For us in Australia, the "free shipping" they throw in becomes VERY expensive on the Australian side. When the guy's in China offer "free shipping", they book in the shipment as LCL container load, and have it loaded onto a vessel bound for Oz. That means, the container is shared with other customers. They only pay to place it onto a vessel, you pay to get off at the destination, plus all other handling. For my 1336 router, it cost them US$500 be FOB at the port in China. Once it arrives in the Oz port, customs and AQIS clearance has to be done seperately, i.e. the shipment is split up into individual customers. They do this by putting each shipment into a seperate container, have it cleared from the wharf, transported seperately to a clearance agent, have it custom and AQIS cleared, then released for collection. If you share a container, YOU PAY for a forklift and manpower to haul your 2 ton machine out of the shared container at the wharf, and placed into your own clearance container. You pay for renting that OWN container, until you collect your shipment at the clearance agent. A LOT of extra costs.
Next cost driver, is the collection and handling of the shipping papers. These costs all add up. Don't let them courier the papers to the shipping agent in Australia, and then have your clearance agent request it from the shipping line agent. Get the router manufacturer to courier the original shipping docs directly to you, you select your clearance agent, and send them the papers, no fees involved then.
If they offer free shipping or not, insist on FCL container FOB port in China. That means you have your own unshared container, they pay until it's on the vessel, they insure it. Pay the difference between LCL and FCL, usually around $500 to $800 for a 20ft container. This way, your own container gets used all the way to the clearance yard. You pay more for FCL, but you save a LOT when clearing an FCL, than clearing an LCL.
Arrange your collection so that once your shipment is cleared, your router is pulled out of the container, directly onto your collection truck. Don't pay for removing it, and later again, for picking it up onto your collection truck.
I have prior experience with these processes, I saved more than $3000 on a second router shipment, the first one went as per their method, on the Australian side, there where a gazillion, "local charges", "collection charges", handling charges", you have no control over it. The second import, 2 months later, same router, same Chinese company, same Ozzie clearance agent, was $3000 cheaper !!