Best way to ship extra stuff to semester abroad?

huguenot
Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:36:38 +0000

DHL is by far, far, the fastest. We shipped a huge package last Friday at a “We Ship It” kind of storefront we were driving past in Columbia, SC and it arrived in China by Sunday night our time!

Be sure to include every form they tell you to. We have to include a commercial invoice, but I don’t know if you do if it is personal property. DHL’s website will walk you through it and will make far fewer mistakes than going to a shipping place. China doesn’t like you shipping stuff made in China back there (they assume you are trying to steal business from another Chinese company), so snip out made in China tags. We ship mainly samples, so we mark them “manufacturing samples” with a nominal value only. I believe the American embassy in Shanghai has some guidelines on their website for shipping personal property.

The only terrible experience we’ve had was when we had a sample shipped directly from the retailer. Evidently they didn’t fill out the forms right and it was held up in customs forever and cost a fortune in duty. I will never, ever have something shipped from where I purchased it again - the shipping seemed cheaper, but it was ever so much more expensive in the end.

Also, if you ship a lot, ask DHL for a commercial account and ask for discounts - it’s amazing how much cheaper it is.

The secret with all bureaucracies is make it easy - fill out all the blanks – make sure no one has to think. It’s that thinking that gets them :-)