Hi,
I have two machines to send to Sweden, to Elektron, for repair. The Royal Mail don’t seemt to offer this service (???)
Can any of you recommend a shipping service for these parcels?
Many Thanks
Russell
How do you mean RM don’t offer the service? You mean to Sweden??
Any of the major couriers will take the consignment I think. Costs will vary a bit, RM probably cheapest.
royal mail is f*ked at the moment anyway. best to steer clear.
dhl Express is the best in my recent experience. next day from Greece & France to Ireland. less than 48 hours from Ireland to the US.
I’ve never sent anything back to elektron but that’s my 2c for what it’s worth.
Not terrible advice but tbf I’ve not had any issues since the new year, milleage may vary! In this case they’d only be taking it to the airport anyway, it’d be handed over to the Swedish postal people.
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All international parcels. Due to the cyber attack in RM a few weeks back. They’ve started a very limited letters-only service again but the rest is still very much screwed.
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I’m sure some stuff gets thru ok, but they had a cyber attack a couple of weeks ago. that on top of the December backlog.
my UK print house has had to redirect all their deliveries, with couriers etc. one of my prints with them disappeared last week in the royal mail system.
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Ah I didn’t realise this! Thanks for the info 
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Things might have changed again in the last few days but they’ve been useless at updating customers. Maybe they tweet their updates? Stopped using Twitter so dunno.
Looks like Parcel Farce will take.
Thanks all for the replies
EDIT But they need VAT ane EORI numbers, neither of which Elektron supplied on their instructions.
(Slight moan time: all I wanted was A4, I traded for one, it was broken, and now I am wasting hours of my time trying to get it fixed. Be warned!)
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Ugh. That sucks.
If it’s still under warranty then it’s a free repair and vat etc should be waived. If it’s a paid repair, you’ll have to pay vat etc on the repair charges. So that’s prob why they’re asking for that info. This might help.
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That’s really helpful. Thanks!
That’s odd, both times I’ve sent stuff back they’ve sorted the courier for me and sent me the details.
Even so, I highly recommend DHL, they got my Digitone from Loughborough to Gothenburg in under 24 hours.
Pay close attention to the relevant customs forms you need to fill out.
If you need any help with that, PM me and I’ll walk you through it. Although I don’t think it would do you any harm to contact Christian at Electron and ask him to send you right forms, they do it all the time.
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DHL Express, UPS and FedEx have all be reasonable for me on the receiving side in the Nordics. I’d avoid DPD at all costs, because when shipping from the UK there is literally no customer service contactable, not even on a paid line. Royal Mail will turn into PostNord for delivery, who are pretty crap.
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In my case, it wasn’t Sweden (Anyma Phi to France) but that’s what worked for me. Took a bit of persuasion on my part, but when I explained my concerns about potentially paying VAT on the purchase price for what was a warranty repair (because of a mistake I might make with the forms) the manufacturer organised the whole thing (at no cost to me in this case).
TL;DR - Persuade Elektron to organise pickup and return with their favoured courier.
I contacted Elektron about repair/service, Christian replied and was very helpful.
But - to mail OT & Rytm to them is 80EUR 1 way, plus then he said I have to pay import charges. Then there’s the repair cost (+ VAT if I read above right), plus shipping home (?more import fees).
I have some wobbly/skipping encoders is all. It’s starting to sound expensive and I wondered if I’m better trying to get this done in the UK. Both mk1 models bought used, well out of any warranty I’m sure.
What do you lot think, and does anyone know a tech in the UK (Manchester ish would be best) that could do it?
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I’m fairly sure there is some mechanism / paper work that allows you to ship an item into and then back out of the country without import duty being owed to either Sweden or UK, but it’s probably painful as all hell. Could ask a friend if you would like who has dealt with it before.
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Yes.
Older chat: Sending synth from UK to EU for Repair - Customs Question - #6 by Fin25
UK Government documentation: Using outward processing to process or repair your goods - GOV.UK
Also, I just agreed with Chase Bliss they’d repair my Mood, so it’s on its way to the US. CBA engaged UPS to handle shipping. UPS have this process streamlined now. They automate the labels, multiple copies of the invoices etc all with “repair” clearly identified, and a nominal value (both of which help avoid customs charges). Even tho’ they invoice claimed a £5 value for the item, no-one asked me for that £5 (presumably CBA are covering all the actual shipping cost as it’s a warrantee claim).
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If you try to handle this yourself. it could well be painful.
I’ve done this with adoyo (anyma phy) in France, so in my case it was UK <-> Fance, not UK <-> Sweden
Essentially what made this simple was that Adoyo arranged the entire thing, pickup, customs declaration and return shipping. Because it went back through the same courier, it was clearly going out as a no-cost/warranty repair, and coming back in the same terms.
So doing it that way made it very easy for me.
EDIT: very like what @Octagonist said.
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FWIW, Elektron handled everything for me, and my equipment was traded/secondhand and out of warranty. I contacted support, let them know the situation. They arranged a courier, and the paperwork so I didn’t pay import/export/VAT. Finally after fixing it they sent me a link that I paid via. All very very very painless (except the bit where the money left my body…that always hurts)
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