# Fedex or such



## Lunkan (Aug 28, 2020)

I suppouse/guess letters can pass covid zone borders, because cargo can.
Can someone confirm?


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## expatuk2016 (Mar 20, 2016)

Lunkan said:


> I suppouse/guess letters can pass covid zone borders, because cargo can.
> Can someone confirm?


Mmmm my wife today received a birthay card from her friend in the UK via moonpig post marked Guernsey Post Now 28th Nov 2020 ! Two postmarks on the back of the envelope are Feb 22nd and 23rd !it took 3 months to arrive ! But cant complain as since we arrived here in 2011 we have only received 8 letters ! And 17 never arrived ! So well done Philpost for actually delivering the wifes card !🤗


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## Lunkan (Aug 28, 2020)

That's why I will use Fedex or such  
( because it's business documents, which need to get through for sure.)


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

Lunkan said:


> That's why I will use Fedex or such
> ( because it's business documents, which need to get through for sure.)


Just be careful what you declare the contents to be. I FedEx 'ed an airline ticket to the mother in law and the Philippines wanted 100% import duty, I learned the hard way not to declare the true value of the contents.


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## Lunkan (Aug 28, 2020)

It's just documents, no value.


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## fmartin_gila (May 15, 2011)

FedEx delivered a large letter size to me in Iloilo from the US during the last week of February. Just yesterday at PhilPost I mailed out my Tax return to the US. I do not trust PhilPost for incoming mail but so far over the years they have always delivered outgoing.

Fred


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

We get our Cignal TV account delivered to our letterbox usually 3 to 4 months behind and some times 2 bills for different months in one delivery, the worst in the early days was 5 months behind and many we have not received,,,,,, shock horror, yesterday we received a bill for Dec/Jan so they are catching up,,,,,,,, doh we still haven't seen Oct/Nov nor Nov/Dec invoices. Thank god for Gcash and monitoring our own accounts.
Personally I trust the postal system here as much as our Barangay Capitan.

I have sent seriously important documents from PH to Australia many years ago costing from AU 40 to 50 bucks a time depending on how many pages. 2 days max to be received. I will never, never have anything mailed here, digitised, instant these days.

OMO.

Cheers, Steve.


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## Lunkan (Aug 28, 2020)

Thank you


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## BGCExpat (Oct 26, 2015)

PhilPost is the worst! I have had great success with DHL and FedEx, you have to use a private carrier if it is something that absolutely must be delivered in a timely manner. I’ve been using ‘BuyandShip Philippines’ recently with good results for purchasing goods overseas. They ship to a number of foreign warehouses (depending on what country you are shopping in) and then forward to their main Hong Kong hub. At that point you can either ship direct to your home or wait to consolidate multiple packages. Cost is P350/lb for unpaid duty, and P600/lb for paid duty. Keep the value per shipment under P10,000 and there is no duty or tax... Usually arrives from HK to my house in Manila in 3 days - so far it’s the best and cheapest direct delivery method... Anything beats those scoundrels at PhilPost!


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## pagbati (Apr 9, 2014)

BGCExpat said:


> ... I’ve been using ‘BuyandShip Philippines’ recently with good results for purchasing goods overseas. ... Cost is P350/lb for unpaid duty, and P600/lb for paid duty. Keep the value per shipment under P10,000 and there is no duty or tax... Usually arrives from HK to my house in Manila in 3 days - so far it’s the best and cheapest direct delivery method ...


I have wheat and rye berries/ grain sent over from UK in a balakbayan box, where weight isn’t an issue but of course it’s somewhat of a slow process. I’m keen to find a quicker, cost effective way to have it sent over. Hence I had a look at Buy and Ship’s website. Please correct me if I’m wrong but I made the following calculation for sending over 9kg (19.8 lbs) of grain to the provinces, using Buy and Ship’s pricing page.
20lbs @ ₱350 per pound = ₱7,000, which is approx £104 at today’s exchange rate.
Have I understood the system and calculated the cost of that shipment correctly? I only ask as 9kg of grain would actually cost approx £15 (₱1,012) to purchase and £104 for shipping seems a lot. Would it be fair to say that Buy and Ship is not suited for heavy items?


