What is the most inexpensive method of sending packages from the US to Australia…?
Question by R. Gaspari: What is the most inexpensive method of sending packages from the US to Australia…?
I live in the US and I have to send laptops and other electronics to my friend in Australia. What is the cheapest way to send merchandise like laptops to Australia besides the US Postal Service?
A small netbook costs about US to send.
Thank you for any advice.
Best answer:
Answer by ShirleyFrazier
This is a question that requires your own investigation, and it will cost time versus money.
Find the closest locations to you for the walk-in UPS and FedEx facilities. Both shippers have their own packaging materials, so you can get boxes that fit the netbook.
Package the netbook into the UPS box and another (or the same one later on) into the FedEx box. Go to each facility and tell the representative you need pricing information to ship to Australia. You’ll learn on the spot how much you’ll pay and how long shipping will take.
Best of all, your package has the best-possible chance of arriving on time because both UPS and FedEx include excellent tracking, much better than the U.S. Postal Service.
This is my suggestion because after years of shipping my own products to other countries, I’ve learned that calling these shippers and asking questions by phone yields totally different responses than what you learn at the counters.
It’s very frustrating to be told that a package will cost by phone and then you go to the facility and the package is suddenly double the price.
One more thing. If you retrieve shipping materials from UPS and FedEx, you can package the netbook, weigh it at your location (if you have a postal scale), and then use each shipper’s Web site to get an approximate shipping cost according to the weight and destination.
The online calculators for both shippers are linked below.
Shirley George Frazier
Author and Small Business Expert
What do you think? Answer below!