Shipping options from Canada to Australia

[Kitbuqa]

Hello fellas,

Im in a bit of a bind.

Trevor Kronbauer has finished my guitar. Shipping was quoted at $350 which is fair in my opinion. Trevor went to confirm the online quote over the phone with both DHL and FEDEX and was told its $950!!!!!

I think that's absurd by those shipping companies!

I'm asking fellow forumites if:

1) that is their experience in shipping a guitar from Canada to Australia

2) what are my options?

Regards.

[BGS]

FedEx is about $300 to $350 for Australia for me, but that's with some nice discounts. Don't imagine Canada would be too different.

I imagine he's just looking at the "retail" website rate, which is often outrageous. Tell him to email me if he wants some advice.

[Berf]

Hi there Kitbuqa,

I empathize with your pain. I recently had a guitar shipped over here to Australia from Canada and it ended up being a bit of a nightmare. We were getting quotes at around a $1000 too but finally got one for $400 from Panalpina with the proviso that I picked up the guitar at the airport. That sounded fine until the guitar arrived in Australia and I had to pay all these extra shipping fees that took the shipping back up to $1000. Basically these were simply the fees that had been initially included in the other quotes. By the way, on top of this I had to pay quarantine, import duty, GST and brokerage fees (and probably some other fees I'm forgetting)...

I did get a quote from Pack and Send here in Australia that was far more reasonable but I'm not sure if the same thing would have happened. Perhaps you could give them a call.

Here's hoping you get a solution... it's really out of control.

All the best, berf

[mc1]

perhaps the difference is brokerage fees and taxes. usps might be your best option. worth looking in to.

[Kitbuqa]

Hello everyone thank you kindly for your responses!

Much appreciated!

[Kitbuqa]

Looks like Trev could only get it down to 725bucks to ship to Australia.

Seriously has the world gone mad?

725 is a blatant ripoff by shipping companies.

Its the last time ill order or get a guitar shipped from Canada judging by predatory shipping charges on the part of 'global' brands like fedex and dhl.

I feel sick...

[Bluedog Guitars]

We usually get rates around $400 from Vancouver to Australia - have Trevor call the Packaging Depot in Burnaby or North Vancouver.