Hi All:
I've searched all over but can't find a thread on this (search not working).
Has anyone shipped their personal effects with FedEx or similar? We do not have any furniture or large items. Only going to be about 10 boxes. Had a quote from a regular shipper for around £845 and then our company's courier guy said he could do it for around the same price and of course - waaay quicker.
- has anyone used one?
- pricing?
- custom issues?
??
Any thoughts please as we have to make a decision this weekend. Our flights are booked to Kelowna for August 8th (Yahoo)

We use Fedex for shipping boxes of plants, they work just fine. Cost would be my concern with heavier items. Fedex do all the documentation and clearing. You should check to make sure you won't be charged any duty and taxes on the import as they are personal possessions. Fedex will want a power of attorney for customs clearance, if you have a goods to follow list, you can send this to them. If you end up paying tax & duty, you can reclaim it through CRA. Fedex don't charge for clearing customs, just a $7 admin fee (that's what we pay anyway) and they deliver to your door.

Thanks so much for that!
We won't have to pay duty and taxes - so that's ok.
We really don't have too many heavy items. We just have to be careful.
Cheers!

I looked at FedEx when I moved over for some stuff I had left over after shipping the main boxes I had (lots of books and guitars and things that needed regular shipping). When I worked it out they were charging something like £90 at the time (2003) for a 25Kg FedEx crate (which was just a cardboard box that looked like a crate) and KLM who I was flying with was charging about £75 for excess luggage at 37Kg allowance per bag or there abouts. Now you couldn't really do it with 10 bags worth but I managed to disassemble my computer to its key components and along with some other stuff fill an extra suitcase and just brought it with me on the plane, taht way it saved the hassle of FedEx smashing my stuff to pieces and saved money too plus I had it all with me. Cleared customs as part of my declared landing effects so no hassle there either.

"and KLM who I was flying with was charging about £75 for excess luggage at 37Kg allowance per bag or there abouts."

Thanks Wizzard - you'll be surprised to hear that any excess baggage with KLM is now £150 per suitcase!!!! Not a viable option for us.

I'm really confused now...........suppose we'll have to go the shipping route as we'll have around 12 boxes of stuff. I just thought it would be much quicker and less hassle with FedEx. You also scared me when you mentioned the possible breakage with FedEx- even though we have little to break!!!!!

I'll keep researching. We've got till this weekend to make a decision - yikes!