Best national & international delivery options

Hi there,

Not sure if the topic has already been covered somewhere (I've seen the one focusing on packing, thanks @Syrte for that). It sounds to me it can be useful - at least for newbies like me : What are your favorite options concerning delivery ?
I'm leaving in Europe, in France by the way.

For international, I've used so far DHL, Fedex, DPD, USPS... with different experiences.

- DHL (from VN) seems to work fine for me. I've had to pay the import taxes directly during the transit but without additional delay.
- Fedex (from SG) worked ok for me too with the difference that I had the bad surprise to receive an import taxes weeks after with additional admin cost from Fedex. But appart from the bad surprise 😉 this was fine.
- UPS (inside EU) : works perfectly fine for me.
- DPD (inside EU) is currently not working fine at all. Maybe this is due to Xmas period but this is not the first time I've had issue.
- USPS (from US): used it only once and for straps only. And I was lucky with that as they 'lost' it and finally got them 6weeks after. After that I will be quite reluctant to try them with a watch of some value.

For National, in France, I realize that finally with a well done packing using the normal post with Declared Value (VD) is actually working fine. But this rules out boxes... and means your watch is travelling with the normal mails.

So for me, so far : DHL, UPS, FEDEX are fine and best options.

That's my limited experience.

I would like to read yours.

Note that this is not necessarily the case for all DHL options, but - as far as I've experienced - only DHL Express. Also, they do charge extra for that. I received two parcels delivered through them here in Germany two weeks ago, had to pay about 15-20€ extra for their services. Granted: It did go through exceptionally quickly. A regular parcel here might easily be stuck in customs for a couple of weeks.

Within Europe and to/from the US, UPS has been a great option for me. Last watch I sold to the US arrived within 5 days, which I found spectacular for a non-Express option. It's also the only provider that hasn't lost a single parcel from me. DHL alone managed three this year, with two more that I considered lost but which arrived after 4 and 6 month.