US Gear - Suggestion about overcoming shipping restrictions

[etrangere]

Not so sure campsaver will ship thermarest/MSR overseas. Clicked on their overseas shipping icon and read down to find

"*Exclusions: We can not ship MSR or Thermarest products internationally, nor can we ship Nemo products to Japan."

This must be a new thing. I had a thermarest neo-air shipped in June no problem.

I guess it comes down to if they actually enforce their policy. Some may have the policy in theory to placate the manufacturers that dont want products shipped overseas but what they do in reality may be another thing. I was going to try and order the MSR E-Bivy through Campsaver.com anyways and see what the response was but it was out of stock. So ended up ordering it from Moontrails via Forwardit.com. First time I have used a forwarding service, will let other members know how it goes when I get the goods. Thanks to all those with suggestion regarding the US shipping issues

[stepbystep]

Not so sure campsaver will ship thermarest/MSR overseas. Clicked on their overseas shipping icon and read down to find

"*Exclusions: We can not ship MSR or Thermarest products internationally, nor can we ship Nemo products to Japan."

This must be a new thing. I had a thermarest neo-air shipped in June no problem.

I guess it comes down to if they actually enforce their policy. Some may have the policy in theory to placate the manufacturers that dont want products shipped overseas but what they do in reality may be another thing. I was going to try and order the MSR E-Bivy through Campsaver.com anyways and see what the response was but it was out of stock. So ended up ordering it from Moontrails via Forwardit.com. First time I have used a forwarding service, will let other members know how it goes when I get the goods. Thanks to all those with suggestion regarding the US shipping issues

According to tracking data my neo-air bought through campsaver has left the US, but hasn't cleared Aus customs yet(if it arrived) - good news is the tent has cleared customs, so they have 4 days to get it to Hobart from Sydney.......bets anyone?

[Nuts]

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Last edited by Nuts on Wed 03 Nov, 2010 8:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

[etrangere]

Stepbystep out of curiosity what tent did you order??

[ninjapuppet]

when filling out the customs declaration, I was just wondering if anyone knows what the implications of ticking GIFT vs MERCHANDISE would be?

[Nuts]

Gift doesnt attract import duty, doent matter much in Australia anyhow, with no duty on less than (around) 1k

[Pantera]

I ordered a thermarest NeoAir from campsaver last week amongst some other goodies. Didn’t even realise the restrictions on shipping internationally, got a bit worried after reading this thread.

It arrived today

Ordered on the 25th October and used USPS.

[stepbystep]

Stepbystep out of curiosity what tent did you order??

Sorry etrangere I haven't checked in for a while - I ordered a Scarp1 which arrived yesterday, very impressive design although the slippery floor is 'interesting' - hope to trial it this weekend if I can kick my cold!

[stepbystep]

I ordered a thermarest NeoAir from campsaver last week amongst some other goodies. Didn’t even realise the restrictions on shipping internationally, got a bit worried after reading this thread.

It arrived today

Ordered on the 25th October and used USPS.

Now I am concerned I ordered mine on October 13 and it still hasn't arrived.

[ninjapuppet]

Hi pantera,
I ordered something from campsaver 2 weeks ago and they still havnt even shipped it! emailed them yesterday and still havnt got a reply yet.
i was gonna write to post bad stuff about them but seeing as your order arrived in a timely manner, i guess mine is a once off problem.

[Pantera]

I dont know. Maybe I was just lucky with my order. One thing I did do was make sure that the items I ordered were in stock.

Have you guys used the USPS tracking system?

[stepbystep]

I dont know. Maybe I was just lucky with my order. One thing I did do was make sure that the items I ordered were in stock.

Have you guys used the USPS tracking system?

Yeah, it's in limbo, I'm in contact with campsaver, and they expressed surprise at how quickly you got your delivery, here's what they had to say...

"We have recently been made aware that shipments to Australia have increased due to the favorable conversion rates of the Australian dollar. With that increase shipments have been delayed, often in Australian customs. Your order was shipped on 10/15 and tracking suggests that it left the United States on 10/18. Unfortunately we cannot control how quickly Australian customs/the Australian postal service is processing shipments.

I will start an investigation with USPS concerning this shipment, and I will make you aware of any additional information they are able to provide."

