HPA Motorsport. No longer ship to Australia region direct.

[Big_M]

Well I thought I'd treat myself to a HPA short shifter for Christmas !
$150 US on their site. Thought cool thats ok.
Contacted them direct.

They advised me to contact :-

Local Distributor

Contacted them, wow. Price difference.

Asked HPA if they could ship direct to me instead.

Answer NO.

They will no longer sell and ship direct to this region. You have to go through local distributor.

Needles to say guess will have to look elsewhere or at another option for my shifter.

Just an informative post to let you guys know that HPA will no longer ship direct to individuals in the Australasia region.

Matt.

[Blitzen]

You watch. They will now wonder why sales drop in the Australian region...

[xrayshaggy]

The huge cost difference in products that can only be purchased via local distributers is the reason I set up a mail delivery service. There are several companies out there that will effectively give you multiple international addresses to have goods sent to, which they then post on to you in Australia. I even find that the postage is sometimes cheaper to have it go via the service than pay postage for those places who do sell to Australia. I have found that I now purchase many items in the US such as Oakley, Nike etc this way as they not only are far cheaper, but offer many more product choices and customization. Anyway, just a idea to consider.

[Big_M]

Nice mate.
Can you give me a few more details please, might just be the way to go.
You haven't had any lost packages or any issues using it ?

[jamesatfish]

Nice mate.
Can you give me a few more details please, might just be the way to go.
You haven't had any lost packages or any issues using it ?

I use Earth Class Mail (Online mail management including online postal mail, po boxes, mail forwarding and more | Earth Class Mail) for my business in the US. They have street and PO Box addresses in most major cities, have a great online interface for tracking mail (you get an email when new mail arrives, and their web interface shows you a scan of the outside of the parcel / envelope etc). They offer plenty of shipping options from FedEx express (which typically gets to me in 2-3 days) to regular USPS parcel service. The FedEx and premium USPS services all have tracking numbers and you can opt to insure packages for their declared value if you prefer.

They also give me the option to collect my mail directly when I'm in the US which saves on shipping costs - things that I don't need urgently I just keep in storage with the mail service and bring back in my luggage when I travel.

They're a long-term mail solution rather than a one-off forwarder, so if you don't make regular orders in the US or have a need for a US postal address then there are probably other services better suited for the occasional purchase.