Shipping from USA to Australia

[sfGnome]

Does anyone have any experiences (good or bad) with re-shipping firms? I went to purchase something from B&C in the US, and for a USD250 part (which weighs about 250g/0.5 lbs), they quoted USD150 via UPS for shipping. That's just nuts! I looked at re-shipping firms (like Reship, Planet Express, MyUS, etc), and while they apparently bring the shipping price down to about USD75 (including B&C's USD25 charge for the US part of the delivery), I can't find one that doesn't get a zillion scathing reviews of lost packages and difficult customer service).

[facthunter]

Nothing but GRIM in My experience.   nev

[coljones]

1 hour ago, sfGnome said:

Does anyone have any experiences (good or bad) with re-shipping firms? I went to purchase something from B&C in the US, and for a USD250 part (which weighs about 250g/0.5 lbs), they quoted USD150 via UPS for shipping. That's just nuts! I looked at re-shipping firms (like Reship, Planet Express, MyUS, etc), and while they apparently bring the shipping price down to about USD75 (including B&C's USD25 charge for the US part of the delivery), I can't find one that doesn't get a zillion scathing reviews of lost packages and difficult customer service).

Try Australia Post.  I have vague recollections that they have a US delivery option for on freighting to OZ (for a fee).

 

OR

 

US freight-forwarding services compared | CHOICE

WWW.CHOICE.COM.AU

---

How do US freight-forwarding service measure up: Shipito, MyUS, USA2Me and US to Oz?

 

Edited Friday at 08:12 AM by coljones
Fix spelling

[skippydiesel]

sf Gnome;

 

If your purchasing a Voltage Regulator from B&C, be aware they are at least double the price of some very well regarded European makers.

 

Seems that deliveries from the  USA seem to go by courier at very high cost.

 

😈

[facthunter]

Plenty of Instances Of serious DAMAGE as well. Only covered to first transhipment Point. I don't know where you get your "SEEMS" from and 2 of them??  Often the Price charged is More than the Value of the Article. Nev

[sfGnome]

36 minutes ago, skippydiesel said:

If your purchasing a Voltage Regulator from B&C, be aware they are at least double the price of some very well regarded European makers.

Hi Skip. Yes, I've been examining all the available options, and had some extensive (and very informative) engineer to engineer conversations with the folk at B&C. One of their regulators (actually, the cheaper of the two permanent magnet alternator regulators) is exactly what I want in my plane. Yes, it is more expensive than the European ones, but it has some specific features that the Europeans don't. I'm happy(ish) to pay AUD400 for the regulator, but I draw the line at another AUD250 just to ship it. 😞

[sfGnome]

1 hour ago, coljones said:

Try Australia Post.  I have vague recollections that they have a US delivery option for on freighting to OZ (for a fee)

Sadly, they shut it down a few years ago. Pity, because it used to get reasonable reviews. Then again, all the current companies seemed to get really good reviews up until about 5 years ago, but no longer.

[Moneybox]

I used to import a lot from USA. I’ve been ripped off too many times too and it’s always involved the yanks. I’ve had excellent results dealing buying and selling to most Asian markets, much more trustworthy. I’ve had some very good purchases and freight deals from the UK as well. 
 

Apart from Temu and Aliexpress my last purchase was from the Pilot Shop in Czechoslovakia where I got my Sportstar engine mounts. Great people to deal with.

I avoid buying from USA if I can.

[skippydiesel]

1 hour ago, sfGnome said:

Hi Skip. Yes, I've been examining all the available options, and had some extensive (and very informative) engineer to engineer conversations with the folk at B&C. One of their regulators (actually, the cheaper of the two permanent magnet alternator regulators) is exactly what I want in my plane. Yes, it is more expensive than the European ones, but it has some specific features that the Europeans don't. I'm happy(ish) to pay AUD400 for the regulator, but I draw the line at another AUD250 just to ship it. 😞

I have just gone trough the exercise of replacing my Rotax/Ducati VR - it failed at approximately 153 hrs despite not being mounted on "cold" side of  of the firewall, with a dedicated fresh/cold air supply .

 

I don't pretend to understand the electronics involved, however I am told that the latest VR type is the MOSFET.

 

Not sure if the B&C VR, aimed at Rotax  plug & play, is MOSFET or not . It seems to require the same capacitor as the Rotax/Ducati unit, while the EU ones don't.

 

The two EU ones that seem to be most favoured are Silent Hectik and CARMO.

