Shipping from France to USA - best option?

[Gonk]

Hello all,

I just bought a 120 bass CBA on eBay - the seller is in France, and I'm in the US. They offered it with international shipping at €100, but wrote today to let me know it'll be €170. The carrier is "Colissimo International," which I have no experience with. I'm hoping an alternate solution can be found!

I'd really appreciate any suggestions of alternate carriers. Within the USA, I usually would suggest FedEx for something 11-12kg / 25 lbs, but I'm not sure about international shipping.

Edit to add: in the "before times," I paid €123 to ship a similar accordion, via DHL Paket International. Maybe they're a better option...but maybe everyone's prices have scaled similarly these days.

Thanks in advance for any tips!

 

[Tom]

Good luck Gonk. Seems like I paid $150 for my last accordion from Italy, so it's probably the going rate. Not sure you'll find much in cheaper options.

 

[godgi]

I have used UPS in ireland to france and found good.
Colissimo is the french version of the national carrier as far as I know. I found recently that tracking was a waste of time as no data appeared to be updated for country to country movements. I didn,t track the UPS but I think it should be better

 

[Gonk]

Thanks for the replies. The seller offered to pay half the difference, which would bring my shipping cost to €134. I think that's the best I'm going to do, and it's a nice gesture on their part.

 

[Jim2010]

I have received two shipments of musical instruments (accordinas) from France via Colissimo. As has been mentioned, the tracking information was not ideal. For example, at one point during the first shipment, the tracking said that the instrument (which had been sitting in Miami for a few days) was being shipped back to France. In reality, it was delivered to me the next day. Both shipments arrived on time, neither was held up in customs, etc. Unless something has changed recently, accordions are not subject to import duty.

 

[debra]

I believe that how an accordion is packed for shipping is actually more important than who ships it. In terms of the shipping itself I'm sure there are many good experiences with every company, and there are horror stories with every company. Godgi had good experience with UPS for instance, whereas I have fixed an accordion that was shipped with UPS from Portugal to the Netherlands and all bass blocks had come loose and had to be put back (and secured). You never know whether an accordion will be thrown around (only a huge crate with lots of padding will offer enough protection then) and/or whether it will be frozen to -50c on the plane or not...