Parcel forwarding service in USA

Torrish

I gather there are commercial parcel forwarding services available in the USA.
Does anybody know if its true and who are the reliable ones?
I've bought something (nothing illegal!) in the States but he will only ship within the States.
Thanks
T

crowdflash

there is, but it doesn't mean you can, or should, evade taxes and excise when importing into ireland...

Torrish

Thanks for your reply.
I'm not trying to evade import duties although I guess that's what many people would expect.
So who are they then?
T

Access

Torrish, Just be aware that customs here have details of most of the forwarding address companies (from experience - as duty was applied on items i got in each time) and you have to take into consideration the addional expense of the forwarding company.

On a few different occasions, it would have cost me more to get from US via forwarding then incurring Customs duty, than walking to town get buy it there! - sometimes its worth it, sometimes not.

Just my 2p

SugarMagnolia

It looks like nobody is going to answer your actual question so I will. I have used 2 forwarding services.

Shipito.com
pros: cheap ($50/year for your po box), can declare whatever value you want on the box (and it gets through customs)
cons: awful customer service, slow, awful awful customer service (can't stress that enough, if you ever have a problem it's like talking to a brick wall) require a LOT of personal details, they wanted more than the bank did when I applied for a credit card.. Scans of passport, drivers license, bank statements, bills, scan of credit card, and others that I forget.
The guy who runs the company is even worse than the people he hires for "customer support", I went on their forums once and him and some other staff were actually making fun of one of their male customers and referring to him as a potato or something like that. I got my things eventually but haven't used them since.

Bongous.com
pros: helpful customer service and live chat from 2pm-10pm, fast (requests processed within one day), very professional
cons: more expensive ($15/month) and they follow the law and declare everything correctly which some people might not like.

I have no issues with Bongo, been using them for about 7 months. If you do a lot of online shopping the $15 a month is worth it. I save a LOT by using them.

SugarMagnolia

Oh another thing, shipito are based in California which has one of (if not, the) highest rates of sales tax, I think it's 9% or so. Bongo are in CT where sales tax is lower (6%) and I actually haven't been charged that by any of the companies I have ordered from so far (ae.com, nordstrom.com, saks.com, amazon.com, forever21.com, kohls.com, theimpossibleproject.com, abercrombiekids.com)

also it can work out great because a lot of websites offer free US shipping if you spend over $50 or $70 and there's often coupons for 10% or 20% off

hope I helped!

91011

depending on the value, you can ring UPS / DHL / Fedex and ask them to collect the goods - however these companies are expensive.