From Buenos Aires, Argentina to Seattle, United States - August, 2003

For those of you shipping from BA to Seattle or anywhere else...if you're shipping with Hellman they're Hell to deal with. I shipped my bike from BA
to Seattle in August of 2003 and it was a very complicated process.

We ended up arriving on a Thursday, haggling with them all day Friday with the help of a local Argentine friend who spent hours on the phone arguing with them over the shipping cost. Our flight left on Monday night and we ended up leaving the bike in one of the local garages, arranged a local company to ship it to the airport where it would arrive on tuesday (We couldn't ship the bike on Monday because it was a holiday). I would suggest that you beware of the following when dealing with Hellman.

-Get a PRINTED quote, not just an over the phone quote.

We received a quote from the seattle office for about $900 US max, got to the BA office and got a quote for $1200 max. They denied any prior notice/contact by the seattle office and all efforts to have them honor the "seattle phone quote" were fruitless.

Final price: $1800 upon arrival in Seattle. The BA office charges the Seattle office and by that time you can't do anything about it.

-The BA office lied to us (myself, Andrea(my BA friend), and Jim (who i was traveling with))

-The Seattle office also lied to us. They tried to play the hero but they too were up to their necks in empty efforts to "try" and resolve the issue.

-ARRIVE EARLY

-TRY AND SHIP WITH ANOTHER COMPANY

I have no idea what options are out there but if you have time and some connections (locals that can vehemently argue over the phone) do some research when you get to the city... you could save yourself $500-1000.

Good luck, you'll need all the help you can get.

Regards, Steve