SendMyBagReviews 1,026

As an expat I don't often send things back to the USA due to cost but this year it was necessary and I used sendmybag on recommendation of other expats. I found the customs form portion extremely confusing and frustrating but once I got that part figured out it was clear sailing. I sent a large suitcase, collected from my home on a Wednesday at lunch time and was in my sons driveway Friday at 1pm. Amazing service 10 days before Christmas. Would definitely use again!

A shame because the service itself was quite good in terms of the actual pickup and delivery – although the paperwork is almost stupidly complex.

But never again. AUD $2450 to ship two softsider suitcases between Australian and France, sub 30kg each, and return them was always expensive – even against airline excess baggage (including $450 in "emergency situation surcharge" - whose emergency is not clear). It's a lot to pay for convenience.
Then I got further "surcharged" after the return delivery (and after unpacking), with the catch that:

In order to dispute the charge, please take a picture of each dimension (width, height & length) being measured and reply to this email with the 3 pictures attached. If you shipped more than one item this should be repeated for all items.

Measurements must be taken from the widest points and include any bulges or protruding parts such as wheels or handles.

"In order for us to use the pictures for a dispute with the courier they must clearly show the full side being measured, the measurement should be clearly visible and at least one picture should show the Send My Bag label attached to the item."

Which is impossible after unpacking.

You are competing with the (possibly false) accuracy of laser scanners calculating a putative cubic volume based upon alleged maximum dimensions, having measured the relevant package with a tape measure on a bed in a hotel room.

At least they didn't have the temerity to say it was overweight.

Lessons of this are clear – the dimensions that they stipulate are not the practicably usable dimensions – unless you are shipping a perfect hardcase, without protrusions of any kind (including their own tags) nominal dimensions are likely to be exceeded. A shipper will therefore always pay more for notional cubic than actual cubic. And cubic seems to matter more than mass.

Pity, it held promise for the future

While on my way from Cardiff to Frankfurt for a university conference in Kassel in June 2023, KLM managed to leave my suitcase in Amsterdam and then delivered it to my hotel in Kassel after I had already left for home. Although each time I phoned them they kept assuring me that they would recover it and send it to me they never did. After two months of waiting, staff at the university staff rescued it from the hotel and SendmyBag.com were able to arrange for it to be collected and returned to me by DHL. I cannot praise SendmyBag.com too highly. Their advice and instructions were clear, detailed and precise. The case took only a week to arrive, a lot faster and more cheaply than if I had dealt directly with DHL, which in any case had already had proved to be virtually impossible.