International frame shipping

[eurotrash]

I want to purchase a Canyon bike frame, but live in the US. They stopped shipping to the US for some reason (customer service issues- their website says). Anyway- I have friends that live in CH and NL that could buy the frame and ship it to me in the US so I wanted to figure out if this is a practical option. Anyone have experience with this? When I do the UPS time/cost calculator the expense is huge- but the transit time is fast (I don't need it that fast). If I could ensure that shipping would be in the 100-200 USD range, I'd do it.

Thanks in advance,

ET

 

[slowingfast]

I had a similar issue last year with Canyon getting a bike to a location they no longer ship to.
Fortunately, I was able to organise the shipping via a friend in Germany - they used UPS or Fedex and it cost more than Canyon were going to charge - but I bought the bike directly with shipping FOB so it was still an export order and the VAT was deducted. The extra shipping was less than the VAT - so I felt that it was a win.

By the way, have been in heaven since getting the bike. It is beautiful to ride and gets heaps of positive comments from other riders.