I have switched from
Shipito parcel forwarder more than a year ago. It ia a great company offering many shipping methods at a reasonable price, but I don't like to pay any monthly fees as well as more than $2 for every incoming package. It is absolutely NOT worth it when there are so many parcel forwarders shipping to Russia at a cheaper rate.
Unlike many other parcel forwarders I have tried,
FishisFast was not founded by the immigrants from Russia and other xUSSR countries. For some customers Soviet legacy implies poor service, so they try to avoid it (it is not that I agree with that).
FishisFast targets not only customers from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and other xUSSR countries, but also from many other destinations. Thanks to FishisFast parcel forwarder you may ship your U.S. purchases to the following countries:
Brazil, Australia, Russian Federation, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Japan, Korea, Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antarctica, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Plurinational State of, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Congo, The Democratic Republic of the, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, French Southern Territories, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Holy See (Vatican City State), Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Islamic Republic of, Iraq, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Korea, Democratic People's Republic of, Korea, Republic of, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Republic of, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia, Federated States of, Moldova, Republic of, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Palestinian Territory, Occupied, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Pitcairn, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Réunion, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, United Republic of, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, United States Minor Outlying Islands, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands, British, Virgin Islands, U.S., Wallis and Futuna, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Åland Islands
FishisFast offers high quality photos of your incoming packages. Unlike Shipito, the images are not blurred. More over you may order photos of the contents of your incoming packages for $2 per package. All your parcels will be unpacked then and the photos will be taken.
Here is an example of a package with Timberland sandals. The company offered a photo of the incoming package, the photo of the contents of the shoe box,
the photo of the shoe box,
the photo of the essential information on the shoe box.
Of course not all the items are unpacked by FishisFast. For example, a kid's winter suit appeared in a lightweight package. The company took a photo of the winter suit that covers a small fraction of it. But the photo contains the label on the item which clearly shows the name, the size and the color.
By ordering optional photos at FishisFast you can make sure that the shops deliver correct items, and you will notice that before shipping your package to your country (so you may return them right away).
FishisFast offers several free services:
- Take photos of every order they get for you before they open it
- Consolidate all the items you want to send into the most
economical box to save on shipping costs. They'll even remove excess
packaging like shoe boxes on request if you want to save a little bit
more space.
- Your packages are all insured against theft, damage or loss by us
for free up until $100, above that for only $3 per shipment for every
extra $100 of value.
- Get as much space as you need to store all your items until you're ready to send them.
Also
FishisFast offers extra paid services:
- Unpacking $2/$5 - If you'd like, you can request that FishisFast unpacks every package that they receive for $2 per shipment. They will photograph
and weigh all items inside and display them in your locker. If you only want to unpack certain parcels and continue receiving the rest without
unpacking, they charge $5 for unpacking a single parcel.
- Bubble wrap item $1 - They'll carefully wrap a single unpacked item in bubble wrap for additional protection.
- Bubble wrap fragile items $5 - They'll unpack an incoming shipment and carefully bubble wrap any fragile items inside.
- Plastic Bag $3 - They'll put all your items in a plastic bag to help protect against weather and unwanted opening of the contents.
- Power on testing $5 - They'll give you a video showing that the item turns on so you can make sure it works before you ship it.
- Stretch wrap $5 - They'll wrap your entire parcel in stretch wrap to help protect it even further.
- Mediation service $5 - Having problems with a seller in the US?
Didn’t receive everything you ordered? FishisFast can help you handle it. They'll
contact the store on your behalf until the issue is resolved.
- Return item - Free (plus postage).
The
deciding factors for using FishisFast for me were:
- the reputation of the company,
- free 180 day storage for all incoming packages,
- very low fees for assisted purchases,
- a no sales tax location in Delaware,
- free incoming packages,
- no monthly fees.
USPS increases its rates every year. Luckily customers from Russia can use a cheaper shipping method -
Fastbox Economy via Russian Post. The packages are delivered to Berlin (Germany) by air. Then they are transferred to office of the Russian post in Berlin.
Fastbox Economy is not the fastest method of delivery, but it is not as slow as shipping by the sea. The cost is significantly lower than USPS. The packages are delivered to the post office, not to your door; and there is no way to change that. But there is no dimensional weight, your don't need to provide your passport to the customs, plus the customs declaration is identical to the one used by USPS.
Fastbox Economy allows to deliver package up to 20 kg. Length + circumference must be less than 251 cm.
Now let's talk about
the package consolidation. When you order unpacking and photos of the your items, they are also weighted. Moreover when consolidating packages you may choose the individual items instead of the incoming packages. The weight of each and every item allows to avoid overweight.
Extra services like wrapping or removing shoe boxes can be applied to individual items. For example, I decided to remove 4 shoe boxed and bubble wrap my HDD.
I also decided to remove invoices (although it was not important) and use a branded secure tape.
The branded security tape allows to find out whether the package was opened during transfer (was it done by a criminal or a customs officer).
Unlike many other parcel forwarders FishisFast allows to choose your shipping method after consolidating packages.
It is a great option, since you may only guess the weight and size of the outcoming package before the consolidation.
The company offers the photo of the outcoming package
It also shows the contents of your package before closing the box:
FastBox Economy packages depart the FishisFast warehouse once a week only. You should take this into account when estimating the time of arrival.
FishisFast sends the tracking number of Russia post immediately after sending your packge by the Fastbox Economy method. Of course the packages can not be tracked before they arrive in Berlin (Germany).
My package was sent on October 24. I have received it on November 23. The estimated delivery time of 20-30 days was absolutely correct.
Although the package was in the post office on November 20, I only got the notification about it 3 days later.
I didn't pay for the extra insurance. My package appeared to be opened. Luckily all the items were inside and in the perfect condition.
It costed me only $88,18 to ship the 7,5 kg package from the USA to Russia. The packaging materials costed $3, the rest was the cost of the shipping itself. There were no any monthly fees, sending fees, no bank fees, no nothing. Moreover you may get a $5 discount for your first package when registering via the
invitation link.
The account can be filled by Amazon Payments, Paypal as well as wire transfer. You may also use your cash back services like
Mr.Rebates to fill in the FishisFast account.
The only disappointment I had with FishisFast was that they removed the box of my HDD while I wanted to add an extra bubble wrap to it, not to the HDD itself.
My overall impression of FishisFast is very positive. Of course you may not use it for oversized packages and there are no courier shipping methods. But the company offers a very economical way of delivering packages, so I highly recommend it!
FishisFast web-site (Get a $5 bonus for registering via this link)