"I'm not sure why their shipment went through quickly. I wish I had more answers. USPS did say that the Australian Postal Service reserves 23 business days to complete the investigation, but I'm betting the shipment will be delivered before then."

Nevermind, I'm too sick to make the trip I had planned, hopefully I'll have some success before my next opportunity in a couple of weeks!

[rudi]

Going by the way the Aus dollar is at the moment, it would be worthwhile taking a trip to the US and bring back a backpack full of gear.

[mattyc25]

Interesting - thanks for the suggestion. I didn't know such services existed and I have certainly encountered shipping restrictions in the past (you listening Patagonia? how about you Western Mountaineering?) so I will be certainly looking into this.

Although, if you hunt around, you can sometimes find online retailers who will cheerfully ignore any restrictive policies imposed by the manufacturer

Of course one other approach, and the one I've taken in the past, is to contact the manufacturer and tell them in no uncertain terms that if they insist on imposing arbitrary shipping restrictions on their products then I simply will not even attempt to buy them, and I will suggest to all my friends that they too boycott any company with such restrictive policies. Why give money to companies that try and shaft you?

One such letter resulted in the company (MontBell) putting me in touch with their NZ distributor who was instructed to sell to any Aussies who contacted them. I think MontBell have since dropped their restrictions since I've seen websites that list "restricted exports" no longer include MB. Patagonia responded with a form letter with their US phone numbers and suggested I call them to place an order. Funny, I thought we had an internet for that... And Western Mountaineering have no email contact details on their web site, so stuff them

Anyway, I hope that the mail forwarding works.

Hey Alliecat,

I ordered a bunch of Patagonia stuff from backcountry.com. Got in less than 2 weeks. They restrict a whole huge list of brands but for some reason not Patagonia.

Moosejaw are awesome also and they restrict Patagonia and Western Mountainerring but not many others. Their service and delivery is top notch and with the points I got off one (big order) I got some free t shirts and a down jacket.

You can get Western Mountaineering stuff from e-omc. They do not list WM as a restricted brand. They do not however have everything in the range and I think this site is kind of a clearance site in that the styles are older.

Matt.

[ninjapuppet]

I found e-omc to be really good. Ive ordered from them 3 times now and they always shipped within the next business day. They seem to charge $35 flat rate, but only use priority. You have to call them up over the phone if you want express.

Hermits hut on the other hand, (on both occasions) took around 2-3 weeks before they shipped my package, leading to a total delivery time of a month. Even if you pay express postage with these guys, you still end up getting stuff from here later than from E-omc.

[Ent]

Hi

E-OMC are great to deal with. Stuff arrived after six days. Not bad but not as fast as normal. Agree limited range and zip/size configuration.

The self imposed brand restrictions is getting ridiculous and appear to have two Aussie distributors in common lobbying to stop direct imports. Made it clear to Cascade Designs that no local shop has Neo-air of any size, let alone a large, but they did not care. As for MSR local warranty claims forget it. In fact experience with local import agents on claims or spare bits and pieces uninspiring while local manufacturers are brilliant to deal with when things go wrong, even if you cause things to go wrong Please note, this is not a criticism of local shops as they generally wind up fixing problems out of their own margins. In the USA MSR customer service is first rate re reading US forums so problem appears to be this end.

WM Australian agent imports a weird array of bags with not one style that I brought overseas been held locally. They appear to not understand that the main lure of WM over say One Planet is the 6'6" and greater length in the wider fits such as Badger and Mega-lite. Versa-lite is a common bag that they ignored as well. Yes they offer special orders if I you wait, wait, and wait plus pay a premium. WM do make a major point of supporting local shops in USA and Australia so hard to be critical of their philosophy, just we as consumers get worked over big time on price, delay and still wind up buying sight unseen if you are not a standard size or model type of guy.

Meanwhile freight rates being charged are becoming suspect from Moontrail, etc, especially when compared to UK rates. Me thinks we Australians are getting worked over.

Tower Ridge in UK good to deal with so if after eVent jackets and pants at realistic pricing check them out as per the one Nuts recommends in the UK. Found both great once you get their direct email address as both website have a few issues on contacting them.

Also found local suppliers such as Tamar Marine can surprise on price with Garmin stuff been cheaper locally (once freight and bank charges are taken into account) plus have top class customer service. Now for Garmin Australia, useless, or totally useless describes them.

Cheers