KTM-Parts/BongoUS warning

[noobi]

I paid ~60USD for a 125 cylinder out of the states, delivered to my door in a week, and less than that for a front axle from the states, the cylinder was around 2kg and not in a small box. I believe that was with DHL or FedEx not UPS, one of the main stream ones, I also sent another 125 cylinder to Eric Gorr in Wisconsin for ~90NZD with NZpost.
So 120USD is a rip off somewhere.
Why do they do the freight forwarding crap?

[barty5]

id have to agree i paid 200usd to ship 1 1/2 XR600 motors mixed with a few extra spares so 120 is a real rip off

[FlangMasterJ]

Sweet jacket though.

[The Stranger:Me]

1CBM

Ah, wots a cbm?

Anyway USPS, had all sorts a shit delivered ex US including 3 shipments this year from NY and none has been more than US $50.00. 2 weeks delivery.

[White trash]

You have no idea.

Get clued up on international shipping more.

Thanks for your question.

Once at school. a guy told me I had no idea about motorbikes, despite me clearly riding on the back of a really sweet moped to and from school every day. Simply because he was a couple of years ahead of me, I decided to teach him a lesson or two. So over the winter, I carefully deconstructed my bike in a neighbour of my dads friends garage. Religiously cleaning every nut, bolt and part. I spent two weeks of my school holidays painstakingly cleaning and sanding back the frame, ensuring every burr and high spot was flatened to perfection. We then painted the frame gloss black, I wanted to go purple because Purple Rain was a hit at the time but Mervin convinced me black was the action and that only a Honda rider would own a bike with a purple frame. After conceeding that little fau parx in motorcylce fashion, we lovingly pieced together my restored bike, even drilling and re-riveting the original frame tags to ensure no overspray ensued, rechroming the tank badges and replacing every bearing and seal that we could find. Eventually, after 6 long Dunedin winter months, the time had come to rebirth the beast and show the world that I did in fact know something about motorbikes. We had a freshly charged, new battery from McIver and Veitch installed, new fuses, new paint and a shitload of enthusiasim. It was the sweetest Suzuki A50 you ever saw. I wheeled it out of the garage, switched on the ignition and kicked my heart out. Nothing. Not even a piss poor attempt at firing. Mervin is bigger than me so he pushed me off the bike and furiously kicked the shit out of it in a way only a Taekwando black belt, cowboy boot wearing, Charlie Pride imitating kareoke star can.

Nothing.

Took us another week to discover that I'd installed the power band backwards. I guess I did know fuck all about bikes.

As for International freight. After deciding on a career change due to stress, a KBer kindly offered me an entry level job in an international freight forwarding warehouse in their 3PL department (that's Third Party Logisitics for all you interested onlookers not yet bored to tears). I was responsible for collecting wholesale Christian Dior orders from the shelves and packing them in boxes, then sending them off to retailers who (probably) sold them to overweight house wifes who's husbands thought they needed more expensive perfumes to make them slightly more attractive. After a month of this highly stressfull workload, my talents in accurately choosing the correct lipstick to match the order form were clear (my Honda riding buddies made it easy) I was moved to the "hard warehouse" for more difficult duties. These included more manly freight forwarding procedures such as packing and unpacking 40' containers, loading and unloading airfreight units and calculating weekly consolidation loads for airfreight of up to 30T, 120CBM (CuBic Meters Noel) between Auckland and Sydney. So proficient in our loading and space bookings weekly were we, that FedEx (that's Federal Express) contacted us to handle THEIR weekly booking. Six months later, after displaying above average skills with a calculator, I was once again promoted. This time to Key Account Exectutive, Oil and Gas. You may have heard of a little thing on the Taranaki south coast by the name of Kupe Oil and Gas field ? Have a look at the picture of the site. 98% of the shit you can see, I put there. I had three charter vessels, and four part charters into Port Taranaki along with numerous part charter airfreight shipments into Auckland and carefull liasing with JD Hickman to ensure that all freight was on site, on time. The comissioning partner for the plant build was Technip, contracted by Origin Energy. They chose me to handle the logistics. Technip's on site logistics manager was Geoff Huddy, you're more than welcome to call him for a reference if you wish. BTW, Kupe was comissioned prior to deadline and under budget. As you pay taxes (I hope) you're a shareholder in Origin Energy. You're welcome.