 

CARMO is available in Au, through  Vectric Parts. I purchased a CARMO CARR 5115 MOSFET - so far so good at about 22 + hrs 

 

Highly regarded by our American Cousins, Silent Hectic was/is only available through motorcycle dealership in the EU or if in the EU from the factory.

 

Lots of debate on this topic in the Rotax Owners Forum;

https://www.rotax-owner.com/en/general-tech-discussion/10942-voltage-regulator-failure

😈

Edited Friday at 10:22 AM by skippydiesel

[KRviator]

Nothing is cheap to ship from the US these days. 

Last year, the OAT sensor shat itself in our weather station. Tried reseating it, no joy, it was dead dead. Tried to find it by part number, without success so had no choice but to order a new one from the weather station mob. $49AUD for the sensor. $72 for the shipping! That was the cheapest option. For a part about the size of your thumbnail that could fit in an envelope a dozen times over.

Then last month, the pool temp sensor died - I knew it would eventually as the batteries are non-user-servicable, so went to order a new one of those from the same mob (we like our weather data...) Again, a $112AUD thermometer for our pool, $193 or $197 AUD for shipping. No other choice besides those two. Thieving bastards. Ended up getting it from Amazon - shipped from the same company mind you - with postage working out about a third of the cost.

[Rapture]

I’ve always used USPS for small items. You can get it with tracking.

[BrendAn]

16 hours ago, sfGnome said:

Does anyone have any experiences (good or bad) with re-shipping firms? I went to purchase something from B&C in the US, and for a USD250 part (which weighs about 250g/0.5 lbs), they quoted USD150 via UPS for shipping. That's just nuts! I looked at re-shipping firms (like Reship, Planet Express, MyUS, etc), and while they apparently bring the shipping price down to about USD75 (including B&C's USD25 charge for the US part of the delivery), I can't find one that doesn't get a zillion scathing reviews of lost packages and difficult customer service).

what city are b&c in

[djpacro]

You can probably get it locally - if not in stock it won;t take long.

https://www.aircraftspruce.com.au/catalog/eppages/bb700-1_oilfilteradapterkit.php

[sfGnome]

B&C are in Newton, Kansas. Sadly, although AircraftSpruce carries some B&C equipment, B&C have confirmed that they don’t carry that particular part (yet). 

[skippydiesel]

There was a time when the US had a public postal system similar to ours.

 

The failure of their postal systems (& their non health system) is a good example of what happens when politicians legislate for short term vote getters and bugger the future.

 

The US (non) postal system is a victim of market economics (thanks to  Reagan/Thatcher) an extreme version of Capitalism.

 

Like all extremes it is inherently unworkable/corrupt in the long term. Serves a few, while the majority are disadvantaged.

 

😈

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[onetrack]

Transhipping from the U.S. is pretty much a dead-loss exercise, due to everyone that touches the item being shipped, wanting a piece of the pie. The company you purchase from will often charge you US$50 or US$75 just for arranging an International delivery.

 

There's only two ways to get items from the U.S. - find a company that offers free domestic U.S. postage and get them to send it to the transhipper of your choice (Planet Express is about the best of them), then get the item sent to the Planet Express depot for shipping to Australia. Pick the closest PE depot.

 

The other way is to make friends with someone in the U.S. (forums are good for this), who is close to the company you want to purchase from. Either ask them to pick the item up, and post it via USPS, or get it sent to them for pickup by USPS.

USPS Priority Mail Express International is the way to send it - and in Flat Rate boxes. A USPS small FR box costs US$49.65 to Australia. Your postage helper doesn't even need to wait in line at the P.O. they can pick up a empty FR box, book the postage online and USPS will pick it up from their home or business. USPS is pretty reliable. 

 

Sending items by road over long distances in the U.S. is a costly and potentially disastrous method, because so many transport vehicles crash, and the parcels are often destroyed. Organising to send the item to the closest International parcel sorting centre is the way to go. There is one of these USPS International parcel sorting centres in Kansas City.

 

USPS costs have rocketed, because of two major factors. The first one, is the same one that has sent Australia Posts costs rocketing - and that is the Govt requirement to deliver letters to anywhere in the country at low cost. As the number of letters has declined substantially, so the costs to the postal agency have gone ballistic, as they need all the previous infrastructure and vehicles and employees, just to deliver a handful of letters a week to outlying areas.

 

The other factor that affected USPS badly was accumulated losses over many years of inadequate cost controls. USPS was forced to pay employees based on their education standard, rather than on the level of task they were assigned.

