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LCL Freight Forwarder USA

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  1. #1

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    LCL Freight Forwarder USA

    Hi everyone, I would like to purchase a mattress from US-Mattress: Mattresses from Sealy, Simmons, Serta, Stearns & Foster since it's like a third the price of Hong Kong and would like to know if anyone could recommend a company which can handle the shipping for the mattress to Hong Kong? Ideally it would have some address for me to send the mattress to and they can ship it over by sea. Thanks in advance.


  2. #2

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    Im also interested in learning more about this, I have some large household items that I need shipped from the USA and DHL/Fedex have not responded to my inquiries and their air services are far too expensive.


  3. #3

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    Many years ago I geeked out over mattresses and wrote a semi-obsessive post on the subject on Geo.

    I found one family-run company in the US that seemed very well informed and about to go past the baffling bullshit that the mattress industry is full of, and were willing to ship to Hong Kong. I would have had to have picked it up at the port (I think this is what LCL means) and handle the paperwork there.

    In the end I bought locally, I didn't want to handle the logistics at this end.

    The place was Mattresses and Furniture in Mooresville, Cornelius and Denver NC | Sweet Dreams Mattress, the site isn't accessible from where I am at the moment though.


  4. #4

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    The mattress I'm looking at costs 25k after discount in Hong Kong and only 899usd from the US!


  5. #5

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    Yeah, mattresses are crazy expensive here. It's also hard to tell which ones are identical because different markets use different names for exactly the same model.


  6. #6

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    These guys have done mattresses via sea freight, have seen photos of them on their facebook page.

    https://www.usadirecthk.com


  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by jgl:
    Many years ago I geeked out over mattresses and wrote a semi-obsessive post on the subject on Geo.

    I found one family-run company in the US that seemed very well informed and about to go past the baffling bullshit that the mattress industry is full of, and were willing to ship to Hong Kong. I would have had to have picked it up at the port (I think this is what LCL means) and handle the paperwork there.

    In the end I bought locally, I didn't want to handle the logistics at this end.

    The place was Mattresses and Furniture in Mooresville, Cornelius and Denver NC | Sweet Dreams Mattress, the site isn't accessible from where I am at the moment though.
    LCL stands for Less than Container Load (versus a Full Container Load which is FCL). Actually LCL can be delivered to the door, but you need a handling agent at this end too (as there will probably be one at the other end). Each handler takes care of collection/delivery, documentation, port arrangements (demurrage), etc.

    The biggest challenge is usually finding a shipper who will handle a very small shipment like this. Plus you may wait a long time until the LCL shipments are consolidated into the FCL.

  8. #8

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    Apr 2014
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    Thanks Fiona, do you know what sort of search term I should use in google to find such a handling agent? I've literally spent hours on google using different combinations of words trying to find this sort of thing to no avail.

    Skierx likes this.

  9. #9

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    Thanks Shri might just give this a try!


  10. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by Fiona in HKG:
    The biggest challenge is usually finding a shipper who will handle a very small shipment like this. Plus you may wait a long time until the LCL shipments are consolidated into the FCL.
    With thousands of empty containers coming back this way from USA, wait is never an issue. Its finding a shipper.


    Quote Originally Posted by streamer:
    Thanks Fiona, do you know what sort of search term I should use in google to find such a handling agent? I've literally spent hours on google using different combinations of words trying to find this sort of thing to no avail.
    Look for "Freight Forwarder China"

    The problem is : very few people (if any) will be willing to help you and this is why moving companies get away with charging over the odds for this stuff. Shipping companies work on tiny margins usually.

    The reason they dont want to help you:
    - You will only use them once and then disappear. All that effort for very tiny profit. They would rather find a repeat customer
    - You are an individual and are "ignorant" thru no fault of your own but you've got no clue how things work and will ask a zillion dumb questions. Why bother with you when they can spend their time chasing businesses to give them repeat business
    etc
    etc

    Your best bet : Call up TNT, DHL, FedEx Here in Hong Kong and ask about "bulk" and "cargo" for big items and see their best rates.
    Alternative will be moving companies.
    You can try Freight Forwarders (the cheapest option) and tell them up front that you are an individual and you are happy to "pay for the service" and they might agree to deal with you, just once, as long as there is enough profit in there for them....I'm thinking you can try the ones *here* and see if they will help you.
    People like Kerry Logistics / Ensign Freight and similar.
    Last edited by HowardCoombs; 05-06-2017 at 04:24 PM.
    shri likes this.

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