I’m cheekily looking for for some kind soul in the USA to do me a favour. For USA customers Magnepan offer a ribbon tweeter exchange whereby you send them your broken ribbon tweeters plus $300 and in return they will send you a new pair of tweeters. They do not offer this to international customers; instead you have to just buy a new pair of tweeters and by the time you add shipping to the UK and import taxes it adds up to more than $2000 ! That is just too much for me. However Magnepan are willing to let me use the exchange system as long as the delivery address for the new tweeters is in the USA. Hence my plea for help.
I want to emphasize that at no point will the person in the USA be exposed to any financial cost or exposure and that I will arrange and pay for the shipping of the tweeters to the UK. All you would need to do is attach the shipping labels that I would email to you and hand over the package to the courier who would collect from your home or other designated address.
It would work like this:
1. I send my broken tweeters to Magnepan and pay them the $300 plus shipping cost to your address.
2. Magnepan sends the new tweeters to you
3. You tell me the weight and dimensions of the package and I then arrange and pay for the shipping from you to me. This would include the package being collected from your (designated) address.
4. You print the shipping labels and attach them to the package.
5. The courier collects the package from you. This would probably have to be in working hours Monday to Friday so that is clearly a factor.
I do appreciate that this is a bit of an imposition but perhaps someone in appropriate circumstances might be willing to help ?
TIA
I want to emphasize that at no point will the person in the USA be exposed to any financial cost or exposure and that I will arrange and pay for the shipping of the tweeters to the UK. All you would need to do is attach the shipping labels that I would email to you and hand over the package to the courier who would collect from your home or other designated address.
It would work like this:
1. I send my broken tweeters to Magnepan and pay them the $300 plus shipping cost to your address.
2. Magnepan sends the new tweeters to you
3. You tell me the weight and dimensions of the package and I then arrange and pay for the shipping from you to me. This would include the package being collected from your (designated) address.
4. You print the shipping labels and attach them to the package.
5. The courier collects the package from you. This would probably have to be in working hours Monday to Friday so that is clearly a factor.
I do appreciate that this is a bit of an imposition but perhaps someone in appropriate circumstances might be willing to help ?
TIA
Be sure to factor in all the costs. The shipment to USA must be DDP (delivered duty paid): the carrier will add import taxes, insurance and administrative fees to regular shipping rates. This may be expensive. UPS does have a "economy" option for the DDP service; but I believe that it is not available for the fast delivery service and you cannot use it for high value items. The limit is currently 350 euro (I may be wrong, check the web site for exact terms). This means you cannot insure the shipment for more. The shipment back from USA is a standard import transaction. I don't know the UK procedure, but for Italy you need to provide the purchase documentation and taxes will be computed over this amount, including the shipping expense. It is best to specify the TARIC code (HS code for the rest of the world), to avoid incorrect computation of duties. On top of this, the carrier will add the administrative fees. On my experience, Fedex does have the highest fee while USPS packages are handed over to Italian postal service and fees are lower. On my experience, total import expenses are in the ballpark of 30% of the combined amount of item cost and shipping fees. You could also use a reshipper service, it will provide the US address and further professional services according to your needs. Be sure to check the reputation if you go on this route.
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I had a similar problem where a French vendor would ship to Canada, but not to the US. I found (via Google) a Canadian freight forwarder that then shipped to the US. My Canadian freight forwarder provided me a Canadian shipping address and handled all the EU VAT, etc. I would think they exist in the US too.