From: Luc Herren < >
Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2000 11:07:36 -0400

When we moved to the Boston area last year, I tried to do it the
cheap way: I went with the shipping agent that made me the cheapest
offer - CHF 2500.- for 6 or 7 pallets of stuff, if I remember
correctly. Since the agent didn't have his own office on the US side,
they worked with a local company here. There was some
miscommunication, and after our arrival, we were all of a sudden
asked to pay almost twice as much or we wouldn't get our stuff... We
didn't accept this and were able to get a better price, but in return
we had to do the customs paperwork and the transport to our apartment
on our own, which cost us several days of work.

We later heard that other people's experiences were worse - not
getting their stuff until a full month after it was due, etc.

Today, we would not choose the cheapest shipping agent, but one that
has their own offices on both sides of the ocean (like Jacky Maeder,
for instance). We wouldn't want to again be stuck in the middle
between two agents that blame each other for offers they can't live
up to.

Unless you only have a couple of boxes to ship, a shipping agent is
much cheaper than either air freight or surface mail (I checked with
the freight terminals of the major Swiss airports as well as the
postal service. Things may of course have changed in the meantime.)

Also, if you have more than about 10 pallets' worth of stuff, it's
probably better to pay a flat fee for half a container and let the
shipping agent worry about the rest. Pallets proved to be a hassle
over here, as US pallets don't have the same size as European ones,
which means that US pallet jacks ("Rollis") aren't easy to use with
European pallets - plus, you need to figure out a way to get rid of
the pallets when you're done.

I hope this doesn't make you feel depressed...

All the best

Luc

>Hello all,
>
>We will be moving to Baltimore in November and will likely have more luggage
>than what we can take on our air tickets. Does anyone know of cheap
>possibilities to take things to the states (and back)?
>
>Thank you,
>
>Christian
>*********************************
>Christian Broesamle, PhD
>Brain Research Institute
>Department of Neuromorphology (Gruppe Schwab)
>Federal Institute of Technology and
>University of Zurich
>Switzerland
>broesam_at_hifo.unizh.ch
>
>Tel: +41 1 635 3216
>Fax: +41 1 635 3303
>Street address:
>Winterthurer Strasse 190
>CH-8057 Zurich
>Switzerland
>*********************************

-- 
___________________________________________________________________
Luc & Brigitte Herren                       lherren_at_hds.harvard.edu
287 Harvard St Apt 37                                bherren_at_bu.edu
Cambridge MA 02139-2366, USA                         (617) 864 3648
___________________________________________________________________
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