Price USA Review – Totally Awesome
scotty on 29/04/2008 at 6:12 pm, filed under WebsiteHasn’t it often occurred to you that why things are so expensive in Australia? Even when you factor in the 10% GST, the shipping cost, the distribution cost, etc it is still far more expensive buying gadgets in Australia than from Hong Kong, Singapore or the US of A, especially when AUD to USD exchange rate has been hovering above $0.90 for the last two months. Looking at all the deals posted at SlickDeals or FatWallet is almost suicidal (yeah, you really wish to kill yourself). Like these deals posted at ProBargain Hunters — 46″ Philip High-Def 1080p LCD TV for around $800 AUD?! Shoot me now please!
Not only are we missing out all the nice deals, many are actually inaccessible to us Aussies because merchants in US won’t post overseas nor accepting overseas credit cards. I really wanted a PayPal Mastercard, but even that won’t guarantee online stores to make the delivery across the Pacific.
Price USA comes to rescue.
Price USA is like a mail forwarding service (for good comparison, check this post at Never Shopped Out) but it takes care everything for you, including ordering the goods, receiving and forwarding it to Australia. It is an Australian company based in Victoria, and it charges you
- Item price
- Delivery cost to their US agent
- Delivery cost from US to Australia
- Order fee of AUD$10 or 5%, whichever is more
As for (1), searching through US-based deal sites and coupon sites will get you great price, and Price USA can even do rebates for you. You can also find many online stores can deliver to US addresses for free so (2) is eliminated. Price USA uses USPS with no additional charges for packing or handling so (3) is minimised. I think for (4) it is really fair and very competitive when you compare with other mail forwarding services. At the end it means — great bargain for us Aussies!
I actually first heard of Price USA from this discussion thread at Whirlpool. I wasn’t really paying any attention until a few weeks ago when I wanted to buy a guitar to USB interface to make it easier for me to play quietly in my study room. After reading a few reviews and I made up my mind on a Line 6 TonePort GX (for the software reason along — Line 6 amp emu rocks). However, most Australian shops sell them for $120+ not including delivery, whereas a few US-based retailers sell them for less than USD$50 + free shipping!
So guess where I ended up buying from? Price USA! Putting in an order is pretty straight forward — put in your details, the item you want, the price, and shipping method from US to Australia, and it calculates the final price for you. Submit, and someone will verify the order to produce a final quote. You then just have to pay Price USA with either direct deposit or PayPal (at 10% rather than 5% fee), and sit back waiting for your new gadgets to arrive, as Price USA will notify you with any process.
Here is the time line for my order — Line 6 TonePort GX from Amazon.com:
- 14 April 13:19 — order submitted.
- 14 April 13:26 — final quote received.
- 15 April 11:11 — payment received (via Internet direct deposit into their CommBank account).
- 16 April 01:17 — order placed at Amazon.
- 21 April 09:53 — order received & delivered by US agent.
- 28 April 14:30 — order arrived at my office in Sydney!
2 weeks turn around time — not bad at all! Moreover it costs me $83.93 delivered, which is $40-$50 cheaper than buying it in Australia. Too bad I will be too busy this week to actually play with it and I won’t be able to write any review on the TonePort itself, but thumbs up to Price USA for their great service!
It does completely change the game of bargain hunting here in Australia. OzBargain was created for the Australian shoppers to share great deals they’ve found, as most posted online were US-based. You can now go to FatWallet or NewEgg and hunt down the same item way cheaper than how much it is sold in Australia, and then easily place an order through Price USA.
Well. All the best with Price USA, and I am sure it won’t be my last order :)
I’d love to get a cheap 40 something inch tv for home. Do you think its possible to get a TV sent from the US?
Well. Possible but maybe not cost effective as delivery will be quite costly. Voltage is different as well. My argument is, we will probably never have this kind of deal in Australia due to our small economy.
Hi Scott
Thanks for the write up on my business – it is always nice to read positive reviews.
To answer Neil’s question is it is possible, but there are some major problems with importing TVs from the USA. First is size – they are too big to import using USPS postal service so shipping is quite high. The second is the voltage is different so you also need to purchase a step down transformer. Third is the TV transmission signal is different in the US than Australia so you also need to buy an external DTV box. Given all of these difficulties it is not really worth while ordering a TV from the US.
Carolina
That was a great idea for business. I love the website too, very honest & friendly. If only iPhone works with 3 carrier, I’d buy it in a snap!
I love the business idea, I can see me using it in the future! But Carolina watch out for T-mobile, they don’t like people using the magenta colour! Although the 2 colours used on your site seem to be exactly the same as the engadget mobile website, tmobile will be the ones that get pissed.
