Obscene shipping fees

I've only found one decent detailing supplies store in the USA besides AG. Are there many more out there? The other ones I know are all in Europe.
 
IBTROLLIN said:
Just a suggestion, perhaps Autogeek could look at changing it's shipping methods for international orders. I was quoted $270USD shipping for a 20lb package yet when it put in the same weight etc. at a mail forwarding company in the USA, their shipping was $180. It was the same air freight aswell, it's not like I'm comparing boat mail against plane. We're talking apples and apples here.
$90 is a massive difference. Personally, the over the top shipping costs is what's stopped me from going through with my order on several occasions.
I hope this is taken as constructive criticism as it's intended.
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Customer service will respond to you first thing in the morning. From what I understand about shipping the weight is just one of the factors that go into consideration in the shipping cost, the dimensions of the box make the biggest different especially when the items are shipping by air.

Here is a few links from usps about sizes and weights-
USPS - How Size and Shape Affect Prices

USPS - How Weight Affects Prices
 
I always just use a sea freight forwarding company. Sure, it takes a bit longer (four weeks or so), but I pay a lot less, and I don't have to worry about pressure and temperature differentials possibly changing product composition or weakening packaging.
 
Some great suggestions,Thanks heaps. Keep em comin.
CHEERS
 
Jason I have no doubt that there are a number of variables and that shipping is generally quite costly but my point is that I was able to get exactly the same package shipped for $90 cheaper by a mail forwarding company. No one is accusing AG of anything shifty, its more that perhaps they could provide a shipping calculator or even use a different company for shipping.
 
I agree. International shipping from Autogeek is absolutely horrendous and has stopped my placing several orders. However I still do buy things from Autogeek because their customer service is top notch every time!

Unfortunately now with sale items and BOGOs limited to US customers only, that really makes the final cost of items hard to stomach.

I wish there was a sea freight option for Autogeek rather than just costly air freight. I'd happily wait a month for my order to arrive if it would only cost $40 to ship a box of stuff here.

Recently I ordered 7 royal purple oil filters from Amazon and paid $NZ23 ($US20) for the shipping. The box was relatively big and heavy and I had to wait 17 days for it to arrive, but paying so little for shipping made it worth it.


You guys at Autogeek rock more than I could express with words, but your international shipping prices are a stinger!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk so please excuse any grammatical errors
 
IBTROLLIN said:
I've only found one decent detailing supplies store in the USA besides AG. Are there many more out there? The other ones I know are all in Europe.
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Uh oh. You better not start looking for other stores. It is financially inadvisable. :nomore:
 
Agreed really need a live shipping calculator. Would save not only us but autogeek so much time. People could easily figure out what is worth shipping and what isn't. It would be great if autogeek could look at other shipping methods. There is no reason shipping from the USA to Australia should cost 3x as much as some products I get from the UK. Comparing between different countries can be a little unfair but if I look at what packages I can get shipped from Amazon sometimes the quotes make no sense
 
I looked up the order the original poster is referring to and the reason the rate is a bit higher is because we had to put it with Fedex instead of US Mail due to the order value. It is heavy but not over weight but its the box size we have to use to ship it, it registers as oversized with Fedex. Fedex will be a bit more when shipping international and we prefer to use US Mail but you have to understand there are a lot of factors that play into what carrier we have to use..
-Box Weight
-Box Size
-Order Value
-Where we are shipping too
-Insurance Options
-Tracking Options
-Chemicals inside the box
-Time in Transit
-Does package contain machines
...etc
It is the job of our international department to consider all of these when we get a quote for you. They do a great job of making sure you package arrives safe, and as fast as we can.

If you ever have any specific questions in regards to your shipping rate quote it is much faster to just email me as I do not get a chance to read every post on the forum. :props:
 
Hi Meghan,
I don't think anyone doubts that the staff at AG give the best quote they can within the methods available. What most of the posters seem to be saying is that:
A) There must be cheaper shipping methods out there given that many of us have been able to order the same or similar products and pay far less shipping elsewhere.
B) If there are cheaper methods out there, would it be possible to have them made available on AG?
C) Would it be possible to have an instant shipping calculator. Even if it wasn't a 100% firm quote, it would give us some idea of whether we could keep adding to our order. It would also save work for the AG staff and cut down on the waiting time and uncertainty for customers.

We all love AG customer service but no matter how good the service is, if you're talking about a $90USD postal difference, most people (as is evident by the posts in this thread) will go elsewhere even if they'd prefer not to.

I didn't contact you directly because it wasn't a question directly related to that one order. It's more to do with international shipping overall on AG. Also, I did actually mention in an earlier email to customer service that it would be great if we could get a shipping calculator but my comment wasn't acknowledged. I also mentioned that shipping was $90 cheaper for my order through a mail forwarding company and that wasn't acknowledged either.
 
As an international customer, I would really welcome surface shipping, which is an option under USPS and some freight companies. It might take 2 months or so, but I can ship gallon-sized shipments with confidence that I'm actually saving money.

From the shipping perspective, mail forwarders/freight consolidators will almost always be able to offer a better deal than merchant shipping. The first consideration is that freight consolidators do not have to deal with door-to-door shipping, which is a hefty chunk of damage added to the merchant (and it gets passed on to you).

The second consideration is that mail forwarders/freight consolidators have a unique relationship with the major air couriers; they exist to take add up the additional space on cargo aircraft that the air couriers would otherwise be wasting (carrying air through the air). As such, the contractual arrangements allow for a reduced air ship cost. For example, Borderlinx has a contractual agreement with DHL to ship my stuff back to Singapore. They do not use any other carrier, and its a mutually beneficial arrangement to both forwarder and courier. However, if I asked Meghan to ship my stuff from AG to Singapore via DHL (same carrier), the cost would be astronomical. For all intents and purposes, AG is a retail customer and gets charged retail prices, which is passed on to you and me. As a side note, one retailer which is less susceptible to this is Amazon; they are such a huge customer that they can negotiate very strongly on bulk freight rates.

For international customers, I would recommend that you find a good mail forwarding company and take advantage of AG's free ground shipping offer. The prices are far more acceptable. I would ask AG to consider surface shipping as well, because some of us wouldn't mind having products sit in transit for a while.
 
Niebelung said:
For international customers, I would recommend that you find a good mail forwarding company and take advantage of AG's free ground shipping offer. The prices are far more acceptable. I would ask AG to consider surface shipping as well, because some of us wouldn't mind having products sit in transit for a while.
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That's exactly what I've done. AG were nice enough to ship my order to my mail forwarding company for free and instead I pay the reduced shipping rates through them.
 
Any recommendations on mail forwarding companies. I know who all the big ones but is difficult to ascertain who best value looking at their rates

A ground shipping option would be brilliant. It's impossible to consider getting a gallon aired to Australia as cost $50 on freight alone
 
mmm maybe international sales have not become important because they are not easy to make, I'm in Mexico (not so far away) and here is not easy nor cheap to buy quality stuff and yes sometimes AG shipment is a lot more expensive.
AG should not have problems colecting the money, pay pal is paid in advance

Just an opinion
 
Anyone can recommend any good forwarding company in the US?
 
Danube, I had a colleague who used a company called "shipit2" or "shipitto" and he was thrilled with their service. He bought the option that included opening the package and taking photos of the goods (emailed to him) to ascertain that the goods weren't damaged.
 
I use MYUSA or something. Just google it,they seem pretty good so far. I'm very happy with their prices and communication.
 
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