Sending Holiday Packages Priority via the US Postal Service

[ultrarunner]

Going Postal...

Every year I send Priority Mail Packages filled with California Smoked Almonds to friends in Austria... they can't get enough and I like sending something produced in the good old USA and made in California.

It costs $55.95 to ship 10 pounds Priority with 6 to 10 days delivery time...

Mailed December 1 and 15 days later my packages have not reached Austria... should have known something would go wrong when the clerk attempted to direct the first package to Australia... even though the address was clearly typed in large print on a Post Office Label.

Anyway... all packages made it to San Francisco and then to Canadian Customs... some were returned to San Francisco after several days and then sent to Austria... some are missing and still listed as being 10 days in Canada awaiting Canadian Customs Clearance.

Normally, it takes 7 days transit time.

It would seem in this day and age where information is king... it would be possible to mail a package priority mail to Europe and have it actually arrive... not to mention the inefficiency and cost of misdirected mail circling the globe...

 

[JCB]

Bummer Ultra,

I usually like to support the post office and I do like your intentions of giving local USA product, but you got screwed this time. Hopefully the delay is more of a result of customs inspection (which is never fun to deal with) than USPS.

Good luck, and I hope it sorts itself out for you!

Joe

 

[BruceWard]

We often mail packages to friends in England and have similar problems. Unfortunately UPS and Fedex have stopped shipping packages to Europe other than the fastest and most expensive services.

 

[ultrarunner]

We often mail packages to friends in England and have similar problems. Unfortunately UPS and Fedex have stopped shipping packages to Europe other than the fastest and most expensive services.

Just got off the phone with the Post Office... the clerk said they were extremely sorry my package was misdirected and assured me of the probability that it will eventually reach the final destination... Canada has 21 days from today to answer my inquiry.

As an aside... the Post Office said I should have sent my packages via Fedex for guaranteed delivery???

We have Fedex at work and the cost per package was roughly 10% higher and the delivery time measured in days and not weeks.

 

[WVBill]

... delivery time measured in days and not weeks.

Unfortunately, you don't know that yet.... it could be longer by the time you get your nuts get out of Canada. :laughing:

 

[KubotainNH]

People wonder why USPS is losing money. Anything I need to be on time goes UPS or FedEx. Their tracking numbers mean something unlike the old post office. Kinda sad. Good luck with your nuts

 

[beenthere]

A lot of things are a-changing with shipping between countries. I don't like it, but something we will have to get used to in our future.
The package with the bomb on the UPS plane bound for the US is but one example.

We will see a lot of changes to the "normal" way we used to do business.

And the "nuts" in CA are but one of the concerns.

 

[ultrarunner]

I thought you guys would get a kick about a thread exporting CA nuts...

 

[aczlan]

As an aside... the Post Office said I should have sent my packages via Fedex for guaranteed delivery???

We have Fedex at work and the cost per package was roughly 10% higher and the delivery time measured in days and not weeks.

One thing to note about shipping USPS vs shipping FedEx (this is what I saw shipping stuff to Argentina between 2004 and 2006) is that FedEx requires the receiver to go to the airport of entry or pay a courier to do so ($150+). USPS packages go through customs at the local post office who is less likely to charge the full customs fees than the folks at the airport (especially when you are in the post office every week with 2 dozen facturas for the workers)

Aaron Z

 

[ultrarunner]

Update...

Received an email from the Postal Service stating my Nuts were shipped back to San Francisco after spending two weeks in Canadian Customs and were dispatched to Austria this morning!

$55.95 priority postage and 18 days in transit so far... maybe all is not lost

 

[Scooby074]

Glad their on their way to their proper destination.

In my experiences with canadian customs, you should be glad they were only held up for 2 weeks.:confused2:

And dont expect a answer as to why Ive watched items sit there for days on end with no justification.

(in their defense, us customs and USPS isnt much better, Especially USPS's PMI service... How hard is it to update tracking info anyways???)

 

[LRTX1]

So your package, sent from California, headed to Austria, first goes through Canadian Customs? What does Canada have to do with this matter? Shouldn't it be between US/Austria Customs? Sorry if this is something obvious I am not getting.

 

[ultrarunner]

So your package, sent from California, headed to Austria, first goes through Canadian Customs? What does Canada have to do with this matter? Shouldn't it be between US/Austria Customs? Sorry if this is something obvious I am not getting.

The Post Office misdirected the 4 Priority Mail Packages I sent on December 1... Three reached their destination by yesterday... after mistakenly being sent to Canada.

The remaining package was still in Canada until yesterday.

The answer I received from the Post Office apologized for the delay and said things like this happen more frequently at this time of year.