 

So, USPS ended up with mail sorters who had PhD's, getting paid over $100,000 a year just to sort letters and parcels. It was a stupid and unsustainable system, and there were several U.S. Govt inquiries and investigations into how to reduce USPS's major losses. Part of the solution was simply doubling and tripling the letter and parcel rate charges over a relatively short period of time.

 

I used to buy hundreds of items a year from the U.S. between about year 2000 and about 2015. The postage costs were reasonable in that period. After 2015, it started to become costly to ship items from the U.S., so now I buy only a fraction of what I want from the U.S.

 

Edited Saturday at 12:06 AM by onetrack

[kgwilson]

I bought a $US6.95 3/8" snap fitting for my air riveter in 2011 from Aircraft Spruce when building my aircraft as the same item from Hawker Pacific here at the time was $60.00. Freight cost was $US59.00. Once bitten twice shy. After that the  the only way to get a reasonable freight cost was to buy a number of things at the same time in a shared order with others. 

[skippydiesel]

"USPS costs have rocketed, because of two major factors. The first one, is the same one that has sent Australia Posts costs rocketing - and that is the Govt requirement to deliver letters to anywhere in the country at low cost. As the number of letters has declined substantially, so the costs to the postal agency have gone ballistic, as they need all the previous infrastructure and vehicles and employees, just to deliver a handful of letters a week to outlying areas."

 

Australia ; While letter deliveries have precipitately dropped (due to email, etc) parcel deliveries have increased exponentially. Highly likly that the seperation of letter & parcel deliveries from one business, to two, is the principal cause of letter deliveries becoming uneconomic. The now separate parcel delivery is financial viable.  This is an artificial seperation (much the same resources handle letters & parcels) designed to make an argument for higher letter delivery charges and eventually phase this service out altogether.😈

 

 

[onetrack]

Sorry, Skippy - I haven't seen any information that says Australia Post operates two separate businesses in the form of parcel and letter handling. AP purchased 100% of StarTrack, a private freight company, in 2012, to enable AP to get into the parcel business without the major cost of setting up a completely new parcel-handling entity.

 

StarTrack and Australia Post are the one and the same, but StarTrack specialises in parcel delivery for businesses, and doesn't handle letters, whereas AP handles parcels and letters for consumers and businesses.

 

An AP postie can and will deliver your parcels, along with any letters for you, in the one delivery. But posties are limited in what they can carry in their delivery bikes, so mostly, your parcels are delivered either by a StarTrack operative in a van - and sometimes by independent delivery van owners, who are contracted to AP or StarTrack.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-06/australia-post-letter-delivery-reduced-to-every-second-day/103189962

 

[skippydiesel]

It really doesn't matter what names the business is under - Australia post is effectively/actually two businesses - the letter side uneconomic  - the parcel side "going gang busters". The Australia Post CEO has often lamented the parlous state of Australia Post (letters) while neglecting to make any comment about the Parcel Delivery business. How you interpret this situation is up to you - I see  the seperation into two business entities, it as a strategy for short term justification to hike letter costs and long term to divest (close?) the business altogether.

 

It may be that electronic mail will completely supplant paper. This will require all sorts of "digital" documents to be accepted as legitimate eg birth , marriage, citizenship certificates

 

😈

[kgwilson]

That is already in place. I sold an investment property and my house and bought another house & everything was done on line with no paper at all using a system called Pexa that solicitors use and Docusign for signing contracts and property transfer documents. Both systems required that I provide IDs and I needed to upload photo scans (PNG or JPG) through another system called Infotrack. Once all the ID stuff is confirmed documents are signed without any witness being required as it had to be before.

[BrendAn]

3 minutes ago, kgwilson said:

That is already in place. I sold an investment property and my house and bought another house & everything was done on line with no paper at all using a system called Pexa that solicitors use and Docusign for signing contracts and property transfer documents. Both systems required that I provide IDs and I needed to upload photo scans (PNG or JPG) through another system called Infotrack. Once all the ID stuff is confirmed documents are signed without any witness being required as it had to be before.

And you don't have to leave the house to do everything like you used to. I love electronic documents 

[facthunter]

Except the Ones from Nigeria. Nev

[skippydiesel]

Accepting digital documents is still very patchy.😈

[BrendAn]

35 minutes ago, skippydiesel said:

Accepting digital documents is still very patchy.😈

why. i have done dozens of digital contracts and never a problem.  anyone saying otherwise has no experience with them.