Courier a phone?

[anxiao]

I left my mobile in Hong Kong and asked my wife to UPS it to me in South Africa. She was told that "Due to security issues" they will not accept it. She said how about the SIM card and they refused that and said that they X-ray parcels to find them (I personally doubt that...)

Anyone got a solution to sending one's phone around the world?

Many thanks

[Haven't a clue]

In a word no. Short of getting someone to fly to SA and carry it.

Any device with a Lion battery is considered dangerous goods and can only be accepted to go on a planes if properly packaged, usually only by the manufacturer in it's original shrink wrapped box. UPS and other couriers do check what is being shipped to ensure that dangerous goods aren't accidentally accepted. My local DHL want to see the contents of any box I ship before they apply a security seal. Even the local post office check to see if the contents of a parcel are safe to fly (ironic really as they send stuff from here to the UK by boat). So couriers are out.

Puzzled that your wife can't send a SIM card. That's wrong as I regularly buy SIM cards for travelling and these always arrive by mail or courier. I think that is a misunderstanding on the part of UPS in HK.

As an aside I was flying from LHR to HKG a few years back in the front of the plane when a "very important passenger" announced loudly to the cabin crew that he had left his phone in the lounge. The response was that if found it would be available for collection on his return. After saying (more loudly) he simply couldn't travel without it as it contained all his important meeting details etc and couldn't it be brought to the aircraft, or he wold have to get off. A groan from my fellow travellers as we all knew if he didf there would be the inevitable delay as his baggage was found and removed, and our collective experience knew that often this short delay on this early evening flight usual becomes a long one.

He was told that his phone if found couldn't travel (obvious security issues here) He was insistent that he wouldn't fly without it. Someone had been working behind the scenes whilst this was going on and he was then told but lounge staff were searching for it, and if found he could have the SIM but not the phone. This compromise was accepted and shortly afterwards a girl was spotted running down the jetway to deliver said SIM. I have always thought that this was service rendered (by BA) beyond what was required or indeed might reasonable be expected.

[PAXboy]

SIM card in padded envelope. Recorded/Special delivery. Or 'envelope service from a courier.

Adding: the SIM will get your number live again but, nowadays, data is stored in the phone due to the memory requirements. So, if you are not going back to HKG soon, you may need to find alternative ways of getting the data. This can be if you have online back up pr the phone is made live with a PAYG SIm and then backed up so that it can be sent to you.

[anxiao]

Many thanks for your replies. I did wonder about the SIM card sensitivity, maybe something to do with "terrorists" sending SIM cards from easy to buy places to difficult countries to do some bad stuff, but perhaps an over-reaction.

Mail is out of the question to South Africa, as most of the Express delivery takes over a month, and is unlikely to ever arrive. My Christmas cards for 2018 sent from UK arrived early March.

As a cautionary tale, I bought a cheap phone in Cape Town and boy is it cheaply made. Chinese economics at its best. It is slow, runs out of battery in half a day and has a touch screen that doesn't.

Time to tie my phone to a limb when abroad I fear, or have it surgically attached...

[419]

Any device with a Lion battery is considered dangerous goods and can only be accepted to go on a planes if properly packaged, usually only by the manufacturer in it's original shrink wrapped box. UPS and other couriers do check what is being shipped to ensure that dangerous goods aren't accidentally accepted. My local DHL want to see the contents of any box I ship before they apply a security seal. Even the local post office check to see if the contents of a parcel are safe to fly (ironic really as they send stuff from here to the UK by boat). So couriers are out.

Some courier companies will accept mobile phone with batteries installed for international shipment provided that they are securely packed.
I recently had to send such a phone from the UK to the USA and it had both the battery and SIM card installed and there was no problem sending it with Parcelforce but obviously this policy will vary between countries and couriers.

anxiao, if the phone battery can be removed and a replacement obtained fairly easily, have you considered getting it sent to you like that?