I’m re-examining my approach to shipping my instruments out of country and would like some feedback please. This morning I shipped a soprano d (which weighs about half a lb.) to the UK. My normal method is to ship USPS Priority insured which usually takes about 2 weeks and the cost for this has gone UP to $37.00. WOW! That seems expensive to me. If I ship first class the cost is just under $7.00 and it takes just a few days longer, if that.
The down side to first class is insurance is not available. I’ve only had to make 2 claims in over 14 years for lost or damaged shipments. So the question is… would you folks rather I ship first class and save you $30 and you take the risk of loss, or would you rather pay the higher price and have it insured? I also checked with UPS and their cost is ridiculous at about $67 so I’m not even considering that.
I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect a customer to take the risk of loss.
You could ship First Class International Parcel, and take the insurance risk yourself via http://shipsurance.com/
Also, if your whistles break down to smaller sizes, you might be able to get away with one of the smaller Flat Rate boxes (around $17).
Otherwise, FCI Parcel is generally less expensive, though, and International weight allowance is higher than the U.S. Domestic 13 oz (1.5 lbs. is about $15 to Ireland, for instance).
If I have whistles shipped from the US I always ask the sender to take the cheapest way: first class parcel, undeclared value (just ‘tin whistle’) once you go the insured route revenue will hit you with import duties and the price of the whistle generally becomes prohibitive (for me anyway). In the past I have also seen flat rate mailing tube arrive but these may no longer be available.
Whistles never took longer than a week to get here (Ireland), three days was the fastest I remember. (last time I bought a whistle was two years or so ago).
As someone who has lived on both sides of the Atlantic and bought and sold instruments from and to multiple countries I would always want things insured and my experience selling internationally is that most people feel the same way. Obviously I don’t speak for everyone. I feel that something as important as a musical instrument needs to be insured; especially if the recipient is a pro musician. In the case of a pro this is their lively-hood so if one of their tools, if you will, is damaged that is a big deal cause it may mean they are out of a job until the repair is done. For the hobbyist it isn’t as big a deal but still if one has spent a few hundred on something nice for themselves a few extra dollars for insurance is a small price to pay for peace of mind.
In the UK, distance selling regulations state that it is the seller’s responsibility to get the item safely into the hands of the buyer. Therefore any insurance should be to your benefit not the buyer’s, however buyers also like to have a trackable service which usually has an insurance component to it.
You can offer two shipping methods. One tracked (and incidentally insured) and a cheaper version. You have to add up how many items you loose in the mail and their value to replace to decide whether you feel it’s worth using this cheaper method.
As long as your shipping costs are clear at purchase you should be fine with people deciding whether or not to buy from the States.
Shipping is expensive but remember people in the EU buying from the States won’t be paying 20% Value Added Tax (although they may be asked to upon delivery if the value of the parcel exceeds arond £25 - can’t remember the exact amount)
I have received 3 shipments from Jerry Freeman, all first class and low cost shipping. No problems there, but then I didn’t expect any problems either - I receive packages from the US all the time, mostly small boxes with electronics and the like, and I have never had any problems whatsoever. No damage, and (depending on the packet size I think) often the shipping time is down to 6-7 days. Whistles seem to take a bit longer (two or three weeks), maybe because the packets are of a more elongated shape. (As for electronics I get shipments up to several times a month, so the number of successful shipments has become quite large over the years.)
But obviously this also depends on the value of the goods. If the shipment doubles the price of the goods, or at least makes a significant difference then it’s a question of if it’s worth it. For something very expensive it’s psychologically easier to eat the extra $30-$40-$50 (depending). But even that may not be worth it, when risks are assessed.
Now, there are some European countries (well, one at least) where shipping can be unreliable (things tend to disappear in their domestic postal service). If you take a look at those Asian ebay sellers with exclusion lists for shipping you will get an idea of which one(s) where shipping with insurance may be necessary in all cases.
On Guido’s web pages he has written about a few shipments that did not arrive to some customers - I don’t recall which countries, but at least there are recorded cases of problems.
For myself, I am generally very happy to get items shipped to me by First Class International - as said above I’ve never had any kind of trouble. YMMV, of course. But having the option is a selling point for me at least - if the value of the goods is above the VAT limit then suddenly there’s VAT to be paid on the shipping as well so it gets even more expensive.
Over the years I’ve bought very many items (well over 100, maybe over 200) from the USA using “normal” letter/parcel post. I can only recall one going missing in the post and I seem to remember it eventually got returned to sender … the address label had got damaged in handling. Having said that, none of these items were quite in the price-bracket of your whistles, I don’t think a 10% premium for insurance to be undue at these values.
One expensive item that was sent by “well-known courier” was actually documented as having been opened at a specific point in it’s travels … when it was eventually received here, the package was empty and the courier company denied all responsibility for the loss of contents due to some obscure clause in the small print.
Based on that unrepresentative sample, I’d recommend the US Postal Service basic delivery every time
Why don’t you “self-insure”. You know from experience how often shipments go astray. Use that information to calculate a premium. Add the premium to every shipment. I’m sure it will come to a heck of a lot less than $30.
Thanks to all of you who replied and especially to Brigitte Goldie who sent me an email with a lot of valuable info on shipping. I’ve decided to continue using USPS Priority insured based on the outcome of your posts so thanks a bunch for your comments.
