New forward service from NZ Post: YouShop

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#1323058 11-Jun-2015 22:13

So dont use them if they make you mad. $50 a year for being able to have parcels sit for up to 90 days before you consolodate them, and the pictures on arrival and the ability to fill out your own customs declaration is well worth it IMO.

Richard rich.ms

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#1323069 11-Jun-2015 22:40

I'll chime in...

Just recently used Youshop, maybe for the last time. Purchased a couple of LPs from U.K and I received an email saying we've consolidated your parcels but charging you seperatly for each as you're not saving anything (F U Dick). Kinda feel shafted and would rather have had the $6 discount. Also, I feel it has got more expensive. Thats without spending my life researching it proper but just a real world feeling that the service while good I just feel it's too expensive. I'd like to support local NZ but recently had an amazing experience with USPS (believe it or not) and overall most services are good so I'm afraid I'm feeling the pinch with you NZpost. Your upper management are paying themselves too much.

I feel the same when The Retailers Association moans at the govt to lose the $400 tax threshold on online imports. Lift your game you greedy Kiwi bastards. I know it's hard to compete with but you have to think outside the box and maybe offer a service to get people into the stores. You have something the Internet can never offer. A real life face to face shopping experience with someone who knows the product, feels passionatly about it and wants you to feel going into the store was waaaay better than getting it online. That's never gonna happen though I spose 'cause you'd need to have the stock in to do that. The experience in NZ is dire. Weekend shopping trip to Aussi it is then.

-BOOM! rant ends-

Nil Einne

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#1323133 12-Jun-2015 07:25

cloudlover: So consolidation cant really save your money, it's just another way that nzpost rip you off by stopping offering multi parcel discount? I am mad at nzpost right now.....

No, consolidation can definitely save you money compared to the multi parcel discount. With 2 packages, it will often, but not always, be more expensive. With 3 packages or more it will nearly always save you money. I believe the only time it may not is if you hit the insurance threshold and want insurance and that's only for 3 parcels. For 4 parcels or more it should always save you money no matter what. Well not counting cases when you can't consolidate like if your parcels are at multiple warehouses or you want to send them to multiple destinations or will end up too large or heavy after consolidation. Also not considering customs issues.

This was discussed around the time consolidation was introduced, but is also trivial to calculate.

The only thing that wasn't perhaps always clear, or at least wasn't to me was how consolidation actually affects the volumetric and actual weight. The answer is it just combines the total for each for your packages which makes it simpler to work out pricves, but does reduce the possibility for savings slightly. (Well I'm not sure if you can get them to do something if your volumetric ends up being more than 2 kg over actual after consolidation.)

Nudibranch: I'll chime in...

Just recently used Youshop, maybe for the last time. Purchased a couple of LPs from U.K and I received an email saying we've consolidated your parcels but charging you seperatly for each as you're not saving anything (F U Dick). Kinda feel shafted and would rather have had the $6 discount. Also, I feel it has got more expensive. Thats without spending my life researching it proper but just a real world feeling that the service while good I just feel it's too expensive. I'd like to support local NZ but recently had an amazing experience with USPS (believe it or not) and overall most services are good so I'm afraid I'm feeling the pinch with you NZpost. Your upper management are paying themselves too much.

Well as was mentioned a few posts back, the list price for shipping hasn't gone up. However the MPD has disappeared for all but China and that has raised prices in some cases. And they also seem to have far less coupons then before. But a "feeling" they got more expensive is largely irrelevant compared to how the prices have actually changed or not changed. Which are easy to check in this case either as mentioned by reading a few posts earlier in the thread, or just checking an archive.org copy of the NZ Post website https://web.archive.org/web/20130909040445/http://www.nzpost.co.nz/tools/youshop/youshop-pricing which shouldn't require your life, but probably less time then it took to write your comments.

k14

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#1323143 12-Jun-2015 08:00

richms: So dont use them if they make you mad. $50 a year for being able to have parcels sit for up to 90 days before you consolodate them, and the pictures on arrival and the ability to fill out your own customs declaration is well worth it IMO.