May of heard of a little place just south of Whangarei called Marsden Point? Huge oil refinery there. Run by The New Zealand Refining Comapny. Only refinery in NZ it so happens, almost one of the most efficient in the world. They have a huge shut down there every two years, normally stretching for two weeks in which they burn, yes BURN over a million USD per day of shut. Guess who they call to make sure all their shut down freight is on site when they need it? Bet ya can't....... We're talking sixty 40' containers of precious metal catalyst here, values at over $130M. Still can't guess? Same guy also looked after all their day to day cargo and freight requirements for operations AND all the freight for the ambitious Point Forward Project, halfway to completion. Your contact there is Greg Johns if you need to ask for anyone.

Something eles I learnt at school from that 6 year old in 5th form, choose your battles wisely.

There's a couple of KBers you can ask if you want further recomendation as to my international freight expertise, PM me for details.

Now, where's my new RM powerband for the MVX..............

[gammaguy]

which just goes to prove-even genuises have a weakness


MVX

[CookMySock]

errrm why not cancel the transaction on your credit card?

[scott411]

Trash, nice cv you have there,

but $120 to send what he discribed is still drug money, compared to what other US based internet sellers are charging,

[Jay GTI]

Sucks to be in your situation Jay. I used to order off ktm-parts quite a bit. Good to deal with, however the whole bogus thing sucks. Knew it would cost a fortune.. The jacket thing confirmed it for me.

Does suck, but I've learned my lesson. I can live with losing what will be about US$50 though... glad it wasn't a larger shipment!

Interestingly, Bogus have offered to ship the items for US$56, if I upgrade my membership. Sadly that carries a US$15 per month charge and I'll need to be locked into it for 3 months. So still works out at US$100... live and learn, etc...

[White trash]

Trash, nice cv you have there,

but $120 to send what he discribed is still drug money, compared to what other US based internet sellers are charging,

Unfortunately, that's just what happens when a seller nominates a forwarder instead of dealing direct with the courier. There are advantages though. Forwarder is accountable for every step of the shipping and is a hell of a lot easier to get a straight answer out of than the courier company.

[Woodman]

I fully do not understand the overseas freight charges. Its just random as, but after a while it will average out I spose.

And Dangerousbastard can you change your avatar, cos i'm becoming obsessed with it and its worrying the wife

[scott411]

Unfortunately, that's just what happens when a seller nominates a forwarder instead of dealing direct with the courier. There are advantages though. Forwarder is accountable for every step of the shipping and is a hell of a lot easier to get a straight answer out of than the courier company.

agree 100%, although KTM has come down very hard on US companies shipping genuine product overseas, so it is hard to get them shipped direct atm

[White trash]

agree 100%, although KTM has come down very hard on US companies shipping genuine product overseas, so it is hard to get them shipped direct atm

As well they should. It transpires that dealers in Europe, were buying their stock off US sellers as the prices were lower than they were getting directly off the factory. KTM needed to think really hard about the monster they'd helped create by offering stupid low prices to the USA in return for masive order volumes. I'd like to think this is being rectified. Personally, I think we're quite lucky in little old NZ that KTM here seem fairly reasonable to deal with and the prices aren't TOO bad. Imagine the shit we'd be in if Triumph NZ held the franchise.........

[scott411]

its not just KTM that have these problems, the whole industry has had a better buy price for the states and since the downturn the the US, their retailers have looked elsewhere to keep sales up,

[Jay GTI]

As well they should. It transpires that dealers in Europe, were buying their stock off US sellers as the prices were lower than they were getting directly off the factory. KTM needed to think really hard about the monster they'd helped create by offering stupid low prices to the USA in return for masive order volumes. I'd like to think this is being rectified. Personally, I think we're quite lucky in little old NZ that KTM here seem fairly reasonable to deal with and the prices aren't TOO bad. Imagine the shit we'd be in if Triumph NZ held the franchise.........

It's not just the price issue though. In lil' old NZ the KTM distributors simply won't bring a lot of the novelty stuff in because we're too small a market to make it financially viable for the dealers to carry the stock. Admittedly most of what I ordered was silly fanboy crap and most of it was just ordered simply because I could, but if it was sat on display in TMG, I'd still buy it at full NZ price.