Thread: Postal costs on orders from UK

Time and time again I have compared Paddock's prices with others and they cheaper 99% of the time, but I get the impression they make up for it a bit on the freight. I always wait until I have quite a few items on the list before I order, or get a couple of other LR mates in on the order and this makes the freight costs reasonable.

James.

Try the US as said earlier.

I was quoted $300- for a pallet sized load from the US, incl shocks (whick were too long to ship otherwise) suspension arms, and a bunch of other stuff. All up a pallet about 1m high.

Just to put things in perspective though. I bought 6 x Zu alloys (78kg) from Devon 4x4 in the West Country, United Kingdom delivered to Karratha in the Pilbara, WA - and the Fedex airfreight was $38 cheaper than the quote I got from Perth to Karratha. Couple that with the $92 price difference (per wheel) between buying them over the counter in Perth vs buying them in the UK it turned into a "no brainer".

$590 saved (including paying duty for a parcel over $1000) by not buying in Australia - sad state of affairs...

just purchaed a mud flap and bracket

5.95 pound delivery

most likely on the slow boat but im not in a hurry

I believe that this excessive freight is because many UK companies are too lazy to go to the Post office.
I believe that DHL pick up from the seller so they like to use them to save themselves time.

The freight by Royal Mail for a 1KG package is GBP 15.28

Business Airmail | Royal Mail Ltd

So there it is. I have in the past specified Royal Mail shipment and it has been done but who knows now.

However for heavy stuff DHL seems OK as from LRDirect I noted that the steering box freight was up to AFAIR 50Kgs, so I added in some brake hoses etc. This is as long as the DHL do not try to add the $47 for AQIS inspection.
Regards Philip A

Originally Posted by frantic

Ring them and query it then ring back twice. That worked for me.
The thing I find so hard to believe is they "claim" to be the biggest private postal part service for LR yet their computers cannot tally the weight/size unless they actually pack it and measure it! Sorry you order the stuff into stock, weigh it measure it then it's on your system forever.
Off my horse, try and price it yourself go online to fed-ex and TNT to see what it would cost. Another idea see if you can get the parts from the U.S as their freight is usually cheaper.

Hello from Brisbane.

I have bought a lot of stuff - both LR and non LR - from both the UK and USA over the years. The UK rates are hit and miss but generally average close to the parts cost if not a bit more. Occasionally you get a nice surprise, but usually the rate on small to medium parcels is around GBP 8 to GBP 50.

My experience with the US as an alternative is that parts from there often cost more than the local price or the quoted shipping rates are often quite high. For LR parts I have largely only gone to the USA for parts that no longer seem to be available in the UK and someone there had them and they were small enough to post.

Of course, others will respond suggesting this is nonsense and they got something really bulky sent here for some ridiculously low rate. Good luck if it happens that way, but I have rarely seen it work out that way.

Cheers,

I had a timing Tool Kit shipped from the USA, about the size of a cordless drill case and about 2kgs. 2 to 6 weeks (from East USA) $109, up to 10days $114 and Express 2 days $130 AUD. Went for the 10 days and got it in 6 days, Regards Frank.

I, too, acknowledge that others may have good experiences with the USA however I have had nothing but trouble from them - to the extent where I prefer to deal with the UK and, heavens forbid, Malaysia. Malaysian sellers have ridiculously long shipping times, in my experience, but the stuff eventually does arrive and is what was requested.

I have had one US seller tell me that, although he does say he ships internationally, he would prefer not to as he has to go to the shipping office and fill out a declaration form and it is a hassle!

On the other hand, I have found an eBay dealer in the UK that let me place an order with them but when I went back to order more their eBay site said I couldn't order through eBay but could place my order directly via their ecommerce site... (fortunately their pricing and shipping costs were better via the ecommerce site).