Ripped Off: Sending Unaccompanied Luggage

Since we were going for such a long time, and we got a reasonable airfare but with a low luggage allowance (only 70kg for the four of us), we decided to send some things separately. I'm describing the following in a bit of detail so other people don't fall into the same trap we did.

We found the most economical way to send our extra items was so-called unaccompanied luggage, and the company with the best rate was Jetta Express at Tullamarine: $7 per kg plus $85 for insurance, airline tax etc. You drop it off at their office, they select an airline it will be sent with and you pick it up at the destination. I called them twice to confirm everything, and that was how it would be: there wasn't going to be anything else to pay, anywhere, and I specifically asked them about fees at the destination...

So we went there on the way to the airport. After I'd given them our 17kg box with Christopher's trains and other things we weren't going to need in a hurry, and paid them $204, they said: "Oh, and in Amsterdam you'll have to pay for customs clearing costs - about €80... Needless to say I got quite upset but being last minute, we had to go with Jetta Express: they had us by the proverbial short and curlies.

The box was going to be in Holland on June 16 at the latest. I called the Dutch collection phone number on Friday June 20th to arrange the pickup. However it had only just arrived in Holland then, and still needed to go to the company that would clear it through customs. I called this company, they wouldn't receive it until Monday (one week later than promised), and it possibly wouldn't be available til Tuesday the 24th. And the cost would be €135... DOUBLING what we originally paid! The contents of the box were probably not even worth $400!

So we were lied to about the cost and the delivery date, which in the end was Tuesday the 24th: it took exactly two weeks from when we dropped it off in Melbourne. Needless to say we aren't going to use Jetta Express anymore - on the way back we'll use plain old surface mail.