It’s a crap shoot when you do overseas shipping. You package everything so it will survive a long journey. There are periods of time when you can’t tell where the package is at. We’ve only sent two items to Europe. Our most recent one went from Oregon to Germany two weeks ago.
This journey all started simply enough. We had a request from Richard in Washington. He wanted to create a special wedding present for friends in Germany. He sent us an image of the business card for the museum they established in Germany – the Marshall Museum. We had no idea what “Marshall” was. Richard told us about the Marshall Amp, the standard in amplifiers for rock and roll. It sounded like a fun project.
Richard approved the design and patina choices. He decided he would rather have us do overseas shipping to Germany instead of to Washington. That way he wouldn’t have to deal with it during his travels to Germany in July for the wedding. Before we shipped the package, we sent Richard a final photo of the piece. All was good with the world. Mike took a great deal of care in packing the sign, and we dropped it off at the Post Office (which – by the way – is about the least expensive way to ship to Europe). It looked like delivery would occur in 6 to 10 business days.
Now, the wait. We checked periodically as it made it’s way from Bend to Portland to San Francisco to Frankfurt. Then to CUSTOMS in Germany. And you wonder – Will they open the box? Will it still be in one piece when it’s delivered? What happens if it was damaged in transit or at Customs?
We had no idea what happened in Customs. We received word on June 10 that the package had been picked up, and Richard sent us a picture of the installed sign via email. Since we sent him a photo before we shipped, he knew what it looked like. Was the sign damaged in transit? It now looked like the clear coat was missing from around the amp.
We called and talked to Richard as soon as we received the email and looked at the picture. He said they absolutely loved the sign. Richard took the information about our clear coat product and said Siegbert would take it to a local auto body shop for repair. Richard will be traveling to Germany in July for the wedding and see how that worked. We assured Richard that we would stand behind our work and make things right. He thinks it will be fine.
So – the Good – the look on the happy couple’s faces; the Bad – shipping things and not having control once it leaves our hands; and the Ugly – trying to go through Post Office and/or Customs to recoup insurance costs that Richard paid for.
Will this experience mean that we won’t be doing overseas shipping again? No. If the buyer is willing to take the chance, so are we. We were happy to create this unique sign to bring a little Americana (as Richard puts it) to Germany. We could offer to transport to the destination. 🙂