Luggage Shipping Services

It's always easiest to buy a cheap suitcase and just pay for a checked bag.

I agree with poster above and priced it out. Much cheaper to pay the airline for an extra bad than to ship a box home. You see cheap luggage for sale all over Europe. When you get home, donate it to a charity.

I already have the bag. It is a second bag. It has been in London for months and held by my hotel in between my visits. I don't need it any longer and I have some items I want to send to someone weeks before I go home.

The bag is going to be SHIPPED.. It is not going to me. It is going to someone else.

So, I will ask again. Has anyone used any of the luggage shipping services and how reliable were they?

I haven't used a luggage service, but it may be worthwhile to consider DHL or Fed Ex.

I used sendmybag.com to ship a duffle from Amsterdam to Norwich UK and it was easy, on time and no damage.
They seemed to contract the actual shipping with DHL.

get a price quote here

It is easy to do -- Go on any of the shipping web sites and enter your shipping information and that will give you a price. Then take it to the Royal Mail and see what they will charge. Most likely the Royal Mail will be cheaper and slower. However, the shipment will have to go through US customs.

And there's really no call to be rude.

There's also no call to assume that the OP is asking a useless question

There is a tendency on here to give advice that was not requested or needed instead of responding to the question

No, you don't automatically know the poster asking the question was wrong. No, you don't need to know all the details of their trip to respond to the question.

IMHO the "assumption" that the poster didn't know what they wanted to know is really rude. Getting frustrated with useless advice that didn't respond to the question is human in that case

We used DHL from eastern Germany several years ago. STILL waiting for that box to arrive:)

Perhaps the concierge at your hotel could advise.

Frank,
We went to Mail Boxes Etc. and they will offer the best quote since they contract with the major shipping companies.
Our package was sent via FedEx and it arrived in less than a week (Edinburgh to California.

Originally we'd considered sending it via 'Sendmybag' but there's no drop off location. They will pick up your package at the hotel, apartment or home, but someone needs to be present during the pick up time (between 8AM to 6PM).
We didn't want to waste a whole day waiting, so we went to Mail Boxes, Etc. instead.

Edit to add...
I forgot to mention that Mail Boxes, Etc. will send your luggage if you don't want to transfer the contents into a box ( provided by them). We saw a bunch of suitcases wrapped in layers and layers of plastic wrap all ready to be delivered.

Priscilla, can I ask how much it cost you to ship back your suitcase?

Yes! We just moved our daughter home after four years at a U.K. university. We used sendmybag.com on the recommendation of another parent who had used them the year before. It worked brilliantly. 25" bag, but very heavy as it was stuffed full, including some books and vacuum packed clothing. It cost about 100 pounds. Door to door service. Bag arrived in Seattle in excellent condition 3 - 4 days after being picked up at her house in the U.K. If you use the service, someone needs to be there at both ends for pick up and delivery. They provide tracking, so we knew where the bag was on its journey. You do need to attach a bunch of documents to the outside of the bag. My daughter reports that they were responsive to her questions and very helpful. We also used Mailboxes, Etc. to send a large box back. It cost about the same and took the same amount of time. In our case, the advantage with them was the we could drop off the box and not wait around our accomodation for a pick up at an unknown time.

@Vick Vega,
We didn't send a suitcase but the contents that may have easily filled a 22" suitcase. Mail Boxes, Etc. provided the box, tape and all the appropriate forms required by customs. I don't recall how much it weighed, but the price was determined by the weight and the dimensions of the box. I paid around £75-80 last May.

I must add that before finding Mail Boxes, etc., we'd asked for a quote from DHL & it was way more expensive for a much smaller box.