USPS Flat VS. Package Rates

[AirgunSavant]

Been doing mail order since the late 70's The USPS is really the only game for me and I appreciate the service but at times they frustrates me. I have been with stamps.com for 11 years. I like them because I cut and paste the mailing info into a box and not type it in. This saves me tons of time and I often ship 30-40 packages on a good day- so as a one man shop it makes life easy. Yesterday when I closed up for the day I had $14 in the kitty at stamps.com. Today I had negative $5.10 A new service for us USPS customers. If you cheat them they no longer send the parcel back but take from your positive balance. Nice. The issue is I'm not cheating them. I am about ready to pull car51's hair out The new USPS fiasco is International shipping........................!!! Lets say you send just one 4 ounce parcel to Australia. It costs you $6.04 discounted rate for the "Flat Parcel" which is 15"x12" x .750 inches thick................. Okay.......... Now if it is a small package as above but it gets over .750" thick it now costs you $13.06 that is if it is still 4 ounces. Other country rates are far worse. My beef is this- I had an item I sent that was right under the .750 thick range-I started getting them back with postage due. So I reconfigured the shipping to .625 inch- 5/8ths inch. This is a joke because now they are automatically up charging me for each parcel as if it exceeded 3/4" which they are not. This kind of nonsense is something you can't fight because everyone at the USPS acts stupid. Once I get this resolved they will start on something else. And those package rates are ridiculous. Wait until you get to 8 ounces let alone a pound and you can no longer do International business. Beware of this if you are doing EBay etc as the shipping and insurance costs kill all the profit and run away your buyers.

 

[skyactiv]

You need to switch to UPS and be done with it.

 

[SatinSilver]

Originally Posted By: skyactiv

You need to switch to UPS and be done with it.

You must work there.

 

[mk378]

Flat mail is handled by letter-sorting machines which OCR the address and postal code, packages go through a different system which is much more manual. Of course part of what you're paying goes to Australia Post to deliver the package after it lands in Australia.

 

[AirgunSavant]

Originally Posted By: skyactiv

You need to switch to UPS and be done with it.

UPS is great but a small envelope would be $100 to ship about $8 worth of goods Somehow I doubt that would go over well

 

[AirgunSavant]

I fully understand but it is at the point this global nonsense will go away. In the end only places like Amazon and Walmart will be able to do mail order and I suspect Amazon will be in the mail delivery business soon if the sweetheart deals don't continue.

Originally Posted By: mk378

Flat mail is handled by letter-sorting machines which OCR the address and postal code, packages go through a different system which is much more manual. Of course part of what you're paying goes to Australia Post to deliver the package after it lands in Australia.

 

[Donald]

The only places getting a good deal these days with shipping are huge places (think Amazon) that can negotiate with the carriers and extract cheap rates. Those of us who walk into a post office pay top dollar.

 

[JTK]

I hear you Airgun. I've sold a bunch of stuff online the past 3-4 months and find it easiest using free USPS priority mail packaging (ordering it online) and sending it USPS priority mail. Most cases it was less than a dollar more than flat rate. If you are sending stuff daily, I can see where this will bite into your profits though.

 

[Johnny2Bad]

I have stopped buying from many vendors and private citizens in the US due to the USPS International rates after the 2009 and 2016 price increases. I can buy from the UK, I think the most I've ever paid for postage air mail to Canada about 6~8 days delivery is $13, and I've paid as low as $7. In the past, my purchases from the US were in the order of $5~15,000 a year. Last year I think I spent $200 from US sellers. This year will be a bit more, probably $2,000 or so as I have a project that involves a critical part from a US manufacturer, but that is a commercial product I am developing. The numbers I mentioned earlier are just personal items. I buy from other countries now. Delivery is also faster from other nations; a USPS Flat Rate Priority International package typically gets to me in 14~28 days; I can have something delivered from Australia (about as far from here as you can get) in less time. Poland? In my mailbox in 7 days. Czech Republic, only one package to base it on but it was 10 days. If you would suggest using another carrier, UPS and FedEx are considerably more expensive than USPS, so it's out of the question. Purolator offers good rates but most resellers don't deal with them (exception: Parts Express). It's unfortunate, trade deficits aren't just about shiploads of grain and containers of DVD players. The US is hurting it's retail industry and losing significant foreign trade surplus potential because of this. People I correspond with in other nations basically don't buy from the US any longer. * The USPS price increases are due to an act of Congress (Bush Administration) that demanded the USPS prepay all it's future pension obligations, including current employees. This created an instant 8 Billion dollar bill to the USPS, which they have had to raise rates to cover. No other US government agency is required to prepay its pension obligations, and of course the payments from the USPS go into general revenue; the actual pension payments will come out of future tax obligations, just like everyone else's US Federal government pension. The USPS decided to soften the blow by changing International rates at a significantly higher percentage than domestic rates. Unfortunately, this has caused a significant drop in foreign purchases and the volume of packages is falling. The domestic rates will have to increase in the future to compensate.

 

[Johnny2Bad]

Originally Posted By: skyactiv

You need to switch to UPS and be done with it.

UPS is by a huge margin the most expensive carrier for International shipments. FedEx is close, but not quite as expensive. UPS also has the most expensive brokerage fees in the industry. If you ask, they will claim that they deal with an independent broker and have no control over the cost. What they don't tell you is the broker is a wholly-owned subsidiary of UPS. If you ship USPS then here (Canada Post) charges $8 for brokerage. UPS charges between $20 and $200 for brokerage, the rate changing based on the value of the shipment (which has no basis on Customs Clearing; it's the same paperwork for anything from $20 to $2000). They also charge the recipient a fee for "loaning" them the money to clear customs. But UPS doesn't pay any customs fees until the 15th of the month following delivery. They also charge a fee for collecting their fees. There will be a COD fee, and there is the mystery fee that is currently in the courts (UPS is appealing, they've lost in two lower courts, but the essential point is UPS could not come up with any reason for the fee's existence). All this is paid COD by the recipient after paying a very high shipping fee when buying the item. I have an account with a customs broker. He has a US warehouse, where I can send items domestic shipping. They are then cleared, GST/PST paid (11% of the value of the item), and then shipped to me air next day delivery. All of that costs about $C25~35, ($US 20~28) including the domestic courier fee, all duties/taxes, and the usual brokerage fee. Delivery is about 8 days (4~6 days in the US and 2 days here). UPS is at least 10 days, usually longer.

 

[JustinH]

When I worked at an internet retailer we used to sell a truckload of ground shipments per day, shrink wrapped on pallets. We used to get 45% off retail prices sometimes more. Joe customer who comes into a UPS retail outlet is paying a fortune. I shipped 5-6 packages for my employer the other day, with a high value, and it came to like $400 for the total order. USPS pricing has gone way up as well.

 

[dishdude]

Originally Posted By: JustinH

When I worked at an internet retailer we used to sell a truckload of ground shipments per day, shrink wrapped on pallets. We used to get 45% off retail prices sometimes more. Joe customer who comes into a UPS retail outlet is paying a fortune. I shipped 5-6 packages for my employer the other day, with a high value, and it came to like $400 for the total order. USPS pricing has gone way up as well.

You aren't kidding! I sold something on eBay, shipped it UPS - 9 lbs, small box. $20 and they'll probably still backcharge me. Same package through work would be $6. USPS is the way to go.