DHHell

[sjbraun]

I finally pulled the trigger on some Bora WTO wheels. After much internet sleuthing, I bought them from the German online site, Starbike.
12/2. Order placed
12/6. Order prepared for shipment
12/15 Wheels loaded into a shipping container
Flight departs Frankfurt
Arrives in Los Ángeles
Here’s where it gets interesting
12/19 Shipment is loaded into a shipping container
Shipment departs Frankfurt

I wonder when I’ll see the wheels. Will I be getting two sets for the price of one?

[lavi]

You should be ok.

I have very recently purchased 3 sets of Campy wheels from Bike24 (ze Germans). The slow down with DHL is definitely sits with customs in LA. For 2 sets of wheels, total shipping time was about 2 weeks (with a solid week sitting in customs). For the other wheelset, it was about 5 weeks. The wheels sat in customs for over 3 weeks. I'm not sure what happened, but the wheels finally showed up.

With my shipments, once they cleared customs, it went from DHL to USPS for final delivery.

I paid $0 in import duties.

[krooj]

Originally Posted by sjbraun

I finally pulled the trigger on some Bora WTO wheels. After much internet sleuthing, I bought them from the German online site, Starbike.
12/2. Order placed
12/6. Order prepared for shipment
12/15 Wheels loaded into a shipping container
Flight departs Frankfurt
Arrives in Los Ángeles
Here’s where it gets interesting
12/19 Shipment is loaded into a shipping container
Shipment departs Frankfurt

I wonder when I’ll see the wheels. Will I be getting two sets for the price of one?

Been there with R2... We ordered a set of MCFK wheels from them on January 1st last year and didn't see them until April. Those wheels went via DHL and we later discovered that DHL will tender some parcels to the destination carrier unless you pay extra for their express service, and when that tender happens, you're ****ed. USPS + CBP can be godawful about clearing parcels. When you pay extra for the express service, it's usually just one or two days across the pond. PBK/The Hut must have a very large account with DHL, cause they ship almost everything express and it's very, very fast.

Starbike is overall very slow and I wouldn't order from them unless it were a specialty WW item. Better to pay the little bit extra and get it from PBK or Merlin.

[AngryScientist]

Glad I caught the right deal from PBK. Expedited shipping was like $5 or something very low and I got my wheels in 3 days UK>NJ.

I wasnt necessarily in a hurry, but it's frustrating to have many dollars worth of stuff floating around seemingly aimlessly.

[meyatt]

It’s possible the place you bought from messed up the paperwork and that’s why it was sent back. Personally I find FedEx and DHL to be the most reliable from Europe, but in general I have no idea why packages from Japan can be in New York next day, but things coming from the EU can take weeks or months. Shipping within the EU is also a headache.

[slowpoke]

Originally Posted by krooj

When you pay extra for the express service, it's usually just one or two days across the pond. PBK/The Hut must have a very large account with DHL, cause they ship almost everything express and it's very, very fast.

Yeah, to emphasize there's DHL Express which travels within DHLs private network and a delivery person in a red and yellow Sprinter van shows up at your front door. And there's just plain ol' Deutsche Post DHL that's similar to First Class mail, where they'll handle your package through regular means.

It's like FedEx has 2-day air and also FedEx ground (which is really USPS first class mail).

[stackie]

I bought bora WTO ultra from starbike. Everything went fine until DHL transferred to USPS. I got email saying they tried to deliver, left a note, and would try to redeliver. There was no note. I waited about a week with no re delivery attempt. So I trotted the half mile down to the post office. Asks my friendly usps employee who said she would check on it. Disappeared for about 5 minute and came back with big ol box from Starbike. I borrowed some packing tape from them to make a handle and walked back with my big ol box of wheels.

Never got a duty fee either.

Overall, it was a win for me as I bought when euro was the worst vs dollar so I feel like I pretty much stole those wheels.

I think you’re going to be fine.

Jon

[Tz779]

Originally Posted by stackie

I think you’re going to be fine.

Jon

Such an optimist! My Time front fork has been in NYC Customs since 11/4. I filed a “missing parcel” reportwith USPS but I dont ever expect to see this.

[sjbraun]

The wheelset has landed in LA (again??)

[Louis]

Occam's Razor:

Most likely explanations are that 1) they've sent the wheels in two different boxes, one wheel per box, or 2) the status updates are wrong.

BTW, have you read the book below? It might be relevant to your situation.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by sjbraun

I finally pulled the trigger on some Bora WTO wheels. After much internet sleuthing, I bought them from the German online site, Starbike.
12/2. Order placed
12/6. Order prepared for shipment
12/15 Wheels loaded into a shipping container
Flight departs Frankfurt
Arrives in Los Ángeles
Here’s where it gets interesting
12/19 Shipment is loaded into a shipping container
Shipment departs Frankfurt

I wonder when I’ll see the wheels. Will I be getting two sets for the price of one?

I sent a repair stand to a gent in the Netherlands..got 'lost'(FedEx)...finally found tracking..it went to him via Saudi Arabia...2 months, he finally got it.

[sjbraun]

The wheels are in customs. Progress, I think.

[sjbraun]

And they've arrived, 21 days from order to delivery. And, the box was intact; everything inside was in perfect shape. Damn the Boras are good looking.
I just mounted Pirelli tires. They went on with just a little effort and I was able to seat them with a floor pump. I was surprised to see the tires were made in France. So much for my all Italian build.

[Tz779]

Woohoo! We are at the point of being surprised a package from overseas actually gets delivered!

[bikinchris]

Originally Posted by sjbraun

And they've arrived, 21 days from order to delivery. And, the box was intact; everything inside was in perfect shape. Damn the Boras are good looking.
I just mounted Pirelli tires. They went on with just a little effort and I was able to seat them with a floor pump. I was surprised to see the tires were made in France. So much for my all Italian build.

Which makes me wonder why Campagnolo doesn't sell tires.