USPS International Service Experience

[TrevorS]

Just wanted to share my recent experience with USPS.

I occasionally need to send documents overseas, sometimes the contents are valuable and time sensitive, sometimes not so much.

A few weeks ago I sent some documents international first class, cost about $5, I think the price had increased, almost doubled, but no biggie.

The documents were delivered 4 business days later / 6 days in total.

After that I had to send some sensitive documents to the same country. The price for Priority Mail Intl Express has doubled since 2 years ago so I went with regular Priority Mail Intl for $24 which has also doubled.

Result? Delivered to the same country in 11 business days / 15 days in total! So 5 times the cost and 3 times longer!

I went and checked my last Express tracking from 2 years ago and that took 3 business days / 5 total days. Back then it was $26.

So first class seems to be the way to go going forward with registered option for important documents.

Meanwhile an iphone cable ordered for 99c from China not only has full tracking but will arrive today, 5 business days after ordering!

 

[[email protected]]

 

[Danno]

I suspect China/Hongkong mail to North America is heaviliy subsidized by the government.

Almost like the service is free to the sender.

 

[Quattro Pete]

USPS has jacked up their prices significantly. I guess they're trying to patch up that huge hole in their income statement.

I noticed UPS prices have gone up, too. It just cost me $10 to mail a used oil analysis sample via ground.

 

[CourierDriver]

at around 30 bucks an hour for the guy in the little brown van, u betcha they are making money

 

[hardcore302]

The price of everything is going up except for my paycheck.

 

[Burt]

Sensitive information takes longer because the government has to open it, review it and reseal it.

 

[oldhp]

haha........big brother is watching baby.

 

[bladecutter]

Never ship anything via USPS at a higher priority than normal First Class mail.
The higher the priority you mail it, the longer it takes to arrive.

If you really want a document to get someplace in a hurry, put it on a plane with a human. That's your only true guarantee that it's going to get where you want it in the time frame that you want.

Anything else, and you are paying less for the convenience of not doing it yourself.

BC.

 

[bdcardinal]

For international DHL is the only way to go. Had to ship some Mazdaspeed 3 side skirts to Ireland for a customer, don't ask, and DHL got them there in a few days. Also had to send an upright to a customer in Melbourne, Australia for a CX-5 and it got there in under a week, we were the only dealer in North America or Australasia to have one in stock with the part on a 3 month backorder.

But a person is best. We had a guy from Melbourne, Australia come in and buy literally a whole shipping container full of Super Duty body parts, no questions asked. He sent us some pictures of his trucks after he got them the parts, pretty cool.

 

[97tbird]

DHL hardly exists on the East Coast...I think they pulled out.

 

[Anduril]

I prefer USPS to UPS/FedEx. They'll usually get something across the country in ~3 days, even with "standard" priority. UPS always seems to take the full 5 (or longer), while I don't have much experience with FedEx and they seem the most expensive.