Shipping Strategies to PI

[davewe]

Has anyone used one of those shippers that advertise that they will consolidate shipments from your home country and send to you in the Philippines?

I've had a couple items shipped to me, but they have been inexpensive stuff. My favorite guitar string etailers will ship via USPS. There's no insurance but they guarantee delivery, since they know I will order again and again.

But now I want to buy some stuff that's more expensive. From the US my options are USPS (no international insurance) or UPS/FedEx which can cost as much or more than the items I want to ship. I have a couple of Canadian etailers I can use but Canada Post apparently doesn't insure either. Of course everyone says stuff like "we've never had a lost shipment" but this is the Philippines. Not sure whether Royal Mail from the UK insures; I have a couple etailers I have used in the past from the UK.

Then there are these consolidating services. They do recommend adding insurance to your shipment but the insurance prices . $2/100 aren't bad.

I have shipped and received internationally before many times and rarely worried about insurance - but that was the US not the Philippines. There's also the strategy of seeing whether my credit card holder will reimburse me if something is lost.

So, for those items you cannot purchase on Lazada or AliExpress, what do you do? I could also simply ship stuff to a friend in the US and pick it all up this summer when I come to visit.

Opinions?

 

[Mike J]

How about having your friend ship it over in a BB box?

[Dave Hounddriver]

23 minutes ago, davewe said:

what do you do?

Having never heard of a foolproof method, I use one of these 3 options.   First option is to pay my money and take my chances while crossing my fingers.  (I have never had any luck with refunds, insurance or warranties in Philippines.)   Second option is to ask a friend to bring it when he comes to visit.  Third option is to get it myself on my next trip back home.

I have seldom had problems with getting things shipped here but it can take a long time and there are no guarantees something will not get lost or broken or over taxed in shipping.  If that was real important to me then I would go with option 2 or 3.

That is what I would do.

[davewe]

15 minutes ago, Mike J said:

How about having your friend ship it over in a BB box?

I have had great success with BB boxes for general purposes but in this scenario, 1st I'd have to have enough stuff to fill one, and 2nd there is no insurance. I did it when we moved here because that was the only realistic option and it worked out fine. But in this instance it does make me nervous.

[Gary D]

I'm not sure about the Royal Mail insuring but the items just go into PhilPost when they reach Manila. Many years ago I sent a cheap camera to my then wife to be and on my next trip wondered why she was using a cheap local camera, she was also wondering why I had sent her a cheap local camera. We got the last laugh though because the cheap local camera although inferior cost the posty more than the Boots camera I had sent.