I have posted a question on my Facebook page asking about your experiences with international shipping. I have had a few problems with USPS lately, and so I need to see about switching services for international packages. Please weigh in here if you do not use Facebook.

To heck with international shipping...they can't even get any of my domestic deliveries right. 90% are late.

Got a pack from ULA last month, and not only was it late, it was dropped off at the wrong house.


Sorry this wasn't about international orders, but I had to bitch about it to someone. :)

Domestically, I'll use USPS when working a traditional job away from home or remote. If I'm guaranteed to be at home, I'll choose UPS or FedEx.

Internationally, it may be the foreign partner. On a NATO base, most European troops actually tried to keep their American orders (normally for nutritional supplements and electronics) in the USPS system as much as possible both in terms of price and actually getting the package in a reasonable amt of time .. but that was 2009-ish. As an American, they (European troops) would give the American money to order for them, keeping it in the American postal system. It switches out of the civilian system somewhere around New York and probably similar for pure civilian systems. At a certain place it needs to get on an airliner bound for that foreign country to enter their postal system. That's a lot of hands handling the packages, customs, and maybe some sort of VAT assessment? Also materials: European troops would "buy out" American PX's inventories for fabric blends not sold in Europe (Army physical training T-shirts of all things). Maybe the packages are being pilfered or inspected for potential pilfering due to fabric and materials?

Edited by hknewman on 03/08/2013 09:28:33 MST.

I've shipped and received packages internationally numerous times over the years -- to Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, NZ -- and have only ever lost one shipment. One. Back in 1984.

No organization is perfect, but the USPS is IMO dependable.

As for switching services -- not a direct experience -- I've read from time to time that shipping through DHL, FedEx, UPS, and others will generally increase your chances of paying Customs tax. Thus, I stick with USPS -- and shipping onesie and twosies -- I don't ever recall having to pay taxes -- nor did my recipients.

So that's actually a plus for USPS and a potential minus for other couriers/shippers. But I would say these giant shippers are all generally reliable.

Edited by ben2world on 03/08/2013 10:23:29 MST.

I am having good success with usps price and function. With ups they tried to charge me thrice the cost of some fabric I shipped to
Canada when the recipient would not pay the custom taxes.

Ben,

As a Canadian living in the UK, I would encourage you NOT to give up on the USPS. I'm lucky that I'm tax exempt while over here and have taken advantage of this to order a lot of gear from the US over the last few years.

I have only had problems when the company I ordered from used UPS. This has been both while here in the UK and when ordering to Canada. UPS seems to charge a brokerage fee that at times seems unreasonable.

Additionally, the courier companies don't seem willing usually to ship to international PO Boxes where it is no issue for USPS. Is you decide to switch, please keep USPS as an option.