Delivery from the USA in 5-10 days at the price of USPS

Before the onset of 2013, there were 30 days left when I decided to give my wife an ipad mini. The official store.apple.com could not cope with the demand for mini, which was eloquently testified by the inscription est shipping in 2 weeks.

There was no desire to refuse mini as a gift, so ebay was taken by storm, the prices of which have grown significantly, and the 16gb + cellurar model went for $ 500.

Before the onset of 2013, there were 15 days left, I had a lot won and a vague prospect of getting it in St. Petersburg before the 31st day ...
And I received it, in  10 days, the shipping rate was $ 48.5.

When Russian Post is Not Enough

How can I get a package from the USA in 10 days? Submit her USPS Express? Well, if you are very lucky, then yes, but not on Christmas and New Year's Eve, when the monthly delivery time is considered quite an express, and the two-week period is a miracle. How to send one ipad in a parcel without drowning it in a pile of junk, wrapping it with films and sealing the seams of the security box with tape and making sure that this is not a postman student sitting with your minicar?

There were more questions than answers, until I decided to look into the mail-forwarders folder, where all email announcements from well-known email intermediaries are accumulated in me.

Among a bunch of mailing lists with announcements of New Year's sales, I fished out a letter from shopfans in which the launch of a new Shopfans Express delivery method was announced. Description promised

• delivery unprecedented in speed (10 ± 2 days, and sometimes all 5);
  
• lack of contacts with the Russian Post on the whole route;
• almost guarantee delivery safe and sound;
• no restrictions on the size of the parcel (I understand that USPS has a limit of 108 ”for the combined girth parameter).

It was more like a good charge of a marketing bullet, but still it seemed the only opportunity theoretically to receive a dispatch on time, and I decided to take a chance.

Contract signing

The essence of the shopfans express method and its difference from the good old USPS is that your package will in no way touch USPS / Russian Post channels, which means it will not fall into the hands of greedy employees for sorting.

But in order to avoid the Russian Post, you will have to arrange a relationship with a carrier, which in this case is a certain Kargokast LLC, you will need to disclose your anonymity by the following actions:

• Download a copy of your passport
• Sign a bilateral agreement with Kargokast LLC, scan the last signature sheet and download it

The steps are described in detail in the  instructions from the company itself, in addition there is a whole branch of 100 pages on the forum, where there is a live discussion of this method, many details and answers to questions can be found there.
Yes, you either reveal your anonymity, or reveal the anonymity of someone who cares about her not so =)

I had no illusions about my anonymity, so there were no problems with the passport, but then another trouble awaited me. All these buns in terms of delivery speed and so on and so far are only available for Muscovites and those living in its area. As a native of the northern capital, I had no choice but to seek contact in Moscow, which would receive a dispatch for me. As a result, I took someone else’s passport scan, asked me to sign an agreement and uploaded these documents.

A few hours later my documents were reviewed and accepted, about which I received an email notification.

On time and on time

I sent my package on December 14: It cost me $ 70.55, and next time I will not order insurance, because on the forum, it was not possible to find messages even about rumpled packages, not to mention thefts. Wrapping the contents in a bag also made little sense, in the case of transportation of large investments, the risk that it will fall into the hole in the box is negligible. Therefore, it was quite realistic to manage only with the shipping rate and the cost of warehouse services, which would be only $ 51.5. This sending method still has one drawback that should be fixed by the end of January - there is no track number for the shipment, so to track your shipment you will have to look at the following chart, the current version of which is on  the shopfans website :

SF-Out - shipped from Shopfans' warehouse
US-Out - flew out of New York
MOW - flew to Moscow
Customs - left customs
Courier - handed over to
Delivered couriers - delivered 99% of the recipients

The party, in which my package was also, nevertheless fell into a festive vise: they canceled the flight on which the pallets were supposed to be loaded with cargo, so I had to wait for the next. As a result, on December 19, the parcels were loaded on board, and already on 12/24/12 the courier called my contact in Moscow an hour before delivery and successfully delivered the goods. Thus, the total delivery time from the warehouse to the addressee in Moscow was announced 10 days, and this, taking into account the unintended delay in connection with the cancellation of the flight.

upd

Since February 2013, the shopfans express method is also available for residents of St. Petersburg.

PS

1) There is another delivery method that can compete with shopfans express in the speed of delivery - it is SPSR , but they work without a personal account (only correspondence in the mail), it is very slow, and sending them in the New Year period was stuck in Europe, which caused a delay of 15 days, judging by the reviews on ixbt. They also require a passport, so I did not notice any advantages with them.

2) from January 27, USPS has planned to increase tariffs for priority and express, I have tabulated old and new tariffs, and also added SF-Express tariffs there for comparison

3) a blog dedicated to the delivery of goods from the USA with reviews and instructions.

4) for those who do not tolerate couriers, the option of self-delivery of parcels from a warehouse in Moscow is available.

5) insurance covers any troubles with the parcel, whether it is force majeure or damage to the goods during transportation

6) at the moment the dispatch is carried out on Tuesdays and Fridays, take this into account when calculating the delivery time.

7) documents that require the signature of the recipient: contract , letter of guarantee .

Have a nice shopping and fast delivery!