International Shipping (WTF)

[McSpunckle]

USPS is showing a 2lb box to Italy (no matter the size) is about $40 for priority mail (which has tracking).

I was told that tracking was extra on Priority but I seem to get a different story from each USPS employee I ask.

I sent a WET reverb to Belgium and the lady said the only way to get it there with tracking was Express.
It ended up being $54 after she originally said it would be $48. She weighed it again once all the Customs forms
and shit were attached and said that it now weighed over 2lbs and added another $6.
I would have stayed and argued but I had to shit BAD!

I always ship with the USPS website, and whenever I pick priority mail international, it's trackable-- other than the smaller flat rate boxes that are treated like letters.

I'm not sure how much tracking means, though. Sometimes it tracks it every step of the way, sometimes it seems to sit for days then move. It does make the person you ship the thing to feel better, though...

I have shipped a few things express mail international. I never paid attention, but maybe the tracking is better with it? I dunno.

Also, the worst part of shipping internationally is deciding which line to put which parts of the address. I can't tell you how many times I've had to use Wikipedia to determine if something was a street or a city... alas, that's a whole other deal.

[mysteriousj]

Yeah it sucks, the prices especially for priority seemed to have doubled from what they were 4 years ago when I started buying stuff from the states.

And like Tom said even first class has tracking, though it's often very slow to update and can be inconsistent and miss scans etc. But it has always got through to me. Priority tends to come through a little bit faster because it comes on a courier rather than through the postman but it's not really a big deal.

[bigchiefbc]

Yeah it sucks, the prices especially for priority seemed to have doubled from what they were 4 years ago when I started buying stuff from the states.

And like Tom said even first class has tracking, though it's often very slow to update and can be inconsistent and miss scans etc. But it has always got through to me. Priority tends to come through a little bit faster because it comes on a courier rather than through the postman but it's not really a big deal.

Yeah, USPS hiked a lot of their prices for Priority and Express last year, because they were bleeding so much money that the US Government forced them to raise their prices so that they would be "competitive" with the prices at UPS and Fedex. So now they made Priority (domestic) around the same price as UPS Ground, whereas it used to be significantly cheaper.

[Arcane]

It has been my experience that whenever you send UPS or FedEX to Canada <-> USA or vice versa those companies will add on brokerage fees and you will certainly get dinged for taxes/duty. I think it is safe to assume the same applies when sent elswhere abroad. I am in canada and I personally will only accept USPS shipments as there will be no brokerage fees and I rarely am asked to pay duty/taxes. Receiving a package from FedEX or UPS adds on a huge amount proportional to the cost of the item. In fact, sometimes the brokerage and duty/taxes are more than the item itself.


USPS's delivery confirmation and tracking are two different things. It has been my experience that USPS does not offer tracking on Priority shipments - tracking stops at the US border. It does include delivery confirmation though.

USPS FAQ


PayPal requires delivey confirmation to a verified and confirmed PayPal address for seller protection. Keep in mind that PayPal currently only allows USA, Canadian and UK addresses to be verified and confirmed. Sending elsewhere is a gamble as PayPal will do little to help you out if the buyer decides to pull a fast one.

[MEC]

I went to USPS today to mail the box to Italy and was again told that the only way to
ship fully trackable with Delivery Conformation was Express International.

The total was $44.45.

The other option was First Class International Registered.
That would have provided a signed for chain of custody throughout and proof of delivery but location
or estimated delivery date would not have been viewable by the sender or receiver of the package.
If the package were to get lost the USPS could use the signatures to find out where it was last.

That option would have been around $25

[Gearmond]

i just bought a replacement for an expensive calligraphy pen that someone stole over the course of the semester, and due to lack of funds, i opted for the set the company sells thats essentially just the pen, some nibs, and ink (as opposed to the pen, full spread of nibs, and pewter/glass ink bottle/pen rest i originally had) and the shipping on that costs more than the thing itself.

shipping international is ridiculous. if it weren't for the cost of shipping, i could replace what i lost for less than what i originally bought it.

[DarkAxel]

They do not track priority international packages outside of the US, as I recall. The number that is on the customs forms work to track it until it leaves our shores. The only way to really truly track international packages is through Express Shipping. UPS and FedEx usually cost about 3x more for intl shipping, so we don't use them.

It is a lot of money no matter what : (

to be honest . usually i don't need tracking after it leaves US

i mean it's good to keep track of how many motherfucking sorting facilities my package has to go through

but after that, it's usually pretty quickly in my hands

anyway yeah... we can ship out to you for A LOT cheaper and you have no problems with customs like we do... good for you

[sonidero]

EVERYONE NEEDS TO MOVE TO TEXAS...

It's big enough for us all and shipping would be as easy as a Sunday Morning...

[Andrew]

robbery man...

its 300 dollars to send a guitar to australia :/ outrageous

It costs almost that much to send a guitar somewhere nationally in Australia by Courier, though I bought my Edwards Les Paul from Japan and received it in less than 2 days, I think that it was $186au which what 1/3 of the price I bought the guitar for.

I've sent some pedals Internationally and it wasn't that bad really, though recently I just do combined Postage and works fine with me.

[sonidero]

IT'S BECAUSE YOU GUYS LIVE UPSIDE DOWN THAT IS ALL!!!

[Andrew]

You're living a lie.

You're the fucked up ones.

[sonidero]

I can introduce you to my main man Robert who fled The Other Side to move to Austin but really makes me want to move to Coober and be down under...

[tuffteef]

IT'S BECAUSE YOU GUYS LIVE UPSIDE DOWN THAT IS ALL!!!

also from the future

[sonidero]

I WANNA BE FUTURE MAN!!!