The only courier I have used for any international postage was Amtrak.The parcel is tracked from the time it leaves the airport to its destination.Never had any issues worth mentioning. Just check the paperwork they require.
Hi, I'm needing to send a watch related item to the Netherlands (from the UK), value is £1000 and I want it fully tracked and insured.
I was going to use Royal Mail international tracked & signed but they only insure up to a max. of £250.
Any help would be greatly appreciated :-)
The only courier I have used for any international postage was Amtrak.The parcel is tracked from the time it leaves the airport to its destination.Never had any issues worth mentioning. Just check the paperwork they require.
When I had to send an item to the Netherlands I found the cheapest was Fedex. Fully insured and tracked, 2 day delivery iirc.
Parcelforce does Enhanced Compensation up to £2500 for international services.
Last edited by markrlondon; 6th January 2015 at 03:50.
Use one of these:
(1) Royal Mail International Tracked & Signed at the basic compensation level with separate insurance from ParcelPro.
(2) Purchase a suitable courier service from a Mailboxes Etc. (MBE) shop with MBE's own insurance on top.
(3) Use an international courier that definitely insures watches sent internationally from the UK. There was a thread recently that mentioned some couriers who definitely provides insurance for watches (sorry, can't find it see below). Do not believe what anyone tells you on the phone. You need to see in writing that the courier's compensation covers watches.
Additional:-
I found the link to the earlier thread that I mentioned above: http://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.ph...=1#post3294300. This in turn links to DHL's 'What you can and can’t send with DHL' page at http://parcel.dhl.co.uk/what-you-can-and-cant-send which specifies a maximum value for watches of "£4,000 per waybill" (notably it was £5000 back in October!).
I also had a look at Fedex's website and found their 'Conditions of Carriage' at http://www.fedex.com/gb/services/terms/. I have not read the page in full but I did find this:
So it seems that Fedex has a maximum compensation limit of only $1000 or $9.07 per pound per waybill, unless you can find any extra compensation services on Fedex's remarkably obtuse (as it seems to me) website.18.4 Shipments containing the following items of extraordinary value are limited to a maximum Declared Value for Carriage of USD 1,000 per Shipment or US$ 9.07 per pound, whichever is greater. Import of any of these items may be prohibited by individual countries and a lower Declared Value for Carriage limit for a country, if any, will control this stated limitation for such items:
[...]
Jewellery, including but not limited to, costume jewellery, watches and their parts, mount gems or stones (precious or semiprecious, cut or uncut), industrial diamonds and jewellery made of precious metal;
[...]
Last edited by markrlondon; 6th January 2015 at 03:50. Reason: Added additional info
Indeed.
The lack of compensation on Parcelforce services for watches (or most other 'valuables') is particularly bizarre when one realises that Parcelforce is the UK's official EMS service provider. EMS is the internationally agreed service level[1] for express mail which most people in the world tend to perceive as being especially suitable for watches and valuables.
Footnote:-
1: EMS is defined by the Universal Postal Union. See http://www.upu.int/en/the-upu/ems-co...operative.html