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## Lunkan (Aug 28, 2020)

pagbati said:


> I have wheat and rye berries/ grain sent over from UK in a balakbayan box, where weight isn’t an issue but of course it’s somewhat of a slow process. I’m keen to find a quicker, cost effective way to have it sent over. Hence I had a look at Buy and Ship’s website. Please correct me if I’m wrong but I made the following calculation for sending over 9kg (19.8 lbs) of grain to the provinces, using Buy and Ship’s pricing page.
> 20lbs @ ₱350 per pound = ₱7,000, which is approx £104 at today’s exchange rate.
> Have I understood the system and calculated the cost of that shipment correctly? I only ask as 9kg of grain would actually cost approx £15 (₱1,012) to purchase and £104 for shipping seems a lot. Would it be fair to say that Buy and Ship is not suited for heavy items?


 A Fedex 100 gram LETTER cost around 150 USD  Sweden to province in Phils.

Why buying wheat grain all the way from UK?? I don't know about rye, but wheat can be bought much closer.


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## pagbati (Apr 9, 2014)

Lunkan said:


> Why buying wheat grain all the way from UK?? I don't know about rye, but wheat can be bought much closer.


The best wheat berries I can find in the Ph are on Lazada and usually sell for 907g @ ₱350 + ₱139 shipping. At that price, 3kg would cost ₱1,158 + shipping. Compare this to the UK price of ₱300 for 3kg of top quality organic berries. Rye is our favourite berry of choice and they are occasionally available on Lazada and usually from China. The quality is dubious and the price is ridiculous @ ₱4,108 for 3kg. 

Clearly one has to consider shipping costs from UK. However, a 4.5 cu.ft. box, irrelevant of weight, costs ₱4,710 from UK to the provinces and takes approx 2 to 3 months to get here. With that size of box I can also fit in loads of other items from UK. 

There's a balance here but paying Lazada’s prices for this product kind of 'sticks in the craw' so I’d rather plan ahead, buy in bulk from UK, and store in the freezer. However, if you know somewhere local/ via online shopping where I can purchase rye and wheat berries for a much better price than Lazada, I’d be delighted to hear about it. Don’t forget I’m looking for berries/ grain, not flour.


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

You are not going to beat Balikbayan boxes on price but shipping by sea is a bit slow. The reason Balikbayan boxes are so cheap is that they are basically using returning empty container ships.


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## Lunkan (Aug 28, 2020)

pagbati said:


> However, if you know somewhere local/ via online shopping where I can purchase rye and wheat berries for a much better price than Lazada, I’d be delighted to hear about it. Don’t forget I’m looking for berries/ grain, not flour.


 Never heared of wheat called "berries" although I have worked some in farms as child. Do you mean the step closest before harvesting?
To use to eat or to plant? Can'tt you just use FULL grain wheat and rye which are sold in supermarkets in western countriies? Perhaps hard to find in Phils, where they don't think so much about healthy eating  
Have you checked in ssupernmarkets full grain? Or if it isn't full grain you mean - Alibaba and/or a big shop specialiced in seeds?


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## pagbati (Apr 9, 2014)

Lunkan said:


> Never heared of wheat called "berries" although I have worked some in farms as child. Do you mean the step closest before harvesting? To use to eat or to plant? Can'tt you just use FULL grain wheat and rye which are sold in supermarkets in western countriies? Perhaps hard to find in Phils, where they don't think so much about healthy eating  Have you checked in ssupernmarkets full grain? Or if it isn't full grain you mean - Alibaba and/or a big shop specialiced in seeds?


