I recommend an article about international parcel sending. Local sending paints them in a poor light, and it's probably deserved, but otherwise, for international sending, they are the only people who take my money and deliver. I had endless **** trying to send something small back to the US. I have tried:
* Courierguy - I was lead to believe that I was creating an account I could login and request a quote / pickup when filling in the form on the website. When I submitted the form, I got a lovely "someone will contact you" followed by a phone call. So that form was actually for creating a business account.
* Fedex: Need a business account. At least they are upfront about it.
* DHL: Same, but at least you can get a quote
* Dawnwing: Same as above
* TNT: Website is useless. The online quoting system errors at the end. After mailing them and complaining, all the person at the other end does is forward the mail to someone else internally, copying me, and that's the last I hear. Useless company.
* Aramex: I was lead on here. I am summarizing by quite a bit as it took days to figure this out. While you can login and request a pickup, it throws a generic error after typing out all the details of the parcel to request a pickup. Turns out you need a business account. But Aramex did quote the cheapest out of the private couriers, at R380.
* Postnet: I've left the best for last, as they continually remind me that a useless company can be even more useless than previously thought. When I went in the first time, they wanted me to pay R800+ to send something small via DHL. When I recently checked their website, I see that they've partnered with Aramex. Great, I thought - will probably cost around R400 (based on my previous Aramex attempt). NOPE. Still, R800.
And the only place actually willing to take my money was SAPO, at R250. They might be useless in some cases, but twice now, I've had no choice but to use them, at a cheaper cost to me, and the items get delivered.
