Shipping Basses to mainland Europe

[JwK94]

Hi All,

I've had interest in a bass i'm selling from someone in Poland. Of course he'll need it sending to him, but all the quotes i've had for postage so far aren't cheap to say the least. Does anyone know any companies that might ship a bass abroad for a reasonable price?

Cheers,
Jack

[Dan Dare]

Be wary of selling to people overseas. Once the instrument's left your hands, you have no proof it's arrived safely. Make sure you are paid by a secure, non returnable method. I'd advise against accepting PayPal payment. They will allow a payment to be clawed back in disputes and tend heavily to favour the buyer. You can be left with no instrument or money. Just my five penn'orth.

[kodiakblair]

I shipped 3 basses to a fella in Totana,Spain last month. It was in a big Thomann box so say 1400 x 1000 x 180 and weighed 20Kg.

Total cost was £39 and he had them by the fourth day. I booked using UPS via Interparcel. Extra insurance over £100 cost 2%.

Ask the buyer to bank transfer the funds as Dan Dare's right PayPal will protect the buyer if anything goes wrong, leaving you to deal with the courier.

Could be I've just been lucky but I've sent and received plenty items from Europe without a glitch.

[CamdenRob]

I may possibly be shipping a bass to Denmark in the near future and I was going to go with UPS as they appear to be the only ones that offer comprehensive insurance?

... It's going to be expensive but I need total insurance cover.

[karlfer]

I've done some to Europe.
I stipulate to them,
1. They need to pay me by bank transfer. They need to know sometimes this will take 3 days to clear.
2. After funds have cleared, THEY need to organise and pay for INSURED courier, simply telling me what day the courier will collect.

In the rare event something goes wrong with a courier, well, if worst comes to worst in UK, I can get in the car, drive to the firms HO and eyeball the gaffer.
I can not do that in Europe.

I stipulate the above for fairness to both parties. It has cost me sales, but it's the only way I will do it after a couple of expensive and worrying nightmares.
NEVER PAINPal!

[BassBunny]

[quote name='kodiakblair' timestamp='1456784268' post='2992334']
I shipped 3 basses to a fella in Totana,Spain last month. It was in a big Thomann box so say 1400 x 1000 x 180 and weighed 20Kg.

Total cost was £39 and he had them by the fourth day. I booked using UPS via Interparcel. Extra insurance over £100 cost 2%.

Ask the buyer to bank transfer the funds as Dan Dare's right PayPal will protect the buyer if anything goes wrong, leaving you to deal with the courier.

Could be I've just been lucky but I've sent and received plenty items from Europe without a glitch.
[/quote]
Wow, Interparcel must have jacked their prices up then.
Looked at sending 2 Guitars over to CZ for my Son. Same Thomann Box, weighed 14KG and they wanted £107 plus Insurance.
Crazy thing is doing it as 2 separate packages is about £30 each.
That said, I would still favour them. Have had to claim recently on their Insurance and no arguments and paid out fairly quickly and Interparcel use UPS.

Edited March 1, 2016 by BassBunny

[kodiakblair]

@CamdenRob

I just checked flights to Denmark Rob, Ryanair are £20 return London to Copenhagen. Damn sight cheaper than a courier.

[kodiakblair]

All depends on the country @BassBunny.

Looked at sending a wee box 20 x 15 x 15 weighing 1Kg to Milan last week. £31 was the cheapest.

[CamdenRob]

[quote name='kodiakblair' timestamp='1456823052' post='2992467']
@CamdenRob

I just checked flights to Denmark Rob, Ryanair are £20 return London to Copenhagen. Damn sight cheaper than a courier.
[/quote]

Yes the guy did say he would fly over and collect it because I had said collection only... but then I felt guilty about him coming all that way and offered to ship it

[BassBunny]

[quote name='kodiakblair' timestamp='1456823052' post='2992467']
@CamdenRob

I just checked flights to Denmark Rob, Ryanair are £20 return London to Copenhagen. Damn sight cheaper than a courier.
[/quote]
But they would probably charge about £100 to throw the Bass in the hold and damage it beyond recognition.

Edited March 1, 2016 by BassBunny

[BassBunny]

[quote name='kodiakblair' timestamp='1456823296' post='2992471']
All depends on the country @BassBunny.

Looked at sending a wee box 20 x 15 x 15 weighing 1Kg to Milan last week. £31 was the cheapest.
[/quote]
I would have thought UK to Prague is not as far as UK to Totana. Strange.

[kodiakblair]

Aye it's strange alright,it's 1100 odd mile to Totana.

The couriers have set rates up to certain size and weights. Two week back wee practise combo 4 Kg 30x20x30 going to England was £12.80,last week a head 70x40x35 & 23Kg was £12.80.
I do remember getting a £60 quote for the Totana run.Those Prague prices were high,Fend3r sent me a T-40 from Sofia and it was only £30.

[BigRedX]

You don't need to worry about using PayPal provided you use a decent courier where the same company does all parts of the transit process. That immediately rules out any postal service options, where delivery will be handed over to one of their "partners" once the parcel leaves the country. That way you have a single "paper trail" of the parcel's journey and a single company that is accountable.

This means using one of the big well-known international companies such as UPS or FedEx.

I usually use UPS booked through Interparcel, as all parts of the collection and delivery are handled by UPS (however check before you send as it may not be true for every country - you can do this by clicking on the ? icon on the Interparcel page which will show if any part of the transit process is being handled by another company like some of the cheaper TNT options).

The other important things to do are to pack the bass properly. That means the bass really ought to go in a hard case with plenty of padding inside and then the case should then be wrapped in bubble wrap before being boxed in a strong cardboard box. Cut down bicycle boxes make excellent containers and generally are far more robust than the average guitar packing box. If you don't have a hard case then double-box the bass. That means put it in a smaller cardboard box first before bubble wrapping and packing in a larger one as before.

If you need to make an insurance claim for damage, the packing is the first thing the courier company will look at, so make sure that it is more than just adequate. In fact if the hard case is an important part of the deal then I would suggest double boxing the case with the bass inside!

I've had to use Interparcel's insurance claims service twice - once for damage and once for the loss of a parcel (neither were musical instruments or particularly expensive - both under £200). They paid promptly and without fuss on each occasion, but with the damage claim they insisted on seeing photos showing exactly how the item had been packaged and that the packaging had been sufficient by their standards (which are on the Interparcel website) before paying out.

[BigRedX]

[quote name='karlfer' timestamp='1456822875' post='2992462'] I've done some to Europe. I stipulate to them, 1. They need to pay me by bank transfer. They need to know sometimes this will take 3 days to clear. 2. After funds have cleared, THEY need to organise and pay for INSURED courier, simply telling me what day the courier will collect. In the rare event something goes wrong with a courier, well, if worst comes to worst in UK, I can get in the car, drive to the firms HO and eyeball the gaffer. I can not do that in Europe. I stipulate the above for fairness to both parties. It has cost me sales, but it's the only way I will do it after a couple of expensive and worrying nightmares. NEVER PAINPal! [/quote]

As a buyer I would probably walk away from any deal requiring me to organise the courier, not because it is difficult, but because IME it's the easiest part of the process and because I am then responsible for the delivery but have no actual control over how the bass is being packaged. Lose-lose all round IMO.

Also the one time I have allowed a buyer to organise their own delivery for an item going to Hungary, the courier who turned up was the Hungarian equivalent of a man with a (Hungarian) van. Luckily it wasn't a very expensive item so I was prepared to take the risk and lose money if it went wrong (it didn't), but there would have been no "Gaffer to eyeball" if there was a problem unless I was prepared to take a trip to the continent.