Best way to ship from the USA to the UK ?

[Maff]

Those of you who ship internationally, what is your preferred and most reliable shipping method out of the USA?  Small shipments, just a few boxes. 

We primarily ship UPS.  We have shipped to Canada several times with UPS, it usually gets to where it needs to, but often gets delayed in customs.  I have a customer that has a firm delivery date to London and it's coming up quick and I'm skeptical to commit since I never know whats going to happen in customs. 

[TCT]

Check into DHL. We just had to import a ton of hats from the UK. Shipping time from the UK to MN was 2 days....

[Maff]

Check into DHL. We just had to import a ton of hats from the UK. Shipping time from the UK to MN was 2 days....

Dam that's fast!  Yeah I have no experience with DHL but I'll give them a call. Thanks!

[ebscreen]

DHL tends to be the best about ushering things through customs. Usually the most
expensive route but if it's got to get there on time, that's what you are paying for.

Dot your I's and cross your T's on the customs forms of course.

[royster13]

Just make sure your client is aware of duty and VAT that may apply...If the shipment gets refused, the costs to come back to the USA will be billed to you....

[Maff]

Just make sure your client is aware of duty and VAT that may apply...If the shipment gets refused, the costs to come back to the USA will be billed to you....

yeah it'd be easier to have them take care of the shipping and that would save me the risk of all the variables out of my control.  Then again I'd like to get it figured out so they can rely on me to make it happen next time as well... unfortunately it's a tight deadline and these would need to ship next week to get there in time, assuming no problems in transit

[T Shirt Farmer]

If the shipment gets refused, the costs to come back to the USA will be billed to you....

This is why we insist on prepaying duties and taxes then back billing client when invoice arrives. We just sent out 3500+ individual orders to 27 offices in 6 countries, the paper work for international can be daunting at best... especially when they have lithium batteries chargers.