Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Shipping shenanigans

Last year we had some stupid problems with our shipment coming to Korea, when the company left it in the warehouse for four weeks instead of shipping it to us and then tried to bill us for the weeks of storage. So we determined that this time, we'd try to be as thorough as possible, and have a shenanigan-free shipping experience.

It was all going so well last week. We found a shipper, got a reasonable quote for door-to-port shipping (since we don't have an address in Edinburgh, we're going to have to arrange for delivery there), and arranged for a pickup.

Then we found out today that the quote, which is for moving our stuff from Korea to the UK, does not include UK customs clearance. And that the fee for customs, if we choose to add it, will almost double the original quote? Oh, and did we mention that the port is not Edinburgh, but Felixstowe, which is next to freaking London, so that even if we wanted to do the customs stuff ourselves, it would take nearly a day of round-trip traveling to get there?

Choice 1) pay ludicrous fee and get on with life
Choice 2) travel with 900 pounds of luggage, paying ludicrous airline fees
Choice 3) mail boxes to US surface-rate and then mail to Edinburgh, producing ludicrous amounts of manual labor
Choice 4) attempt to secure local UK customs expediters, preferably at less than ludicrous quoted rate
Choice 5) set fire to all items, necessitating ludicrous amounts of shopping

I am leaning towards Choice 5.

1 comment:

Diana said...

I like that the options are ludacris-themed. Maybe you can get Ludacris to help!