Anyone try the "extra luggage" guy in the clasifieds?

Is he for real or hijack your goods?

I emailed him and here's what he replied to me about getting bags from Seoul to Km. As you can see from the email, it doesn't seem that they actually offer anything, except filling out customs forms for me. But it would be easier to just mail the stuff and not deal with customs at all. Here's what they wrote.

You can either:

a) Find a carrier in Seoul who can forward your books as Unaccompanied Luggage to Kunming
b) Contact with DHL Forwarding in Seoul who will forward your books to Kunming as Freight Cargo (recommended)

· If you like, we'll gladly contact DHL and arrange things with them

Once your books have arrived in Kunming, we shall get started with customs declaration. For this purpose, please provide the following details:

· Your Flight Schedule to Kunming and Flight No.
· Total Weight with packing (if more than one box, also weight of each box)
· No. and Material of containers
· Contents of the books (and whether they are related to religion or technology; if either, in what language) – this will affect the customs procedure

Uh... We don't hijack your goods.

The above gentleman's enquiry was for delivery from South Korea to China, since we don't have a partner there we couldn't offer anything much and that's a pity.

If you are planning on travelling abroad from Kunming and have excess luggage over 45 kg, you may consider contacting me for an estimation. Thanks.

I used this service when I left Kunming on Thursday.

The rates were quite reasonable (or so I thought).

I would recommend doing some research about customs procedures in your destination country, though. Having never freighted anything internationally I put all my faith in ADP's advice. Before I contracted with ADP I figured there may be some additional fees payable in my destination country so I asked ADP and was given an UNEQUIVOCAL assurance that there would not be any additional fees payable and that all I would need to do to collect my luggage was present my passport. I entered into the contract on this basis.

I was told I could do this three hours after the luggage arrived. So I tried and I was told it would not be available until today and that I would be charged a warehousing fee for the weekend. I went back today and was told to go to customs first. I then had to go through the rigmarole of filling out forms, etc before being told that the bag required inspection by customs as a matter of course, and that there was a further fee applicable for this service, but customs could only inspect it tomorrow which also meant another day of warehousing fees.

In short, I am paying more than double what I thought I would be because I am a n00b.

Where is the "extra luggage guy's" original -- I remember reading them practically once a week and now nothing.

Most airlines have a FREIGHT forwarding service. It's separate from the passenger extra baggage place which is ludicrously expensive. An alternative is to check the business class tix which have higher weight restrictions on checked luggage.