warning to all uk travellers shipping bikes

[Oz]

if you are planning to ship your bike and are considering using a company called Frontier Forwarding (or HC Travel who use this company) be prepared for hassle and extra expense. i am awaiting my bike in anchorage. it should have been here 3 weeks ago but due to the incompetence of frontier forwarding it got impounded in la customs, has cost me $460 (125 of which was customs clearance fees and unavoidable) on top of the 920 pounds paid to ship it, and it is still not here. Lois, a fellow traveller air freighted her bike here for 450 pounds she said and used Jardine Logistics based at Gatwick. I suggest you contact lois pryce on yahoo.co.uk to avoid being made a schmuck of like i have been.
happy freighting to you all i hope
peter

[This message has been edited by Oz (edited 26 June 2003).]

[This message has been edited by Oz (edited 26 June 2003).]

[This message has been edited by Grant Johnson (edited 27 June 2003).]

[David Grist]

Sorry to hear of this person's problems, but I wish to point out that H-C Travel has nothing to do with this shipment. We do not ship to Alaska, never have done, and we always tell potential customers that it can be complicated - which is why we don't do it. We have had NO delays over 24 hrs with any of our shipments to North America in the past 5 years, and I object to being slagged off by an anonymous writer for something we haven't done!

The writer gives no hint as to where the problem has arisen - shipper, customs etc.

We suggest Frontier as a possible agent as they specialise in shipping motorcycles so they arrive safely and undamaged. I leave it to them to explain what the problems have been.

David@hctravel.com

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David @ H-C Travel

[Susan Johnson]

Hi Peter

Sorry to hear about your problems with bike shipping to Alaska. Can you give us more details on this shipment?

Thanks

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Susan Johnson

"It matters not what goal you seek
Its secret here reposes:
You've got to dig from week to week
To get Results or Roses."
Edgar Guest

'One world, two wheels'
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

[Oz]

to clarify a few points i need to explain the following. I approached hc travel to quote me on shipping the bike to alaska. the way they did this was by forwarding my e mail to frontier forwarding. i assumed that they used this carrier. at no time did hc indicate to me that they were passing my business on to f forwarding, and not still wanting to act as my agent. if they were passing the business on my warning regarding the efficiency of f forwarding should be of interest to them. i appologize if hc have been offended by my comments but i hope they can see now how i associated them to f forwarding. the bike arrived yeaterday at long last. i have had two weeks of hanging around waiting plus the costs associated with this, $460 in customs clearing costs and have spent $40 on phone calls. the bike has been damaged then bubble wrapped into the crate. only a smashed indicator, but yet another problem. my original warning stands, DO NOT USE FRONTIER FORWARDING unless you are prepared for hassle. I was dubious of their professionality at the outset and should have hunted harder for another carrier. you live and learn!
to answer your question susan as to what happened the bike arrived in la three weeks before i learned of its arrival. i was not contacted to say that i had customs clearance to complete, the only contact from f forwarding concerned the delivery address. the bike was impounded by customs because it sat there so long. i had to pay for the storage and impounding fees, a total of $460 above the freighting costs. f forwarding had told me the bike would customs clear in anchorage. they knew the transfer would be in la to get it to anchorage. would you expect a company that "specialises" in shipping bikes to know that the first time it enters the us, the customs need to clear it. f forwarding didnt, in fact when initially asked about compliance formalities for the us the angent anthony did not have a clue. like i said you live and learn. i hope this gives you a hint as to how i was dealt with, there more, ask if you want to know.


[This message has been edited by Oz (edited 08 July 2003).]

[Susan Johnson]

Peter

Really sorry to hear about your problems. For the benefit of other travellers shipping into the USA, we will put a notice in the August e-zine about it. I agree that the shipper should have known the USA Customs procedures.

Enjoy the rest of your trip, and please keep in touch.

Susan

[chris]

Hindsight is a great thing. I've had the misfortune of dealing with several freight agents/shipping companies/airlines regarding moving my bike around the world. Just about without exception, NONE of the them knew the precise procedure for where I wanted to leave from (i.e. their home turf!) or where I wanted to go.

Basically they all want your money and are a bunch of muppets.

All you can really do is find out in advance from the HUBB and the trip planning section on the left, and tell the clowns how to do their job do and don't pay them until they have.
Enjoy,
ChrisB

[PanEuropean]

Guys, I've shipped my bike (a Honda ST1100) back and forth Canada to Europe twice, used Motorcycle Express every time, and NO problems at all. In fact, this company has solved quite a few problems for me - like, my dropoff date for return shipment was September 12, 2001 - not exactly the best day in history for trying to ship something by air (every friggin' airline in the world was grounded) - and Motorcycle Express still found a way to convince the airline in Paris to accept the shipment. The bike sat in Paris for 2 weeks after that, and I didn't even get charged for storage. The other 3 times, the bike arrived exactly on the day it was scheduled to.

Motorcycle Express advertises here on Horizons Unlimited - they have a big blue circle at the top of the page - I highly recommend them. If you want more details, see the writeup and photos I put at this site:
http://www.micapeak.com/~marcl/pages/shipbike.html
(scroll to bottom of page)

[Grant Johnson]

And please let MC Express know you found out about them from HU - we get a cut to support the site, and it doesn't cost you a dime.

thanks, Grant