sometimes you just can't make it funnier

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Daniel

Daniel

Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2004
Messages
5,921
Location
Reno, NV, USA.
Well to start, this is not a rant. It is a story that is simply so unbelievable that I have to share it.
Many of you know that I have spent quite a long time doing a group buy for drill bits from China. and although the buy itself has a lot of story to it. tis one is just about getting the bits to Reno.
Vera, My supplier in China, shipped the drill bits to the U.S by a company called SG Airlines. Keep in mind this was supposed to be 5 day or so express shipping. SG Airlines flew the bits from China to Sacramento and there turned them over to a sub contractor to finish the last two hours of the trip to Reno.
this is where it gets interesting. I have no idea who this sub contractor is or what qualifies them to handle freight. But evidently they had no idea how to put boxes on a truck going in the direction of Reno. I came home from work on a Wednesday afternoon to be greeted with a note from my wife to call some guy in Sacramento. I called him and in a nut shell he asked me how to get my packages to Reno. No kidding, this is like the post man knocking on your door and asking how to deliver mail. well I was a little stunned and was not sure i really understood what he was saying. he was babbling on about customs, and entry and agents and blah blah blah. then he started listing the charges for all of these agents and what not. I didn't have much problem understanding that part. it was also becoming crystal clear to me that this guy had no idea what he was doing. I started getting an education, 24 hours later, after having talked to customs here in Reno, Sacramento, LA and San Francisco, I knew just what needed to be done. I called the Sub contractor back and told him the packages had to be trucked by bonded truck to reno and delivered to a bonded warehouse until I coudl have them "Make Entry" Evidiently it was my name on the paper work so I am the only person the packages can be released to by customs. Reno was listed as there port of entry and so they had to come to Reno, Period. OK so I gave the guy the names and phone numbers of three bonded warehouses in Reno. Then he starts listing the costs for all these things again. I said whoa! I've already paid for the shipping. when the shipping was paid the address said Reno NV, not Sacramento CA.
He still tried to tell me I woudl have to pay for the warehouse they where in in sac, pay for the truck to ge to Reno, and then pay for the warehouse in Reno. about this time I contacted SG Airlines to see if they could explain things to this guy. THinking that this guy was all straightened out I waited to get a call from a Reno warehouse that my packages had arrived. the weekend passed witrh nothing happening (which I didn't expect it to) monday passed...nothing. We where well into thursday when I decided to call the contractor again. my packages where still setting in sac. well lets say that I lost all religion, decency and respect is putting it mildly. Well I descovered that trying to be professional and deplimatic is not always the best way to get results. in some pretty flowery language I told him just about everything I thought of his ability to do his job and that if the packages where not in Reno in 24 hours the next call he would get from that city would be from my lawyer. Somehow all of his confusion cleared up. He did try to toot his horn about how his company was absorbing all these costs. I asked him just what the hell the $700 I had paid for shipping was for. The packages arrived in Reno the next moring at 8a.m.
I still am not sure just what this guy was trying to pull other than trying to double charge me for the truck over the mountains. But I am finding out. I am also working on getting refunded the difference in express shipping and sea freight. I have talked to my lawyer and because they actually delivered faster than sea freight but not as fast as express (5 days) I should have some claim for a refund, but not as much as I want. there might be some grounds in the fact that SG Airlines should have put the packages on a flight to Reno not turned them over to a trucking company. From what I understand express means "Air" and I did not get what I paid for. (there is some question wether a truck is as fast as Air from Sac to Reno)
In the end it is only a couple hundred dollars at best and I am not sure it is worth the hassle.
like I said this is not a rant as I am pretty much over the whole thing. but it did think it was a story worth telling. Funny that the biggest most incompetent snag in ordering from china was an American trucking company.
 
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For some reason, I'm not all that surprised that it was something here that messed the whole deal up. Man, $700 shipping? How heavy is this package?
 
I've heard some unnerving stories about shipping from China. The shame is that here you are trying to help a bunch of people out and you get ALL the grief as well.

My sympathy,

Marc
 
Actually the shipping works out to be about $3.35 per lb. so it's not bad. 5 boxes each weighing about 40 lbs. I did find out that I can knock the heck out of shipping costs though by going with Sea freight and making entry in Sacramento. I can go there to pick it up then. takes a lot longer but shipping drops to around a dollar a lb.
 
Skye, Sure go ahead and order those gloves. You might have plenty of incentive to use them once you do get them, lol.
 
Daniel

I don't think there is a flight from any airline from Sacramento to Reno Direct. Southwest maybe or Alaska/Horizon via Vegas, Portland, LA, or even San Jose. It has gotten had to fly Sacramento to Boise direct. Like you asked me I could have driven it in 2 hours and met you at Boomtown for dinner. We do have a port in Sacramento, mainly for woodchips and cement don't know about regular freight, that would come out of Oakland by truck in a container. We do have on international Airline and Sacramento International Airport. Mexicana and the have seperate arrival terminal seperate from all the other terminals. The unload the plane and then tow it around the other therminals to the departure gate for the next flight.
 
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Skye, had to be as heavy as the 12 pens I was asked to ship to Japan for $750:rolleyes::biggrin::wink:.
Skye said:
For some reason, I'm not all that surprised that it was something here that messed the whole deal up. Man, $700 shipping? How heavy is this package?
Click to expand...
 
Daniel,
This is what I did for a living before I retired.. I shipped freight international from US to ports all over the world. And on some occasions I also handled shipments inbound from ports all over the world to the USA, or sometimes from a foreign port to a foreign port.
This will be kind of wordy, but may give you a little additional information into what you just went through.

That was pretty much a typical shipment... probably only covered the freight and handling in China.. you likely still had customs and duties in Reno. However, I think shipments from China fall under "most favored nation" rule and are near duty free.

