More Post Office Woes, a New One! (1 Viewer)

[gk5717]

I refuse to do straight international shipping on ebay. However a guy in France asked for a particular K&C set so I relinqueshed and agreed to sell. My stipulation was he pay me paypal gift. He agreed. Well payment arrived and it was regular payment for goods. Not happy but I took box to the post office, she weighed it and said it would be $13.50 to ship to France. I thought that was low but I filled out the custom form, returned she weighed it again and now the charge was $36.50. She could not explain what happened. Now I'm thinking I,m not going to take a chance of loosing everything if the buyer is one of those picky ones if a rifle is bent they want half their money back. So I took the package back and recontacted the buyer and advised paypal gift or no deal. He agreed, I got the money. Took the same package to the same post office, same clerk, she remembered me from yesterday. She weighed it and now the postage was $49.50. She recalibrated the machine, used another machine, same, $49.50. She simply said I cannot explain whats happening. I paid the $49.50 and I vow on a stack of bibles NO MORE INTERNATIONAL!
Gary

 

[mikemiller1955]

Gary...

if you sold it on Ebay...
you should take advantage of their discounted shipping prices for domestic and International...
it's always 15-35% cheaper than USPS...
I have seen as high as 42% cheaper...

and they give you free tracking and $100 free insurance on domestic...

but if you do choose your local post office...
you can calculate your exact shipping before driving over there...
it's pretty simple...

https://postcalc.usps.com/

 

[jazzeum]

Are their discounted prices through their Global Shipping Program?

Gary, I can't think that the difference in fees would have been that significant. You should have left well enough alone.

Brad

 

[mikemiller1955]

Are their discounted prices through their Global Shipping Program?

Gary, I can't think that the difference in fees would have been that significant. You should have left well enough alone.

Brad

not really...

Global Shipping is handled through Ebay itself...

they are sent to an Ebay Center and then processed through a mail carrier...

and very expensive...

 

[Toy Soldier Brigade]

The USPS got another rate increase in January. International rates went up over 20%. I had orders that were placed on the Friday & Saturday before the increase took affect on Sunday. Needless to say I ate a lot of shipping. Usually I would have printed the shipping before the increase took effect, but I had an emergency and didn't get to it. They keep raising rates and their fuel expenses have been decreasing but they still can't seem to make a profit. Personally I have seen a large decline in overseas sales because people are just unwilling to pay the new rates.

 

[BLReed]

The USPS got another rate increase in January. International rates went up over 20%. I had orders that were placed on the Friday & Saturday before the increase took affect on Sunday. Needless to say I ate a lot of shipping. Usually I would have printed the shipping before the increase took effect, but I had an emergency and didn't get to it. They keep raising rates and their fuel expenses have been decreasing but they still can't seem to make a profit. Personally I have seen a large decline in overseas sales because people are just unwilling to pay the new rates.

USPS does not set International rates, but merely passeshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Postal_Union on what an obscure United Nations agency tells them. And it has nothing to do with oil.
You could drive over the border and ship from Canada and pay much more.

 

[Toy Soldier Brigade]

The price of oil effects everything. They also raised domestic rates as well. After reading that article it looks like they regulate postal policies and not rates.

 

[BLReed]

The price of oil effects everything. They also raised domestic rates as well. After reading that article it looks like they regulate postal policies and not rates.

Scroll down to post 8.
http://www.treefrogtreasures.com/forum/showthread.php?41602-USPS-Sticker-Shock&highlight=universal+postal+union

 

[Al Fisher]

I'm still waiting on a claim submitted in September . . . .the local PO gave the claim a number (which must be used to initiate a trace), but say they can't tell me what it was. In the meantime they lost another check sent to a local merchant.

Bosun Al

 

[hotel3alpha]

Gents,

Unrelated to Toy Soldiers, but sent a business package via Fedex ground from SATX to HOU one day and got it back the next day. I used HOU shipping label, called in a pick up, they picked it up from my shop and then delivered it back to me the next day and had me sign for it even though it was from me.

Yo...

John from Texas

 

[Retman57]

[I had some issues with a few international buyers. I only had about 5 international bidders that won auctions. Two never paid at all. It was bad timing for me (I'd sold most of my stuff already so not much to relist with on ebay--I sold a a higher percentage of goods when I had 30-50 auctions going than just 5 or so). Another one didn't pay and I reported him to ebay. He ended up paying about 5 minutes before the deadline. I wish I could have given him neutral feedback because he never mentioned why he didn't pay until the last possible moment. The other two went fine. So 40% deadbeats and the guy that waited forever to pay didn't make me want to do many international auctions again.
I was selling off an estate (my dad's collection) and probably had over 150 auctions that closed. I did have a few of the regular auctions have folks pay slowly but they contacted me about it when they got the non paying bidder notice. The only folks who didn't pay at all were foreigners.
I used the website listed below to calculate the rates. Had a food scale so got accurate weights.