vietnamese taxes. I am not disputing paying US customs taxes. But now when it finally arrives in the US, the shipping company is trying to DOUBLE my shipping charges, which were already paid in full.

The reference to UPS/Amazon was just to point out that once you've bought something and paid for the item plus shipping & handling in full, how would you feel if the shipper tried to charge you double shipping & handling when the item arrived, and refused to give it to you if you didn't pay?

I'm not talking small change, here, this is an extra $150, and I'm not even sure thats the end of it, as they've apparently delivered it to some 3rd party warehouse, which may decide to charge its own fees.

This is the last time I buy (or let my husband buy) something overseas that I can't carry back.

I ship a lot of goods to the US so here's my opinion. Obviously you shipped the merchandise CIF(cost, insurance and freight) and the merchant chose their own, probably the cheapest, freight forwarder or shipper. Did the merchant send you a bill of lading? If they did it should, amongst other details, state the port where the goods will arrive.

Regarding the warehouse, you are normally allow a certain grace or free period where they will store the merchandise for you. After that demurrage charge are normal. I highly suggest that you settle ASAP to avoid further charges.

The main purpose of my post was to WARN other Fodorites to do a lot of research before buying large or heavy items overseas. The merchant will tell you all shipping, handling, insurance costs are included in your price, but when it actually arrives at port in the USA, there are a LOT of hidden fees that are not disclosed to you. And I'm not just talking about customs fees.

Fees in:

Los Angeles (not even the final port)
Peak surcharge $10
Handling charge $75 (supposedly all handling fees paid!)
Destination charge $30 (whatever that is!)
X-ray charge $10
AMS $25 (Whatever that is!)
Pier Pass & clean truck fee $5

Plus additional $100+ fees in the final destination port (Oakland in my case)

Does not include customs fees

None of this disclosed, we were told all shipping and handling was included.