What's the best way to return a watch to China from the US

[harryarme]

Well, it happened. I bought a swan-neck PAM 177 from WatchEden. The watch was drop-shipped from HK and got here in 4 days. But, it was the wrong watch (PAM 177 but no swan neck). I considered keeping it and asking for a partial refund, so I wound it well and left it on the desk. It quit running after 6 hours and now won't run at all. OK, them's the breaks and WatchEden is a trusted dealer. Today Sarah sent a return # and a good address in Guangzhou (after I confirmed that yes, I knew it was a manual wind watch and yes, I had wound it). She said to value it at $20 and use registered air mail. So here are my questions:

1 - From the US, airmail means Priority Mail International, which can't be registered. Have people used that successfully? Tracking is nil.

2 - What about Express Mail (EMS)? Does that flag it to Chinese customs? It doesn't cost too much more and can be tracked. Sarah seemed to say not to use it but that was in the same sentence with FedEx, etc., which is known not to be a good idea.

3 - What should I declare it as? "Broken fake watch" may be accurate but is probably not a good idea. How about "broken watch for repair", or "watch parts"?

Hopefully someone who has done this will take pity on a relative noob and comment.

Thanks in advance,

H

[Guest Carl]

1 - From the US, airmail means Priority Mail International, which can't be registered. Have people used that successfully? Tracking is nil.

No, just send it first class. That is airmail these days. Register it. It is all traceable, but won't be trackable until it reaches China.

Insure it if you want but my experience is that you will never collect so just forget about it.

3 - What should I declare it as? "Broken fake watch" may be accurate but is probably not a good idea. How about "broken watch for repair", or "watch parts"?

Broken used watch for repair.

I have successfully done this more times than I like and have never had a problem.

Carl

[harryarme]

Thanks very much for your reply, Carl. I guess I forgot that first class = air mail these days.

I sent the watch back to WatchEden by registered USPS First Class Mail International Package, which cost $10 for mailing and $10.54 for registration. I declared it as a "broken used watch for repair", value $20. Insurance makes no sense and you can't insure a registered package anyway.

Note to someone who reads this thread in the future: The USPS will only let you register a package if it is sealed with brown paper tape, the kind you have to wet. There might be some other kinds of tamper-evident tape, but standard plastic packing tape is NOT OK.

I also printed out a shipping label with space between the address lines and a Chinese friend kindly wrote the Chinese version of the address in between the English lines. Probably overkill, but can't hurt.

[Member X]

Thanks for the info, very useful!

[dvn]

I have shipped watches back to the dealers 5 or 6 times and they got it everytime. I shipped it using usps EMS service and the cost is around $27. It is a little expensive but it is trackable which give me a piece of mind knowing the package's whereabout.