Forget about USPS when shipping internationally (1 Viewer)

Eriks

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So, I have 2 packages arriving to me tomorrow in Sweden, both sent from the United States.
One was mailed on thursday one week ago and the other on January 26 (!) Guess which one is USPS and which one is FedEx....
Yes, the USPS one is exceptional and has been in limbo, and I've had USPS packages arrive much faster before but still ridiculous!
 
Everyone complains about USPS but everyone knows the deal. The reason why people still use it is that it’s usually 1/2 or 1/4 the price of the other shipping services. Especially when it comes to international shipping.

International chippers balk at even the cheapest USPS rates typically for me. I can’t imagine how much FedEx would charge for shipping a stack of cut cards or a sample set of chips etc.

Personally, I have never lost anything through USPS but certainly experienced my fair share of delays and tracking info errors. I wouldn’t send anything USPS that was time sensitive or of incredibly high value, but for standard chipping needs it just makes sense.
 
I shipped a package via USPS destined for Sweden on March 24. By April 2 it was was in Denmark, so I figured it would be delivered pretty soon after that.

Then this morning, I checked the tracking and saw that it's back in the USA as of yesterday! Going through Jamaica, NY. Kick me in the head.

Oh the Agony.gif
 
Currently about 328/329 for USPS with about 15% of those being international and two international were bubble mailers worth $400+. Only issue I had was a bubble mailer to NYC where it seemed like it might have been delivered to the wrong house or grabbed by someone passing by after delivery. That being said I echo @Eloe2000 , if it’s important of expensive enough, she’ll out the extra $ for piece of mind at least.
 
USPS has actually been great for every shipment I’ve ever had with them. The box of chips from Apache was mailed Friday, and should be here tomorrow. 1 week is probably the fastest I’ve ever received a package, which is also thanks in part to Canada customs, but still really fast on the American end.
 
I’ve also never had an issue as a seller or as a buyer with USPS outside of long shipping delays, usually due to customs clearance delays.

For comparison, while a Large FRB May run approx $100, the same shipment can run $300-400 with Fedex, DHL or (god forbid you should have to resort to using them) UPS. Those higher rates do bring far quicker shipping times and better tracking, for sure. Is it worth the premium? I guess that’s up to the individual.
 
I am on the record as supporting our USPS as a great organization. All companies/organizations have examples of mistakes or bad service, but the USPS does a great job by far. You cannot beat the Priority Mail FRB/Media product anywhere in the world (free box, free tracking, basic insurance, 3 day delivery in USA, almost unlimited weight if it fits in the box).

Regardless, for international shipments, it is important to understand how the postal systems work. The USPS cannot address/resolve what it does not control. When you order or send something international, the USPS gets it from, or hands it off to, the destination postal service, which may be run like crap. The shipment is beyond the USPS ability to QC at that point.

I have used USPS, UPS, Fedex and DHL extensively for domestic and international for years and each has their sweet spot. Even by specific countries you will find Fedex is better than DHL or vice versa based on their local operations.

If you want a somewhat "guaranteed" quality of service, you need to use a global fedex or dhl service where it is in their hands end to end (I include their foreign subcontractors/partners since they are still within the DHL/Fedex ecosystem and logistics tools). Nothing is free and these companies are not subsidized by their governments, so it will cost more, but take less time, have better tracking, better customer service, and you get "one throat to choke" if you have issues.
 
I am on the record as supporting our USPS as a great organization. All companies/organizations have examples of mistakes or bad service, but the USPS does a great job by far. You cannot beat the Priority Mail FRB/Media product anywhere in the world (free box, free tracking, basic insurance, 3 day delivery in USA, almost unlimited weight if it fits in the box).

Regardless, for international shipments, it is important to understand how the postal systems work. The USPS cannot address/resolve what it does not control. When you order or send something international, the USPS gets it from, or hands it off to, the destination postal service, which may be run like crap. The shipment is beyond the USPS ability to QC at that point.

I have used USPS, UPS, Fedex and DHL extensively for domestic and international for years and each has their sweet spot. Even by specific countries you will find Fedex is better than DHL or vice versa based on their local operations.

If you want a somewhat "guaranteed" quality of service, you need to use a global fedex or dhl service where it is in their hands end to end (I include their foreign subcontractors/partners since they are still within the DHL/Fedex ecosystem and logistics tools). Nothing is free and these companies are not subsidized by their governments, so it will cost more, but take less time, have better tracking, better customer service, and you get "one throat to choke" if you have issues.
Actually the ”crappy destination postal service” received the package last week and tomorrow I’ll have it in hand so jan 26 to April 9 is all USPS’s doing.

To be fair I have had packages move from the US to here in two weeks or less as well but it seems it’s a lottery. Last year I had a package mailed in March show up in June.
 
Actually the ”crappy destination postal service” received the package last week and tomorrow I’ll have it in hand so jan 26 to April 9 is all USPS’s doing.

To be fair I have had packages move from the US to here in two weeks or less as well but it seems it’s a lottery. Last year I had a package mailed in March show up in June.

I didn't mean to imply any particular postal service was crappy (although I can directly support my opinion for all of latin america, most of the caribbean, Italy and Spain) or that it wasn't delays by USPS in your example. I mostly meant to highlight that using the national postal systems often gets you the "we don't know, it's in the other guys hands" type of pass the buck answer.

