[Info-vax] KZPCM-DX or KZPCM-DA (VMS compatible)

[John Wallace]

On Apr 13, 6:14 pm, "David B Turner" <dtur... at islandco.com> wrote:
> Shipping via Fedex is cheper because they ARE the frieght forwarder and they
> electronically file all customs paperwork for us
> We do al the work on this end before the label prints
>
> As for KZPCM-DX - it is the DA - dx is board only. DA comes in a nice box
> with a floppy driver for NT alpha
>
> "Richard B. Gilbert"  wrote in messagenews:ksadnXiaXuApa87SnZ2dnUVZ_rKdnZ2d at giganews.com...
>
> On 3/4/2012 2:07 PM, Paul Sture wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Sat, 03 Mar 2012 14:47:12 -0500, Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
>
> >> On 3/3/2012 10:44 AM, Paul Sture wrote:
> >>> On Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:24:00 -0800, urbancamo wrote:
>
> >>>> I note on ebay that Puget Sound Data Systems have the KZPCM-DA variant
> >>>> for sale at $19.00 but I can't possibly justify spending $101.24 on
> >>>> shipping!
>
> >>> That reminds me of the fellow who was charging $10 for a CD packed full
> >>> of useful information, but he wanted $50 for shipping outside the US.
>
> >>> To Puget's price into perspective, Island Computers charged me
> >>> somewhere between 200 and 300 USD for shipping an Alpha PWS 600au from
> >>> the US to Switzerland, and that was a surprisingly heavy item.
>
> >> Shipping from country A to a customer in country B can get very
> >> complicated.  There are services that do this for money.  They are
> >> usually called "Freight Forwarders".  They handle all the paperwork
> >> which is an art in itself, pay customs duties, etc.  Think "Travel Agent
> >> for Freight"
>
> > Not really.  I had to pay customs duties on delivery.
>
> Did the sender employ a Freight Forwarder?  It doesn't happen
> automagically.  A Freight Forwarder will do what he is paid to
> do.  If he is not instructed and paid to take care of customs duties
> it won't happen!

Fedex may in theory be a freight forwarder, and the theory may even
work for real now, but a decade or so ago when I spent several years
sending and receiving DEC stuff around Europe from time to time,
everything from a VME board to an AlphaServer 2100, there was a world
of difference between a random US courier routinely recommended by DEC
US folks (stuff gets shipped via Heathrow and frequently sits in
customs indefinitely) and the freight forwarder which DEC Europe had
an account with (Circle Freight, marvellous people back then - on one
occasion when I was in need of a VME board from Munich for an
exhibition in Birmingham the following day, they had the VME board in
my hands something like twenty minutes after the flight from Munich
arrived at BHX, which was about five minutes more than the driving
time from BHX).