- Thu Oct 12, 2017 8:41 am
#98896
First: this thread is not meant to bitch about shipping costs. It is simply consumer advice :-)
Second: focus will be on shipping from US to EU.
Third: this post became rather long…
Since some time Mondo and Waxwork have an extra (cheaper) shipping option for international orders. They use DHL instead of USPS for this. My experience is that the DHL option to The Netherlands always incurs customs. I am thinking that going for the more expensive USPS option might actually be the better option in the long run.
But I can be wrong.
So I want to ask your experiences. Did you order from Mondo or Waxwork by using the DHL of USPS option to ship to the EU? Was the correct value stated on the package? Were you charged with custom fees?
I also really want to know when you did NOT get stung by customs.
My experience:
Mondo
All USPS before April 2016: no customs
DHL:
April 20, 2016: charged!
August 10, 2016: need to check (I’ll edit this later) but I think charged, because after this I changed back to:
USPS:
3 order between October 2016 and January 2017 with NO customs.
Waxwork
About 15 orders up until July 2017 with USPS and no customs.
DHL:
July 2017: charged!
(after that one I decided to buy Waxwork releases from Transmission)
One thing I noticed is that on the DHL packages slip the correct value is stated. On the USPS-package slips values of $5 or $10 per item are stated. I guess the DHL values need to be correct because of insurance purposes.
Another thing I notice is that shipping times take much longer (2 or 3 times as long) for DHL opposite USPS.
Also, DHL orders to The Netherlands first arrive in Germany (DHL is/was German) and I think the sticker that customs needs to be paid is attached there. That would be an explanation why Occhionero (living in Germany) doesn’t appear to be stung each time with customs. I think the orders for Germany are more randomly selected to be charged, but all orders that go through the German DHL distribution centre to the Netherlands are tagged.
One more remark to put it all in perspective. If the difference between shipping costs on a particular order is about $20-$30 and you get stung by customs using the cheaper option, the charge you get is about $22-$32. So in the end the difference in total costs is very small.
The exception is when you buy only 1 record and you get to choose between DHL for $22 and USPS for $23,50. Go for the USPS one because that will definitely be a lot cheaper (as in $16 cheaper).
Second: focus will be on shipping from US to EU.
Third: this post became rather long…
Since some time Mondo and Waxwork have an extra (cheaper) shipping option for international orders. They use DHL instead of USPS for this. My experience is that the DHL option to The Netherlands always incurs customs. I am thinking that going for the more expensive USPS option might actually be the better option in the long run.
But I can be wrong.
So I want to ask your experiences. Did you order from Mondo or Waxwork by using the DHL of USPS option to ship to the EU? Was the correct value stated on the package? Were you charged with custom fees?
I also really want to know when you did NOT get stung by customs.
My experience:
Mondo
All USPS before April 2016: no customs
DHL:
April 20, 2016: charged!
August 10, 2016: need to check (I’ll edit this later) but I think charged, because after this I changed back to:
USPS:
3 order between October 2016 and January 2017 with NO customs.
Waxwork
About 15 orders up until July 2017 with USPS and no customs.
DHL:
July 2017: charged!
(after that one I decided to buy Waxwork releases from Transmission)
One thing I noticed is that on the DHL packages slip the correct value is stated. On the USPS-package slips values of $5 or $10 per item are stated. I guess the DHL values need to be correct because of insurance purposes.
Another thing I notice is that shipping times take much longer (2 or 3 times as long) for DHL opposite USPS.
Also, DHL orders to The Netherlands first arrive in Germany (DHL is/was German) and I think the sticker that customs needs to be paid is attached there. That would be an explanation why Occhionero (living in Germany) doesn’t appear to be stung each time with customs. I think the orders for Germany are more randomly selected to be charged, but all orders that go through the German DHL distribution centre to the Netherlands are tagged.
One more remark to put it all in perspective. If the difference between shipping costs on a particular order is about $20-$30 and you get stung by customs using the cheaper option, the charge you get is about $22-$32. So in the end the difference in total costs is very small.
The exception is when you buy only 1 record and you get to choose between DHL for $22 and USPS for $23,50. Go for the USPS one because that will definitely be a lot cheaper (as in $16 cheaper).