There is loads of information available on the Internet, just type in benefits of wheat or rye berries and take you pick. I’ve taken this extract from the attached link - ‘_Wheat berries are whole, unprocessed wheat kernels that contain all three parts of the grain, including the germ, bran and starchy endosperm’._ The key word for many in there is ‘unprocessed’. Wheat berries

When people buy grain/ berries for home use, they usually want to mill the berries into flour for a whole range of nutritious and tasty baking products, mainly bread, but they are also used for sprouting. Sprouted grains provide more nutrients than mature grains. Sprouting also breaks down the starch and makes the grains more digestible. Generally speaking, grains are difficult to source in the Ph. and rarely available in the provinces. Driven by customer demand, many of the major brands in UK and the USA are committed to purchasing only non-GMO grains, so it’s important to try and purchase from a reliable source. Having said that, I’m continually searching on the Internet and only today came across a business here selling wheat berries at the very reasonable price of ₱150 for 1kg. The seller claims they are non-GMO from the USA so if that turns out to be true, I've got another source. Whilst the Philippines is someway behind say the USA and UK in terms of choice, shopping and eating habits are changing and a greater range of products are gradually becoming available. I think we're going off topic here so if you want to discuss berries/ grains further, you may want to start a fresh thread.


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## BGCExpat (Oct 26, 2015)

pagbati said:


> I have wheat and rye berries/ grain sent over from UK in a balakbayan box, where weight isn’t an issue but of course it’s somewhat of a slow process. I’m keen to find a quicker, cost effective way to have it sent over. Hence I had a look at Buy and Ship’s website. Please correct me if I’m wrong but I made the following calculation for sending over 9kg (19.8 lbs) of grain to the provinces, using Buy and Ship’s pricing page.
> 20lbs @ ₱350 per pound = ₱7,000, which is approx £104 at today’s exchange rate.
> Have I understood the system and calculated the cost of that shipment correctly? I only ask as 9kg of grain would actually cost approx £15 (₱1,012) to purchase and £104 for shipping seems a lot. Would it be fair to say that Buy and Ship is not suited for heavy items?



I have yet to ship anything over 3-4 pounds with them, but yeah it seems a bit expensive when ordering like you are describing... I would say if you like it and you can’t find a reasonable substitute for it locally or even regionally, then pay the cost and ship it in. Maybe you could schedule Balikbayan boxes on a regular schedule and order as necessary (and pay the added cost) with services like BuyandShipPhilippines...

I read ‘wheat berries and rye’ and thought that you were importing specialty products to make a mash and distill some whiskey. 😄

Here is a link to their restricted shipping list, I don’t see your products listed, you should be good to go. Maybe halve the order for a first-test-run to see if you like the service and test the timing?

Prohibited Items Catalog


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## pagbati (Apr 9, 2014)

BGCExpat said:


> I have yet to ship anything over 3-4 pounds with them, but yeah it seems a bit expensive when ordering like you are describing... Maybe you could schedule Balikbayan boxes on a regular schedule and order as necessary (and pay the added cost) with services like BuyandShipPhilippines... I read ‘wheat berries and rye’ and thought that you were importing specialty products to make a mash and distill some whiskey. 😄


Thanks for the reply and info. Re the distillery, now there’s a thought!  As for regular orders, I’m only a home baker who enjoys dabbling with artisinal breads using rye, wheat, spelt and ancient grains such as einkorn and emmer, so my needs are varied but minimal. Through my experience, I’ve discovered that the range, quality and prices for grains in the UK will be hard to beat. I’ll continue to stock up from UK every so often and when incorporated with other items we need, the balakbayan box will be hard to beat. I'll also keep an eye on what becomes available locally.


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## Lunkan (Aug 28, 2020)

pagbati said:


> There is loads of information available on the Internet, just type in benefits of wheat or rye berries and take you pick.


 Oh accoding to internet in Sweden it's called "Matvete" =Foodwheat. 
I have such in my storage allready  bought in a supermarket here. 

At the description I don't see any difference between this and Full grain wheat. Is there any?
If not it's as the grain, which can be used for planting (except cleaned). 

Australia is a big wheat producer as well as Bangglaesh, much closer than UK, so I suppouse can be bought from there.


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