Dear Ray, I really sympathize on the extortionate fees being charged by DHL to ship your goods.The only consolation I can offer is that if it was being shipped DHL from the UK by their 48 hour service your US Dollar price would have had a Pound sign in front of it. Me saying to the list I told you so is of no help to you. Perhaps you can now understand why I got so heated about the highly inaccurate prices being quoted by some list members regarding DHL. What they were actually quoting was DHL trade account prices and to achieve these you have to have a very large expenditure on shipping with them to get these preferential rates. A postie (Royal Mail post-person) I know said at least a £10000 per annum account. I had a moan to Dale about this off list because I thought there was an element of rip of Brits being hinted at by the rates that were being quoted. Since then many of the more clued up elements on the list have backed up what some of us Brits were saying all along. It's getting dearer by the day to ship stuff to the USA and very soon volumetric weight is going to enter into the postal fees equation, couple this with our wretched Government ending the Royal Mail and you will be only collecting Schwinn's & Elgin's in the States in the future. Finally I am very sorry for the bad language I used in my previous postings on this subject. I thought I was being very flash and with it in using your common-place American movie speak to highlight my point. Word of caution bring heavy duty ear defenders if you ever venture out on one of our clubs traditional clubruns. Best wishes Frank Cohen Hoxton UK. PS. If anyone can knows a cheaper alternative to ParcelForce to send stuff to the USA please let me know off list as I have shed loads I want rid of.
From: wheelman@nac.net
> Date: 2006/04/11 Tue PM 03:51:00 BST
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> Subject: [CR]The wonderful DHL
>
> For those of you who wrote me all of your wonderful stories about you
> positive experiences with DHL I offer the following.
>
> Rubbish....
>
> I still don't have my bike frame and maybe sometime this week after I pay
> the ransome it will be delivered, yes delivered, they finally told me that
> they can deliver it once I pay the invoice. How generous of them for the
> fees charged. Oh,and that invoice, well here is the tally for one bike
> frame alone from France and I will not add in the "Duty" charge as
> everyone expects that.
>
> Container Station Fee $12
> Breakbulk Airpt Svc Fee $37
> Air freight dest fee $331
> Cartage & Services $45
> Entry fee $140
> Disbursment fee $10
> Security fee $7
> Merchandise process $2
>
> A whopping $584 for one bike frame and this still does not include the
> duty charge of $39. So tell me again how great DHL is and perhaps if you
> tell me over and over I will be hypnotized into believing you. I can only
> imagine what the cost would be to the west coast. I guess I should be
> thankful I am closer to France.
>
> Ray Homiski
> Elizabeth, NJ
>
> _______________________________________________
>
Frank Cohen Hoxton UK