Large U.S. postage increases on the 17th

Most of the large volume shippers from China send stuff via Hong Kong - because if you are on a large enough volume bulk shipper program HK post rates are some of the world's lowest. I know a guy who has a business doing that - the Chinese suppliers make consolidated shipments to him, and he sends things off via HK post - apparently even after paying for the shipping from China to HK and him taking his cut, it's still a lot cheaper than sending stuff via China Post.

 

Years ago all the shipping companies raised prices and i think most were citing the cost of fuel as the main reason. I think they should be lowering prices now instead of increasing them as fuel costs have gone down considerably.

 

I sent three parcels to the US via UPS (through a forwarding agent, it's cheaper) for Christmas. Two managed to get held up here - UPS' fault. As they were guaranteed delivery, I got my money back. Nearly £100.

The third was opened by Customs in Louisville. They used a knife to check what was in the gift-wrapped presents, slicing the packaging. Unfortunately, they cut through into one parcel. The present was a re-usable cool bag (the kind you get in supermarkets) folded in half, and then in half again the other way. The cut was about 2 inches - not big enough to see what the item was or remove it from the wrapping. Had they seen it was a bag, they may well have removed the wrapping to check something wasn't concealed inside. I strongly suspect they went "oh shit! I damaged the contents!" then sealed the parcel up quickly.

I told both UPS and the forwarding agent that I had purchased this item in a London store for £7, and it is only available in that store (it's one of the only Whole Foods stores in the UK - my friend is a Whole Foods nut and Anglophile, so I sent her a bag with Whole Foods London on it). I now have to spend £30 to get back to London on the train, £6.50 on the Underground and God knows how much shipping a replacement bag.

UPS said they're really sorry and would refund me. I pointed out I went through a forwarding agent and would have to contact them as the account holder. UPS sent me a $25 money card as an apology. The shipping agent insisted I show them an invoice. I told them I don't have a receipt for an item I bought in a supermarket in October, but here is my credit card bill. Reluctantly, they agreed to refund me... £7 for the bag.

Yes, UPS have got to the point where I can almost guarantee they're going to do something wrong, which is a shame. At least they try to put things right, though. Had that been the Post Office, I'd be battling for months to get anything.

 

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You hadn't already?

Sometimes, there are items on eBay using the Global whatsit programme and I don't know how they can post them so cheap. Often things like hardback books.

In the past, I used to be able to get a great big heavy old VCR shipped from Germany cheaper than I could get one shipped within the UK... but I don't know if that would be true today!

 

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Actually, that's wrong. A gift is up to £36, but a commercial item is £15... or $21 at the moment. If you mean eBay's Global Shipping Programme, it knows this and calculates accordingly - correctly. The customs fee, btw, includes £8 Royal Mail handling fee (basically, they pay your customs bill, credit you and charge you £8 for the privilege) on top of VAT and such.

 

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It's the same throughout Europe. I'm not going to convert it to every currency for you

If you want, though - over 22 Euros ($24, so they were right) and you get charged VAT at 27% in your country plus 3.5% on audio CDs. Plus your Post Office will charge a fee, just as ours does.

 

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USPS is being screwed by congress. Republicans are trying to destroy them in a very deliberate manner.

 

For one USPS customs has to do (or should be doing) the same work, as any other similar agency.
Yet in my experience rarely tacks on such fees.

I've sure never knowingly paid, or been asked to pay, a mere penny in the matter much of the rest of the world is expected to.

 

It's getting harder and harder to get a deal online. With the rather poor global shipping program I being from Canada. Have to council every American eBay seller to ship it without global shipping. I have always enjoyed shopping online and buying random eclectic things. Though if shipping prices rise I simply won't afford it. Speak out, start petitions do what you can American people to stop these things. Ever since global shipping took place I swear it has caused Americans and the eBay/PayPal companies to loose a ton of money from disinterested Canadians and any other countries out there who simply know the global shipping program is an absolute scam!

 

I just started emptying out my closet via eBay a couple weeks ago, so take this with a grain of salt. Recently I discovered FedEx SmartPost when I go to print shipping labels on eBay. It actually uses handoff to USPS for the final delivery; they even give a USPS tracking number in addition to a FedEx tracking number. I have found SmartPost to be consistently cheaper than USPS on heavier items. So it seems like you are onto something there.

Still, how can it be that low!?! It's cheaper than Walmart. Just out of curiosity I order 99 cent tweezers off eBay from HK because shipping was free. They seem as good as what I got from Walmart. I mean, how can they possible be making a profit? Just boggles my mind.

 

One of my relatives got a job in a city a few states away from her home, so she asked the USPS to forward her mail to a different address.

The result? Her mail disappeared for 2 months, except for the occasional time when it would go to her old address. After a month of back-and-forth nothingness on the phone with them, they still didn't know where it was going, so they opened up an "investigation" on it. The investigation yielded no results.

She had to void the forward request and recruit someone nearby to manually gather her mail and send it out.

In short: USPS is the Ninjabread Man of package delivery

 

What your forgetting / overlooking is what the markup is on all of that stuff.
Walmart sells them for lets say $3.99 and you say, that's reasonable for that item.... not knowing if your willing to wait 6-8 weeks you can get it for $0.99 from HK.

1) Most aren't resourceful enough and 2) Most don't want to wait, so they pay what they think is a fair "market price" for the item.

My wife worked at a franchised craft store over the holidays and it was INSANE how much they made on items.
Fake Christmas Tree's for example.... Sold for between $69 - $159.
Store paid between $5 - $30 for those trees, so on a $69 fake tree they were making $64.
On a $159 tree they made $129

That's why they can sell all of that stuff for 75% - 90% off at the end of the season. Markup is CRAZY when you are purchasing in bulk!

 

I was wondering why eBay didn't charge me upfront like they do for USPS! How long does it take before you find out what they will charge you?

EDIT: eBay representative told me how to see what FedEx ultimately charges you. From My eBay Summary, click Account tab. Then, under "Current Balance", where it reads "View", click All account activity. From here, under the column labeled Transaction type, scroll down until you see the "FedEx Shipping fee" for an item.