New forward service from NZ Post: YouShop

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#711150 2-Nov-2012 21:26

I am eyeing up some hitachi cordless tools - they are really cheap without battery and charger, and I already have a charger (most powertools dont multivoltage them to prevent exports anyway) and batteries are a grey area with youshop I think.

Even if it is a pretty big box it will still work out cheaper than here by a looooooooooong way where bare tools are rarely sold at retail.

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#713592 7-Nov-2012 16:16

Anyone else planning to use YouShop to buy a Nexus 4? Also, does anyone know if I'll get charged any GST or custom fees? Total will be near $400NZD including postage fees.

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#713593 7-Nov-2012 16:20

If the GST owed on your product plus shipping is over NZ$ 60 then Customs will collect the fee. This means anything coming into the country with a declared value plus shipping of at least NZ$ 400 should pay duties.

In addition to the GST (if over NZ$ 60) you have to add NZ$ 38.07 fee.

There's now an online calculator to answer these types of questions.

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#713800 7-Nov-2012 20:48

I used Youshop to get shoes sent from amazon, they cost about NZ$110 from amazon and $280 in NZ. Youshop cost about $35 so I saved $135. Amazon free shipping took 6-8 days to get to them, between when I got the notification and received the package was five days.

Overall it's a good service and I'll probably use it from time to time.

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#715077 10-Nov-2012 11:06

SaltyNZ:
freitasm:

Actually, the Amazon Kindle uses Lithium Polymer so that should be fine. Mobile phones on the other hand...

Well, I wondered about that too. But it's not a risk I would be prepared to take -- how is a packer moving probably a hundred items an hour going to know the difference between Lithium Polymer and Lithium Ion batteries? It would help to have a better list of prohibited items, as opposed to 'the most common...'

list must have been updated as lithium ion or lithium polymer batteries are both now banned

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#715078 10-Nov-2012 11:07

They are, but IIRC the list also talks about size, not only type.

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#717566 15-Nov-2012 10:49

Hi all

I thought I might let you know my youshop experience. I have found them to be cheaper than any other freight forwarder but as slow as a snail.

In the past I've always used US freight forwarders who send with Fedex. This is expensive by typically my package would arrive around 4 days after it was sent from the US, including time for customs clearance. With fedex you can track the package online and watch it go from the US to Hawaii to Auckland and then (for me) down to Wellington. Fantastic.

Since I was ordering a MS Surface I thought I would give you shop a try. The package reached Portland on 31 October. This was processed by NZ Post's warehouse and I was billed the next day on 1 November. No complaints here. Cost to send the package to NZ was around $39. I think this was at least half the cost of sending the package via Fedex.

The package left the US and arrived in NZ on Sunday 11 November. I was expecting it to take two weeks so this was on time. It was frustrating though not being able to know when it actually left or would arrive in NZ.

Since the Surface cost $US 599 it is subject to customs clearance. This took three days for NZ Post to process (with Fedex the duty it is processed while the package is in the air so clearance in NZ takes less than 25 hours).

NZ post gave customs the details at lunchtime on 14 November and I paid the GST by credit card at around 2:00pm. Again the frustrating thing here is the lack of real time tracking information. It took multiple calls to customs and NZ Post to find out when I could pay the duty. The NZ Post staff are clearly struggling with people calling all the time to find out how to pay the GST on their package. The standard process is to wait for a letter to come from NZ post with the duty to be paid - this means that most people will watching the parcel status on line, finding out it is held for customs payment and then wondering why they haven't heard anything for four or five days while the letter is generated and mailed to them.

The package now shows up as cleared for delivery but has not yet been picked up from the International Mail Centre in Auckland. This means I can expect delivery either tomorrow 12 November (unlikely) or on Monday 19 November (more likely).

So the TLDR version is: I'm happy with the YouShop service for the cost (its really cheap) but it is very slow. You get the level of service you pay for. If you need your package in a hurry use fedex.

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#717569 15-Nov-2012 10:56

NZ Post did say (on Twitter) this isn't a full launch service yet though when the YouShop service was soft launched. I am sure they're monitoring this service and see how popular and what area they need to improve on.

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#717675 15-Nov-2012 13:49

What? they send you a LETTER for customs clearance? WTF?

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#717678 15-Nov-2012 13:51

richms: What? they send you a LETTER for customs clearance? WTF?

Yes is a good, old fashioned, physical letter which includes two pages - page 1 is a form letter from NZ Post and page 2 is the invoice from customs.

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#717688 15-Nov-2012 13:54

So that basically doubles the number of trips to the mailbox needed to get the item.

If they cant do this electronically, or even better just bill your card for it automatically and send the stuff thru than its pretty useless IMO.

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#718017 15-Nov-2012 23:30

So would a Lenovo laptop with a 6-cell battery be ok under the battery restrictions?

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#719039 18-Nov-2012 14:28

mysticnz: Hey all!

Ok so it took about 3days before they shipped my item then about 3-4 to arrive in New Zealand.

Got an email from YouShop yesterday saying the item arrived in NZ and is at customs.

Then it was delivered today! (Christchurch).

Great service! (Just need to remember to use geekzone affiliate link next time ;) )

Hi!

I'm new to geekzone, and I'm investigating the youshop service.
What is this 'geekzone affliate link'?

Cheers

richms

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#719047 18-Nov-2012 14:32

It means that the person that gives you the link gets a small amount of money for the referral. There are links all over geekzone to amazon for kindles. If you use one of those to get to amazon and then shop it will result in geekzone getting a tiny tiny commission.

Richard rich.ms

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#719075 18-Nov-2012 16:03

As said... We have an affiliate page with links to Amazon. If you go to Amazon through any of those links and buy anything there then we get a small commission.

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