I am sure Sweden's postal system is one of the best in the world for 7 months of the year. :)
 
I didn't mean to imply any particular postal service was crappy (although I can directly support my opinion for all of latin america, most of the caribbean, Italy and Spain) or that it wasn't delays by USPS in your example. I mostly meant to highlight that using the national postal systems often gets you the "we don't know, it's in the other guys hands" type of pass the buck answer.

I am sure Sweden's postal system is one of the best in the world for 7 months of the year. :)
They certainly have their issues as well, but operating in a small country means things move reasonably fast even though they screw up.
 
In my experience, shipping speed can depend a lot on which USPS sorting/clearance centre a package goes through on its way in or out of the US. From what I’ve seen, Jamaica NY appears to be particularly slow at processing and updating packages vs. other U.S. centres.

In fact, I’ve had more than a few Swiss-bound packages just show up on my doorstep here without ever having received an update after arriving at the Jamaica NY centre.
 
Also, I really didn’t pay that much more for fedex shipping. It was a little more but nothing like several hundered as someone suggested
 
It's not just USPS. My wife mailed a xmas card right after thanksgiving to our friends in Regina, Saskatchewan, CA.

It arrived last week... o_O
USPS probably couldn't locate your friend Regina. You need to put her last name on the card.
I also think you probably mis-spelled the name of that town in California.
 
Fed Ex got over 3500 poker chips to me in about a week from New York to Ontario Canada.....this is outstanding. USPS has averaged between 2 to 14 weeks for packages of any size.

Currently I am 3.5 weeks waiting on cut cards....send from the USA to Canada.
 
Also, I really didn’t pay that much more for fedex shipping. It was a little more but nothing like several hundered as someone suggested
If you have a secret way to score better rates with FedEx, I'm all ears. As it is, their standard rates are indeed $300-400 for the equivalent of a Large FRB with 10kg of chips in it. It could be that those who have a business account have better rates though. My parents always ship care packages from Canada via FedEx, and even with my Father's 75% discount as a FedEx employee, those packages still cost more to ship than an equivalent USPS or Canada Post box. The packages arrive in 2 days though, so there's that.
 
If you have a secret way to score better rates with FedEx, I'm all ears. As it is, their standard rates are indeed $300-400 for the equivalent of a Large FRB with 10kg of chips in it. It could be that those who have a business account have better rates though. My parents always ship care packages from Canada via FedEx, and even with my Father's 75% discount as a FedEx employee, those packages still cost more to ship than an equivalent USPS or Canada Post box. The packages arrive in 2 days though, so there's that.
That could be it. The package I’m receiving is from a business account and it’s for 400 chips.
 
Actually pretty suprised. My packages from USPS are arriving damn fast lol. It take about 6 to 10 days max to get here in the NL. Then couple days customs , max 3 and out for delivery
 
Everyone complains about USPS but everyone knows the deal. The reason why people still use it is that it’s usually 1/2 or 1/4 the price of the other shipping services. Especially when it comes to international shipping.

International chippers balk at even the cheapest USPS rates typically for me. I can’t imagine how much FedEx would charge for shipping a stack of cut cards or a sample set of chips etc.

Personally, I have never lost anything through USPS but certainly experienced my fair share of delays and tracking info errors. I wouldn’t send anything USPS that was time sensitive or of incredibly high value, but for standard chipping needs it just makes sense.
Try asendia never used them before but my br pro poker order was sent with them. According to their tracking it was still on its was to the UK. Today i get home and find a missed delivery note from them :unsure:
 
I shipped a package via USPS destined for Sweden on March 24. By April 2 it was was in Denmark, so I figured it would be delivered pretty soon after that.

Then this morning, I checked the tracking and saw that it's back in the USA as of yesterday! Going through Jamaica, NY. Kick me in the head.

View attachment 678004
That package has my dealer buttons and the whole detour it's taking is probably my fault. You see, one of them is the Millennium Falcon dealer button, and it's probably trying to make the trip in 12 parsecs...
 
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If it makes anyone feel any better, I currently have a shipment coming via DHL that was shipped via “2 Day Express” and was supposed to arrive on April 22nd here in Switzerland. Said package has however been sitting since April 21st in DHL Purgatory aka DHL Cincinnati and nobody can tell me when it will be forwarded. Yay.

I also have a rather large chip order that will be re-shipped to me via FedEx soon and I’m genuinely curious how the experience will be.
 
I was and account rep for DHL for 4 years. I will never ship DHL

I mostly use usps since it’s convenient and I’ve had very few issues. I’ll ship fedex or ups by request of buyers.

But I currently had an intl package that has been circling Jamaica, Queens, Brooklyn for about a month now. It was handed over to military agent, then back to Jamaica, Queens, Brooklyn.


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Fed Ex got over 3500 poker chips to me in about a week from New York to Ontario Canada.....this is outstanding. USPS has averaged between 2 to 14 weeks for packages of any size.

Currently I am 3.5 weeks waiting on cut cards....send from the USA to Canada.

Follow up.....yesterday I received a invoice from FedEx for $169CAN for duties and fees. I'd debate if I am obligated to pay them....package was delivered without a signature and I was not the one who initiated the shipment.....seems like a invoice issued in good faith but definately an illogical way to do business. It is rather deceptive to offer a low shipping rate to gather business then stick the recipient with the balance of the cost.

I have had he package for a couple of weeks now, is this a logical way to do business? looks like you pay he full bill either way if you go FedEx or USPS....only difference is speed.

To the sender don't worry I'll settle it, looks like all the shipping companies cost about the same in the end.
 
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