Totally agree, still a good service and I will use it again. Just frustrating when they change the rules after a little while and it ends up costing more. Next time I will try and use it for 3 or 4 parcels.

Nil Einne

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#1323206 12-Jun-2015 09:11

BTW, the old pricing is also mentioned here http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=48&topicid=109104&page_no=12#698311 . It seems it did change before it launched, but it mostly or completely went down, and has stayed the same since then barring stuff like the MPD.

Also I realised I never gave this info before. In my case consolidation saved me $47 compared to no discount. Or $23 compared to if the multiple parcel discount still existed and was the only option.

International postage for 5 parcels $114.75
Savings from consolidation -$47.00
Total cost for this parcel $67.75

Consolidated parcel was 4.11kg volumetric, 3.1kg actual. It was basically just a gray bag thing with all the parcels in it.

As I think I mentioned a few pages back, my second item had just arrived and I was planning to use the MPD, but they introduced consolidation so it disappeared. I was a bit annoyed but decided to just order more items so I'd at least save.

Two things I learnt from this. 1 is that it's actually quite hard to find items with higher weight then volumetric, at least for what I was looking at. I guess if I were ordering weights or something although I'm not sure why you would do that, other then the fact if you can get the shipped in tiny boxes shipping may be nearly free with consolidation. I was actually expecting one parcel to weight more then volumetric, but no such luck. The second related thing I learnt is how easy it to underestimate volumetric (actually actual too). I mean I'd read the comments before and from a theoretical standpoint knew how easily volumetric could increase, but I guess for me at least it took this experience to really appreciate it.

One suggestion, I bought everything from eBay (some secondhand some new). I did ask people when paying to limit box size if possible but didn't push it because I was afraid they would be concerned over me using a freight forwarder or over fraud. (I knew in the past some US sellers demanded you have a verified PayPal address.) But in reality I didn't hear a peep from anyone. It may be worth asking before you buy as well if you can. At least it may give you a better idea of what you're going for and may increase the chance they'll help.

I did find the price I would have paid Youshop even for a single package was universally significantly cheaper than any eBay global shipping program price. You will however probably have more problems if your item isn't what you expected or doesn't work.

Parcels were:
2.4kg volumetric, 1.6kg actual, price for shipping by itself $36.25. I weighed this and IIRC it was less than 1.4kg but since it didn't make a difference and the dimensions were about right no point complaining
0.1kg volumetric, 0.2kg actual, price $17.25
0.7kg volumetric, 0.6kg actual, price $22
0.66kg volumetric, 0.2kg actual price $22
0.25kg volumetric, 0.5kg actual price $17.25

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#1324325 14-Jun-2015 08:49

I just ordered a Lytro Illim 'light field camera' and about 9 accessories. Total was US$1900-ish. Lytro won't ship outside the US. I considered using comgateway.com because they use DHL from their warehouse in Portland and in NZ they do the Customs clearance - phone you up and ask for credit card, etc. But I haven't used the service in a while and the last time I used it they verified by credit card via a small transaction, which I then had to phone them and confirm. That wasted 5 days.

I've been through Customs clearance before with YouShop and it requires several phone calls / emails and I find it nail-bitingly annoying.

This time I'm going to use the NZ Post customs clearance service. It's about $140, but compared to the value of the item purchased and expected GST ($450?) it seems like the sane way to. My issue is that I want to have the item in my hand by the time I fly to the UK on July 2nd. I've left it all a bit late, but 'forgot' I wanted to buy a Lytro camera (for years).....and just remembered this morning. :-)

Anyone used the NZ Post customs clearance service? I have two and half weeks to receive this parcel - which should get to Portland overnight once shipped. Possible?

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timmmay

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#1324340 14-Jun-2015 09:12

Youshop isn't an express service - two and a half weeks, maybe, maybe not. The need to collect GST can add a week because they only seem to do it by postal mail, so if there's a service that makes that faster then yes, you should use it.

