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Topic: Help needed! Want to get a heavy / big item from UK to Belgium
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Bart Smith
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 228
From: Hackney, London
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted December 13, 2008 12:25 AM
If I book into my account with www.interparcel.com, and look at the prices for a package sent to Belgium, weighing 26kg, 50x50x50cm, insured for £250, it comes to a total of £25.90 + VAT, so total is £29.79. The service they use for this cheap rate is DHL Europlus, delivery time 2-5 working days. Admittedly I have an account with them so I get a 5% discount on their standard rates, but I reckon that the price is pretty reasonable.
Typically I have always found that if I try to arrange a collection from a different country from the UK it tends to be much more expensive, so you may have to talk a UK forum member into helping you.
People always seem to be under the impression that sending goods abroad is expensive, but this is a fallacy. If you are using a courier to send to the closer bits of Europe (France, Germany, Belgium, Holland etc.) it really isn't that bad. Let's face it, Belgium is CLOSER to London (where I am based) than it is to Edinburgh for example. As far as I am aware it doesn't matter where in the UK the item is based to attract the same rate as long as it is not in the Highlands & Islands or Northern Ireland.
***VERY IMPORTANT*** Get him to remove the lens and send this separately. This may seem a bit strange, but in the event of the package being damaged/run over by a train/trampled by a herd of buffalo etc. the courier companies will try anything to wriggle out of the insurance, and in the small print you will invariably find that items made out of or containing any glass are specifically excluded. It would not amaze me if they could then claim that because a small part of it was glass they won't pay out at all even if the lens itself is undamaged. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I don't trust any courier company to be good to their word whatsoever. It is an article of faith to them to scour the small print for exceptions. The same applies for the outer packaging, this has to be of really good quality otherwise they might wriggle out of it. I sent a 16mm projector to Hong Kong a couple of years back, the buyer didn't care whatsoever about shipping costs etc. so I made a crate out of 18mm MDF just to make sure it got there fine. The buyer was prepared to pay me for my time and effort and it added considerably to the weight so the whole thing was expensive, but money seemed to be no object to him and he was very happy.
Hope this helps,
Bart
[ December 13, 2008, 11:29 AM: Message edited by: Bart Smith ]
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