Questions, answered

We give you a real street address in the United States and in the Netherlands. You shop at any store in those regions and ship to your SurShipp address. We receive the package, then forward it to Suriname by air or sea. If a store will not accept your card at all, our personal shopper team buys it on your behalf. Sea freight from China for factory and wholesale orders opens shortly.

Nothing. Creating an account and receiving your three forwarding addresses is free. You only pay when you actually ship something, and the cost is calculated from our published rates.

Your Customer ID looks like SRP-10284 and identifies every package that belongs to you. It goes on the suite line of your forwarding address. Without it, a box arriving at our warehouse has nothing linking it to you, which delays processing while we work out whose it is.

No. One SurShipp account gives you both forwarding addresses — USA and Netherlands — and every package you receive appears in the same dashboard.

Not just your own. At our Miami warehouse the recipient name is what identifies your package and tells us how to ship it: the first name is PBM Air or PBM Ocean depending on whether you want air or sea freight, and the last name is Surshipp followed by your own name. From the Netherlands it is Coreone NV luchtvracht or Coreone NV zeevracht, followed by your name. Your account shows the exact wording with a copy button next to each field — copy it rather than typing it from memory.

By billable weight in pounds. Billable weight is your package's actual weight, or its volumetric weight (length × width × height ÷ a carrier divisor) if that number is larger. This stops a big box of something light costing the same as a small heavy one. Our calculator applies both rules and shows you which was used.

By volume in cubic feet. The formula is CFT = length × width × height ÷ 1728, measuring the outside of the box in inches. 1,728 is simply the number of cubic inches in a cubic foot.

Air freight if you need it quickly, or if the item is small, valuable or urgent — phones, laptops, clothing, medicine. Sea freight if the item is large or heavy and you can wait — furniture, appliances, tyres, bulk stock. For anything bulky, sea is dramatically cheaper.

Air freight typically arrives in days; sea freight takes weeks, depending on the origin region and the sailing schedule. Once your package is assigned to a shipment, your dashboard shows the departure date and estimated arrival, and we update it if the schedule changes.

From Miami there are two air cut-offs a week: Tuesday before 12:00, which we expect in Suriname on the Friday, and Friday before 12:00, which we expect the following Wednesday. A package delivered to us the day before a cut-off is not guaranteed to make that flight. Ocean closes on Monday, and takes two to three weeks after closing. Air cargo runs weekly; ocean runs two to four times a month.

Not yet — the China lane opens shortly. When it does it will be sea freight only: your goods consolidated into our container out of Yiwu, which departs every Friday evening, with around nine weeks from the day your supplier delivers to the warehouse. Hazardous goods will carry an additional fee per cubic metre, and there is a surcharge on cargo over 1000 kg. Tell us what you are planning and we will let you know as soon as it is running.

Yes, and it matters. Our Den Haag agent must be told a shipment is coming or it can be held on arrival. Submit a pre-alert in your account and we email them for you with the tracking number, supplier, value, description and whether it is air or sea. You must also put Coreone NV on the parcel itself, in front of your name. Weapons, ammunition, medication, alcohol and cash are strictly forbidden on this route.

Once it is delivered to Miami you receive a warehouse receipt by email within one to three working days, and the weight and dimensions appear in your account. Which of the two we bill on depends on the shipping method in the name you used at checkout: air freight is billed on weight, sea freight on volume.

Not when you order your own goods. Receiving your package, weighing it, photographing it and storing it are included — you pay freight and nothing else. A service fee applies only when you ask us to do the buying: send us the link and our personal shopper team purchases on your behalf, and that fee is quoted to you before anything is bought.

Yes. The calculator and the rate tables read directly from the same rate configuration we invoice from. There are no hidden prices in the website code.

A pre-alert tells us a package is coming before it arrives — the merchant, the carrier and the tracking number. It is optional but strongly recommended: it lets us match your package to your account the moment it lands instead of holding it as unidentified.

Combining several of your packages into one shipment. You select the packages in your dashboard and request consolidation; our warehouse repacks them together. Because you then ship once instead of several times, it usually reduces your total cost — especially on sea freight, which is priced by volume.

Yes. We photograph every package at intake, and the photos appear in your dashboard alongside the weight and dimensions. You can confirm the right item arrived before it leaves for Suriname.

We hold packages free of charge for a standard storage period while you decide how to ship or whether to consolidate. Storage terms are shown in your dashboard, and we notify you before any storage charge would apply.

Open a claim from your dashboard. Choose the problem — damaged, missing package, missing item, wrong package or incorrect weight — describe what happened and upload photos. You get a claim number and our team investigates.

Duties and taxes are set by the Surinamese customs authorities, not by SurShipp, and are separate from our shipping charges. Our quotes and invoices cover freight, and a service fee on personal shopper orders. Declaring the correct value of your goods helps clearance go smoothly.

USD, EUR and SRD. Every amount you see is labelled with its currency, and we never quietly convert between them — a USD invoice stays a USD invoice.

Your invoice is in the Invoices section of your dashboard, itemised line by line. Payment is currently arranged by bank transfer or at our Paramaribo office, using the reference shown on your invoice. Online payment through a Surinamese gateway is a planned addition.

When your shipment clears customs we mark your package Ready for Pickup and notify you. Come to our office at Zwartenhovenbrugstraat 235 in Paramaribo with your Customer ID and identification. Tell us in advance if someone else will collect on your behalf.

We cannot handle firearms, ammunition, explosives, flammable liquids, aerosols, loose lithium batteries, perishable food, live animals, counterfeit goods, prescription medication or anything restricted under Surinamese import law. Some items travel by sea but never by air. If you are unsure about an item, ask us before you buy it.