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#1324518 14-Jun-2015 18:12

timmmay: Youshop isn't an express service - two and a half weeks, maybe, maybe not. The need to collect GST can add a week because they only seem to do it by postal mail, so if there's a service that makes that faster then yes, you should use it.

Thanks...I have about 2 and half weeks...so it looks like it will be nail-biter. :-)

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#1324519 14-Jun-2015 18:12

timmmay: Youshop isn't an express service - two and a half weeks, maybe, maybe not. The need to collect GST can add a week because they only seem to do it by postal mail, so if there's a service that makes that faster then yes, you should use it.

Thanks...I have about 2 and half weeks...so it looks like it will be nail-biter. :-)

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#1326367 17-Jun-2015 11:04

OK...an update on my latest YouShop experience.

I have used them before and it was OK.

This time, I didn't realise I was over their NZ$2,499 limit for value of item shipped until after I had directed the order to them. My bad.

I did message them and they indicated they could split the item and to contact them again when the item appeared in my list.

I contacted them again and now a different person ("Kelly") says they do NOT split items to reduce the value of each....and I can forward it to another US address or they will return it to source...and they do it in that way Americans do with that air of 'don't give a f*ck'.

OK..so I'll forward it to my Comgateway.com Portland address......as I should have done in the first place, instead of using YouShop. ComGateway send it via FedEx and it will arrive faster anyway and no Customs hassles or delays.

Annoying about the inconsistency on the willingness to split parcels, but survivable.

Just be aware of that limit and the fact they don't give a rat's what happens to you if you're over it.

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cloudlover

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#1326776 17-Jun-2015 19:49

Will consoldation calculate and charge the greater value of actual or volume weight of each parcel? For instance, if I have two parcel with 3kg volume weight and 0.8kg actual weight, how much will it be?

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#1326803 17-Jun-2015 20:43

cloudlover: Will consoldation calculate and charge the greater value of actual or volume weight of each parcel? For instance, if I have two parcel with 3kg volume weight and 0.8kg actual weight, how much will it be?

The problem isn't the size or weight. The problem is the value of the contents of the parcel: A camera and additional accessories. Had I ordered them separately from the source, I would have two packages by default. No problem. But the 9 items together exceed the $2499 limit.. And latest advice is they can't just pop some of the additional items into a different box.

Oh well.

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#1327647 19-Jun-2015 09:26

Ok! So my package was processed at Youshop. They told me it needed some attention. They asked for the US$ value of the package for Customs purposes. I guess I could have chosen a value equivalent to just below their NZ$2,499 limit....but went with the actual amount.

They said it was overvalue and offered me the chance to forward it to another US address, return it to the source or dispose of it.

I opted to forward it to my Comgateway.com "suite" about 17km away in Portland. I tried to pay the $39.50 to enable that to happen.

The payment couldn't be processed because my Air Points number was wrong. It wasn't wrong, but the web site insisted it was wrong.

I cleared the field and tried again. Still wrong. OK.....so backed right out of the transaction and went to my profile and removed the Air Points number completely. It refused to save the updated profile. I removed the number again and the second time it saved it.

Ok.....

So re-start the forwarding transaction. This time the payment goes through. They report the transaction is "complete"....as though it had been deliverd.

OK.....

So next morning (today) they report they dispatched it to my nominated address. No tracking code, though. It just says to check with the recipient as to whether it was received or not. So my high-value item has been effectively tossed into the void with a palpable amount of disregard.

Thanks for that.

Fingers crossed it actually arrives at the nominated address.

Youshop...I'm not feeling the love.

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kiwitrc

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#1327787 19-Jun-2015 11:48

I have a parcel ready to go but I cant see how to pay for it? I have never had this problem before, does anyone know if the website has changed or is broken?

Linuxluver

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#1327838 19-Jun-2015 13:05

kiwitrc: I have a parcel ready to go but I cant see how to pay for it? I have never had this problem before, does anyone know if the website has changed or is broken?

Ready to go at the warehouse in Portland?

It should have a tick box in the list of items at the warehouse.....(I think)

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