Guys, please help me ship a bow to Austria

[Three Arrows]

I am trying to ship a bow to Austria.  It is a 65 inch long bow.  The size limit is 60 inches maximum length for the box and 108 total dimension.  What are my options here?

[George D. Stout]

As long as you stay under 108, you can send it. I would get two arrow boxes...they work great and won't add up the measurement as quick as the standard P.O. Priority boxes.  Pack it will with bubble wrap and only about two inches longer than the bow. Pack balled newspaper around the bow.  You should end up with a total length, width, depth, of about 80 inches and it will ship fine.  Tape it well with the free tape you can get at the post office.

[Three Arrows]

George, I thought that the total dimension could not exceed 108 inches but the length of the box may not exceed 60 inches?

[vermonster13]

You can't ship it USPS. UPS or FedEx are your only options. If you do ship it USPS, you may never see the bow again. Just because the local PO Employees don't know the rules, doesn't mean someone down the line won't.

[GMMAT]

Just a heads up.....

The buyer didn't by chance remit payment via paypal, did he?

[Three Arrows]

Yes he did.

[GMMAT]

I checked into this a while back.  I had a LB for sale.  I had 2 buyers interested.....and both were from Austria.

I got to checking with Payal...and I found out a buyer could claim anything they wanted about the condition of the bow and refuse payment.  Now....you could have already gotten your cash out of your account, but they would still debit your account.  

I declined both "deals".

You go with your heart AND head.

[robtattoo]

Originally posted by George D. Stout:
As long as you stay under 108, you can send it.  

I don't mean to be argumentative George, but just because USPS may accept it, doesn't mean that the Austrian Post Office will.
It is usually stated as 60" max length/total dimensions to not exceed 108" That means that 60" is the maximum length, regardless of the other dimensions. I fell foul of that a couple of times in the UK. USPS can accept longer parcels than the UK Post office & all that happens is that the bow can (usually will) get turned around in the UK receiving office & shipped right back here, at the sender's expense. Austria is pretty much as strict (if not slightly worse) than the UK when it comes to postage rules & regs.

Bottom line is, you won't be able to ship the bow via USPS. Fed-Ex or UPS are your only options, but sit down when you ask for the shipping rates!   :eek:

[robtattoo]

Originally posted by GMMAT:
I checked into this a while back.  I had a LB for sale.  I had 2 buyers interested.....and both were from Austria.

I got to checking with Payal...and I found out a buyer could claim anything they wanted about the condition of the bow and refuse payment.  Now....you could have already gotten your cash out of your account, but they would still debit your account.  

I declined both "deals".

You go with your heart AND head.

Jeff, that can happen just as easily with deals in the US mate. Just because they're not from here, doesn't mean they're not OK. I'm not from here either      :D

[GMMAT]

Understood.  But I'll take my chances with Phil over Sven....'cause somebody here lives close to Phil.  

[George D. Stout]

I've sent at least half a dozen to Europe, including Austria.  I took Paypal, and I sent them USPS.  No troubles.   You guys do what you want; I told you what works for me.

[mrpenguin]

I too had issues with a bow to be sent to Austria.  I sold a LB and when I went to ship it, I was informed there could be an issue with sending 'weapons' to Austria.  Furthermore I was informed that the bow could be confiscated by customs agents if considered a weapon and contraband.  Plus the cost of shipping was about $300.00.  So, I cancelled the deal through ****... funny how the guy NEVER paid me nor returned emails.

[PAPA BEAR]

usps wont ship it if it is over the max length...tried shipping to the uk and was told to use fed-ex or ups....what do you get when you combine fedex and ups?....fed up.....price to uk would have been over 100.00...unreal eh.

[jcar315]

OPTIONS:

1. Cancel the sale and run the other way!!!!

2. See option #1

[Three Arrows]

I ended up refunding the money and not shipping my bow since the cost would have been as much and what I sold the bow for.  I really wanted to keep my end of the deal but I am in not condition to take a loss on a bow deal.  Thanks all for your advice and suggestions.

[gilf]

Originally posted by elkherder:
usps wont ship it if it is over the max length...tried shipping to the uk and was told to use fed-ex or ups....what do you get when you combine fedex and ups?....fed up.....price to uk would have been over 100.00...unreal eh.

That's not the half of it. I live in the UK and have imported a number of bows. Going via UPS or Fed-Ex is extremely expensive, not because of the initial cost which as said above is expensive in itself, but because of the customs and VAT charges. With the courier companies they pay for priority processing via customs which they then add to the cost of delivery (payable by the receiver).

So rather than the initial $100 you then have to pay something like an additional $80 in customs charges and then 15% of the value of the items.

For example I "traded" limbs with somebody, it cost me something like $30 to ship to the US but I had to pay close to $300 because the ones coming the other way were sent via UPS (when I had asked them to be sent USPS) and on the customs forms they had filled the full retail value of $700 which then had to pay 17.5% on. The guy sending them clearly didn't understand the cost implication of sending them via courier so I don't hold it against him as he was keen for me to get the limbs ASAP.

There are genuine guys out there in the rest of the world but I totally understand the need for caution, one word on PayPal... it's the easiest way for us to send money to the US, I also lost $600 on an international money order deal once, so I only ever use PayPal.

[gilf]

Originally posted by Three Arrows:
I ended up refunding the money and not shipping my bow since the cost would have been as much and what I sold the bow for.  I really wanted to keep my end of the deal but I am in not condition to take a loss on a bow deal.  Thanks all for your advice and suggestions.

When shipping outside the US you just need to be clear up front that the buyer pays all shipping costs. Any genuine buyer will expect that anyway.

[Benny Nganabbarru]

Yep, a buyer should do his homework (the post search function can help give a glimpse into how reputable a seller is) and send the money before the bow is shipped to him. And PayPal is indeed the most convenient way for us internationals to send money to the USA. You Americans sure do have a wonderful wealth of magnificent bows for us to tap into, and I really appreciate doing business with my fellow TradGangers.

[Three Arrows]

I am going to try to ship this bow again if the buyer agrees to resend the money.

[gilf]

I have no idea one way or the other about the person you are dealing with, but you should be able to make a judgement call about them, as Ben says looking at their post history is one good way, or open up a dialogue asking about what they currently shoot etc etc.

I tend to offer references of people who I have dealt with in the past, most people don't take me up on the offer but I'm personally always happy to try and make the seller comfortable about the deal and never hold it against them if they decided to pull out anywhere in the deal.

On the one hand be careful and do all you can to make sure the deal is right for you, but on the other not everybody in an other country is trying to rip you off.