Tips for Bringing Home Hermes Boxes When Traveling?
- Thread starter boo1689
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By all means try to take the box with you. When I purchased a Lindy at the H store in Heathrow, I wasn't able to take the box with me. I had to leave it behind. That was early April and now we are in July. I'm still waiting for Paris to send my local Boutique a box. They told me it will take 6 months. I couldn't believe it. The box my new Kelly came in had a damaged lid, which they covered with an orange sticker. They are very tight with their boxes, aren't they?
There is a $limit on what you can bring back into the US before you incur customs duties. I don't really know the number because I KNOW that I am most often over it. When I buy an H bag, I will have them ship the EMPTY box to my home. It will often take a ridiculously long time, but at least I have the bag with me. If I buy mulitple bags, I will still ship the boxes, but pack one of the bags into my luggage. If I am going to a location where I KNOW I am going to buy a lot (ie. Asia or France or Italy), I will always take an EMPTY suitcase. I am a light packer so that basically means one extra big luggage. I buy cheap ones. If I don't buy anything sometimes I leave the monstrosity there...has only happened once during my adult life! There has only been one occasion where the empty box arrived damaged and smooshed to death. Otherwise, never a problem.
i have only bought 1 bag overseas. it was in ginza and I just fedex'd it home. made it simple and didn't have to worry about packing it, customs, etc...
We have the store ship FexEx from Hawaii every time. I know it doesn't involve the customs wrinkle, but I end up getting little pieces packed together into a larger orange box! What a thrill to open one big orange box to reveal many little orange boxes!!
On this note...here is something similar I have done recently.
When my husband and I went to Japan this year we packed our suitcases like normal and each of us added in a dufflebag on top. When it was time to come home we packed all our dirty clothes in the dufflebags and all our purchases in the suitcases. Worked out great and also made going thru customs SO much easier.
I love my orange boxes. I would normally wrap the box with a lot of bubble wrap and then put it in a box and ship to myself. So far, they all arrived in pristine condition. :shame:
This is not an overseas question, but only thread I found about shipping packages. If your SA is out of state, how do you get your purchases home? Mine is across the country, so I always pay Hermes (approx $75) to ship my packages home. They're insured, someone at home signs for them, etc. Does anyone else do this or do you bring them on the plane? Do SA care if you ask the store to ship?
Shipping is never a problem when I ask...my store is out of state too. They have a shipping person who double checks everything and manages the process so it's no difference to your SA whether you ship your packages or carry them out the door. I only take on plane when I can't stand to wait...or when the tax savings is negligible to the shipping cost. But lots of times they wave the shipping fee, particularly if the item can be found online. My SA said that since they offer free shipping for online orders they are able to do that.
I ship to myself in a separate box. It's just too hard to lug the boxes around. Most of the hotels I stay in have a business center that will pack/ship and bill it to my room.
Hi there - your wife arrived later - right? Just want to make sure it is you. If so, Congrats! I was wondering what happened. Saw your wife near me inside and wanted to chat but honestly, was exhausted and delusional from all of the activity. Would love to see a photo of your spoils.
I took advice from this forum and shipped the big orange box via France post separately and carried the bag onto the plane. After taking a cab back to my hotel, which Hermes kindly hailed for me, I ran to Office Depot and tried to get a large enough box - no luck.
So I improvised and purchased bubble wrap, brown paper, scissors and packaging tape. I filled it with some laundry also. It took an hour to wrap making sure I reinforced the corners.
Thanks for making contact and I am so glad your trek was a success. I still cannot believe we were so fortunate that morning.
The young man behind me (#3 in line) was also successful as I bumped into him on my way out. His bag was extra large so I am wondering what he ended up with.
Cheers!
Pacificagal - to save you some trouble, here are a couple of things that I do which makes it easier to get this stuff sent home:
1) Have Hermes courier your stuff to your hotel so you don't have to carry it around unless you're heading back to the hotel; H is usually one of my stops so I hate having to carry too many bags while shopping
2) Have your hotel concierge pack the boxes with instructions of what is inside (e.g., empty boxes for the customs forms). They will not only find the box and pack it but will take it to the post office to mail it. I did have one hotel (not my typical 5-star one) that decide to tape the box and ship it as-is which destroyed the box - I was not a happy camper when it arrived. These days, I mention that I do not want the box to be shipped as-is but inside of a shipping box.
Thank you Tustin! It was my first large box purchase overseas so was out of my element.
Thank you so much for the helpful tips! I am certain it will be helpful to others as well.