FS: One Secondhand Smartbook G138

sorry not sure what you mean by "bug lantern" ?

my statistics aren't made up on the spot, i have been watching my packages for a while now. 98% (2 lost out of 100+ in a whole year) arrives when it is not surface, 33% so far for surface. which will probably change to 25% soon
this is a lot of countries from the US or canada to australia and vietnam

anyway don't think i was tryign to contradict you. my words are serving only as a warning for the buyer. i hate seeing packages getting lost.

hmm about the countries... canadapost is fast and ok with reliability so far. usps is ok, depending on the service, gpm (global priority mail - some letter thing) is fast and efficient but cannot be insured airmail parcel can be insured and cheaper than EMS but slow, sometimes packages get held up at customs.
EMS is fast reliable but more pricey (this is now independent of country - so far)
and yes at that price, i would rather use EMS and not DHL or fedex. anyway, i don't have experience with fedex but DHL is excellent. they are very quick and willing to help with customs problems i just don't have the money for DHL most of the time. sorry to hear you had problems with them, for me the DHL stuff always arrives to my country within 2-3 days, be it from australia or not

i could go on and on but i bet it is boring. if anyone wants experiences with a certain country i'll probably be able to provide some

oh and never a problem with security policies.

about the czech system, did you insure the stuff? if not then yeah be afraid if they are anything like hungarian postal service even though uninsured gpm usually arrives fine.

Ahhhh....International Mail.

Mail reliability does vary wildly, depending on country (both origin and destination country). I have sent numerous packages from the USA to Australia, the UK, Germany, France and Japan by Surface Mail, all without incident. Surface to Australia from New England can often take up to six months to arrive, but it does get there eventually.

On the other hand, I refuse to ship to Italy under any circumstances. The last four packages I tried to post to Italy were either returned as undeliverable (even though the address *was* correct), or were never seen again. The only way I'm having a packaged delivered there is if you're paying for me to fly over *personally* and hand deliver it to you.

Always check out shipping options in advance: For example, you cannot send Surface Mail from the USA to Middle Eastern countries (Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for certain - probably Iraq, Iran and other Gulf States as well). Always insure your shipments. I generally refuse a sale if the customer insists on no insurance coverage and/or false declaration of value on the customs form. If you're concerned about the reliability of the post in the destination country, get a certificate of mailing as well as insurance. Airmail is usually, but not always, more reliable than Surface. (For that matter, Airmail is usually but not always more expensive than Surface. I have had situations where Air Parcel actually cost LESS than Surface, believe it or not.) And, of course, it never hurts to remind people that once the item is in the hands of the Post, you really have no control over it. At least in the USA, the Post Office is a government-supported business. It's not like they'll go under if they have lousy customer service and lose packages regularly.

yes i heard italian postal service is very bad. what about DHL though? that wouldn't use the italian services! any problem with DHL or other couriers?

btw, how can you be willing to send surface packages to australia if it takes 6 months to arrive?

and you've been very lucky not to have any bad experiences with it.

Edited by cmonex 2006-11-19 4:48 PM

'Very bad' is something of an understatement. I am told that once, after a six-month long postal worker strike in Italy, rather than deliver the backlog of mail they simply burned it all. After my shipping experiences with the Italian Post, I'm not suprised.

We use UPS at the bookstore where I work, so I've never even tried DHL or FedEx for international shipments. UPS international starts at about $100 US for a 1-pound package and goes up from there. Most people aren't willing to pay that much.



I send things by whatever speed the customer is willing to pay for. Some people don't mind waiting months for their books to arrive. Often times, people on vacation will buy things in the bookstore and have them shipped home. If they won't be returning home for a month or two anyway, it doesn't make much sense to pay for it to be there in a week.

EDIT: Hmmmm.....well this thread sure has gotten way off topic, hasn't it? Then again, it might be good to have a thread for reference (in hpcBay or elsewhere) about shipping options, good and bad experiences with various delivery methods and what not.

Edited by btrimmer 2006-11-19 11:15 PM

I gotta say I'm unimpressed with the private couriers (UPS, FedEx) that I've tried thus far. Nothing they've delivered to my door has arrived any faster than what's been delivered by the Postal Service. The USPS' service is far from perfect, but in my experience the private couriers' is no better - just more expensive.

Just had a funny experience, though, with a spare Libretto docking station I just got the other day. It was delivered by USPS; however, the item was placed in a DHL envelope, which was in turn placed inside a UPS envelope, which was in turn placed inside a FedEx envelope. I couldn't stop laughing after I finished opening the package.

Isn't there something in hpcbay rules about keeping things on topic? 3 pages of discussion and the majority is nothing to do with a sale?

btrimmer: i can recommend DHL, they are cheaper than UPS.. of course still costs too much and that's why i very rarely use their service. (but shipping here from australia was surprisingly cheap - i didn't even expect it to be DHL and it was!) i don't have experience with fedex. and this would still be cheaper than you flying there to deliver the package personally. heh.

...sorry for getting so OT

Edited by cmonex 2006-11-20 11:14 AM

Now im scared to buy something outside of Canada


Canada border fees would KILL me anyway.

I don't think you should be scared, just exercise appropriate caution . In the UK, luck has a lot to do with whether you get charged tax or not...

Last chance Sunday on the unit being offered up to HPC:Factor members.