At last we have a good and cheap alternative to fill the void left by shop the states.
Thanks for posting this Scott
I’ve just done a bit of pricechecking and these guys are amazing, simply amazing.
Jay if I get big enough to be sued by T-mobile I know that I will have made it :)
Hey everyone. I bought a 60′ TV from a Sony distributor in the States and had it shipped via Bongo International http://www.BongoUS.com. However, Caroline was correct about the conversion. Luckily, I have a friend that was able to splice the power chords and make the change. It may be difficult to make this change on your own if you don’t know what you are doing. Bongo ships via DHL, but has such large volume that they make money and still extend a 50% discount to their members.
Why would you need to splice the plug? Surely a travel plug would do. Most new TVs can handle NTSC/PAL, so I guess the question is, are tvs 120v/220 switchable? Sending back for a warranty repair may also be difficult.
How much did it cost to send it Joe? Did you get a step down transformer?
Just placed my order Scotty……fingers crossed.
Ive ordered from PriceUSA. It is fantastic! id reccomend it anyday!
I have been through the process with PriceUSA and the service is super-quick and easy. I had used vPost for a conference pack from the US and got an OK deal but the customer service was terrible. The package took more than 3 months (when it shipped next day in the US) and I tried the email address (after the waiting period), phone calls to Singapore etc but kept standard emails to wait longer.
I will stick to a local carrier for now. Bongo looks OK and may suit certain products but PriceUSA beat them on price and ease-of-use.
My agent now has a high volume UPS account so he can shipping oversized items too (he gets around a 45% discount) so it is now possible to order things large than the USPS 79″ girth + length limit.
I have used PriceUSA for the first time to order a Flip Mino camera from Amazon. The package came earlier than expected and the customer service was flawless.
I have ordered a laptop and some fishing gears from US retailers and used a co called Shipito. They came highly recommended by my cousin. After some online research, calling various people and reading similar blogs I noticed they were wayy cheaper than priceusa or bongous. Plus, there was an actual person that spoke to me unlike some automated service. Yeah, shipito was totally worth it for me!
I highly recommend Price USA. I found Price USA to be efficient, trustworthy and reliable. My emails and phone calls were answered promptly. Carolina is very helpful and friendly. I will use Price USA again. Thanks Carolina.
I have to ask the creator of priceusa.com- I was really enthused about the idea of saving money by ordering from the US but what I need clarification for is, what is the advantage of ordering through your company and paying the US AND Australian international postage plus $15 min. fee when I could just order from US and pay international postage so the item could be sent directly to me? Note: I do get that some online shops do not send internationally. Certianly your company can help there. I commend you on creating this service.
I know the query is over a year old already, but Hanna (and people with questions like Hanna), PriceUSA is generally for items that come from stores that will not ship to Australia or allow their products to be bought internationally.
If you find a product online with a company that accepts orders from international buyers and ships to Australia, obviously you save money buying direct.
With PriceUSA, you are paying for the item and shipping to the USA contact, then the shipping to Australia plus the small fee for having this service provided to you. It’s a means of getting something that wouldn’t necessarily be available to you any other way.
The delivery charges seem expensive but if one checks with the providers–like the ailing US Postal Service–they are at cost and not being marked up.
The comment that this service is only of use if the U S seller won’t ship to Australia is not necessarily correct. My partner needed a specialized arthritis treatment item. The provider would ship to Australia but wanted $51 for shipping a 1 pound item via US Post Office slowest service.They would use a fast service like UPS but wanted over $80, which is considerably over what Dr Carolina charger. It cost $8 to get it shipped to a USA address so freight forwarders like PriceUSA cab save money and get quick delivery when you run into a shipping price gouger, of which there are more than a few.
Prices for anything seems costlier in Australia when compare to USA. With Priceusa one Australian can easily purchase things in lesser prices directly from US. Sometimes shipping seems costlier then comes in the picture mail and package forwarding companies. There are lots of mail and package forwarding companies which delivers your purchased items from US to Australia in reliable rates.
Here’s a workaround I use, if you are fed up of being shut out of auctions because the eBay seller does not ship to your country. The same goes for online retailers who refuse to ship to your destination.
When you sign up with BPM, you get local shipping addresses in 6 countries.
Drop points include: USA, UK, Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg. You then use these for buying from whom you want, regardless of where the seller ships or not.
You then have all your purchases combined into one, even from the different countries, and use the parcel mail forwarding service to have everything sent home in only one shipment, wherever you are in the world!
Membership for renting these addresses and using the service is only 5€ per month.
You can check it out on http://www.bpm-lux.com