It's been a while since I was in the business... 3+ years, but I think SG Airlines is Singapore Airlines which means your shipment likely flew China to Singapore to either LAX or SFO before being trucked to Sacremento. In all actuality, the carrier was responsible to deliver the goods to your bonded warehouse in Reno, unless it was part of a consolidation, from a consolidation agent in China who flew it with a number of other shipments under a "Master waybill" to a de-consolidation agent in Sacremento who then was responsible to transport it on to a corresponding customs broker in Reno.

International shipments can be very complex in their routing. Your supplier in China contracts with a forwarding agent in China, who either consolidates all his own shipments to the USA into one larger shipment to take advantage of a weight break for a lower rate per kilogram, or else he will co-load with another or several other forwarding agents, one of whom will be the "master" of the consolidation. He will ship to his receiving agent in the USA at whatever port his agent resides in. The agent will receive the entire shipment and "breakbulk" the shipment into it's various components and then transfers each portion of the consolidation to the various receiving agents.. you can have many shipments under one master waybill, with many sub-master (house waybills) from the master consolidator to receiving agent. The sub-master way bills, can have a number of other sub house way bills that are from the individual shipper to individual consignees.
example,
Vera ships from her company to you, using her forwarding agent XY company.
This will be on a housewaybill from Vera to You.
XY company only has one small shipment to USA,
so he contracts with ABC company to ship his freight
Another waybill from ABC company showing XY company as Shipper, XY company's agent in USA as consignee.
ABC company now has at least two shipments to USA, but not enough to get a good freight rate, so he will contract with GFH company - Another waybill showing ABC company as shipper, ABC company's agent as consignee, shows freight for total of XY company and ABC company's freight.
Now GFH company has at least 3 shipments to USA... if he has enough weight to warrant a good freight rate, he will contract with SG Airlines to ship the freight to the USA. SG airlines may have direct flights from port of departure in China directly to a port of landing in USA, or if not, then he will fly to his hub port where the shipment will be trans-shipped from China via Singapore to a flight that is shipping to the USA. Singapore airlines will have one or two main ports of landing in USA, probably LAX or SFO..
Once the freight has landed in the port of arrival, the process will reverse.. SG airlines will make entry into US customs system of a shipment from China, shipped by GFH company and turn the paperwork over to GFH company's agent. GFH Agent will then break out the two other housewaybills and deliver the paperwork to ABC agent and XY agent. If the freight isn't destined for local delivery at the port of arrival, it must now be moved inland via IT or TACM (In-Transit documents or Transfer Air Cargo Manifest).. since this is a consolidation that effectively terminates at port of arrival, any cargo for Reno must move on an IT. It should have traveled directly from the port of arrival to final destination Reno, but it appears that it was part of a smaller consolidation that was also routed through Sacremento... a portion of the shipment was probably delivered in SAC and your freight was broken out again to be forwarded further via IT to Reno.

Everytime someone handles a portion of this routing, each company got a small portion of your freight charge.

In Reality, unless it's a direct shipment from point A to point B, it's unlikely that they can do it in 5 days.

Ocean shipment can follow this same routing procedure as well as airfreight.
 
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We have had crating freight shipped here (to Japan from US) several time. The travel from Memphis to New Orleans through the Panama Canal to Japan was 1/3 the total cost. Shipping from the port of entry - Kobe to our house 30 miles away was 2/3 of the cost. Customs was nil. This has been the way it is here.
 
Daniel said:
I can knock the heck out of shipping costs though by going with Sea freight and making entry in Sacramento. I can go there to pick it up then.
Click to expand...
I thought the same thing when I ordered ocean freight to Wilmington. It turned out that the shipment landed and cleared customs in New York anyway. Afterwards, it turned out that trucking to Raleigh cost less than sea freight to Wilmington plus gas to go fetch it.

Regards,
Eric
 
Daniel,

The part of your story I find interesting is you using flowery language!!! The idea of our Daniel using words that weren't decorous, is just astounding!

Good for you!

;-)

Scott.
 
Chuck, needless to say you have gone way beyond me with that one. I do get the idea of what you are saying though. I figured out enough I think . after all this I have discussed it with Vera and having products shipped to Sacramento and picking them up there is sounding like a good idea. Which leads me to Tom... do you feel that Buffet calling you old chap??? At any rate there are several way to skin the cat from that point with several of them being relatively in expensive compared to trucking and warehouses etc. The hard part is having all the pieces in place when the order is placed. example would be that if Tom was going to pick up the packages from customs and bring them over the hill. he would have to be listed as the person to release them to. money for duty would have to be forwarded to him and schedules would have to be arranged so we had plenty of time to enjoy that dinner. But I would much rather pay for a day trip to Reno for Tom than pay a truck driver. I also love any excuse to go to Sac, it is paradise compared to the dessert I live in every day.
The truth is I am very aware that I am stretching the scope of group buys and that will require learning a few things, overcoming many obsticals and often just keeping my head down and pressing forward.
 
I know it's a little further from Reno to SFO than to Sacremento, but SAC is a smaller station and you will get an add-on to your freight rate onward to SAC....
you might get a better freight rate if you terminate the shipment in SFO. Most international carriers will terminate their flights at the arrival port, then transfer the freight to another carrier, either a truck or another airlines, depending on final destination. Likely SAC and Reno freight is trucked from SFO. An old friend and former employer of mine has a principal interest in one of the trucking companies that handles freight out of SFO to SAC and RNO.

It'll mean an additional 2 hours or so driving on down to SFO. But if the rate is a lot better it might warrant.

BTW, I spent 15 years in the Bay Area and lots of weekends, I would run up to Tahoe or on over the hill to Reno for a little R&R and gambling. Even won some money once.
 
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