Here is the reply:

I sincerely apologize that your item has not been delivered. At this point I would recommend that you start an inquiry on this package to find out why it was sent to Canada instead of Austria, as well as what is causing the delay. Unfortunately we do not handle international inquiries via email. For more information your best resource would be to contact us at our International Office. Please contact us at 1-800-222-1811

Your item left the United States from ISC SAN FRANCISCO (USPS) at 11:55 am on December 17, 2010. Information, if available, is updated periodically throughout the day. Please check again later.

Detailed Results:

International Dispatch, December 17, 2010, 11:55 am, ISC SAN FRANCISCO (USPS)
Arrival
Arrival
International Dispatch, December 17, 2010, 10:45 am, ISC SAN FRANCISCO (USPS)
Out of Foreign Customs, December 05, 2010, 8:44 am, CANADA
Into Foreign Customs, December 04, 2010, 3:57 am, CANADA
Arrived Abroad, December 04, 2010, 3:57 am, CANADA
International Dispatch, December 02, 2010, 9:40 am, ISC SAN FRANCISCO (USPS)
Arrival
Acceptance, December 01, 2010, 12:11 pm, SAN LEANDRO, CA 94578

 

[johnrex62]

Hooray! Another shining example of efficiency in our post office. My daughter is also experiencing the expert care of highly trained employees in our US postal system. I am only glad we cannot say this is government service at it's best anymore. The best we can say is that it is a perfect representation of the level of care we can expect when a private agency is run by legislature.

My daughter ordered some vintage kimonos from Japan. The packages were shipped with tracking from Japan and reached San Francisco where they were redirected to the Nederlands. Funny, I never thought Texas and Nederlands were all that similar in spelling or even shared a common zip code. :confused2:

Someone at the Nederland Postal agency could apparently read and sent them back to San Fransicso with a note that "you are closer than we are", so San Fransisco decided to send them back to Japan. Japan's postal employees can also read english, so they are sending them back to San Francisco. We do hope someday to see these vintage items before they become truly antique items.

 

[ultrarunner]

Hooray! Another shining example of efficiency in our post office. My daughter is also experiencing the expert care of highly trained employees in our US postal system. I am only glad we cannot say this is government service at it's best anymore. The best we can say is that it is a perfect representation of the level of care we can expect when a private agency is run by legislature.

My daughter ordered some vintage kimonos from Japan. The packages were shipped with tracking from Japan and reached San Francisco where they were redirected to the Nederlands. Funny, I never thought Texas and Nederlands were all that similar in spelling or even shared a common zip code. :confused2:

Someone at the Nederland Postal agency could apparently read and sent them back to San Fransicso with a note that "you are closer than we are", so San Fransisco decided to send them back to Japan. Japan's postal employees can also read english, so they are sending them back to San Francisco. We do hope someday to see these vintage items before they become truly antique items.

Just maybe San Francisco California is not representative of the nation as a whole?

Some co-workers also had trouble with SF... I thought it was probably because we ship through SF.

 

[dcyrilc]

Update...

Received an email from the Postal Service stating my Nuts were shipped back to San Francisco after spending two weeks in Canadian Customs and were dispatched to Austria this morning!

$55.95 priority postage and 18 days in transit so far... maybe all is not lost

They did say Austria and not Australia, right?

 

[ultrarunner]

They did say Austria and not Australia, right?

I would laugh if it hadn't been a problem...

I paid for each parcel, the clerk collected my detailed customs forms and said my packages should be in Australia in 7 days.... I stopped dead and said you mean Austria... she said no... Australia!!!

She then looked at the labels, machine printed in large block print and said, "Oh, Austria, I need to redo all of them, not to worry it's the same price, only it will take 10 days"

Should have known it would be downhill from there.

My packages to Thurston County WA seemed to arrived without being routed through Canada... YEAH!

 

[Cat_Driver]

...Update...

Received an email from the Postal Service stating my Nuts were shipped back to San Francisco after spending two weeks in Canadian Customs and were dispatched to Austria this morning!

$55.95 priority postage and 18 days in transit so far... maybe all is not lost

Man, your nuts have traveled quite a bit:laughing:

 

[Willl]

And these guys don't understand why they're losing business and going under. :confused2:

 

[dcyrilc]

I would laugh if it hadn't been a problem...

I paid for each parcel, the clerk collected my detailed customs forms and said my packages should be in Australia in 7 days.... I stopped dead and said you mean Austria... she said no... Australia!!!

She then looked at the labels, machine printed in large block print and said, "Oh, Austria, I need to redo all of them, not to worry it's the same price, only it will take 10 days"

Should have known it would be downhill from there.

My packages to Thurston County WA seemed to arrived without being routed through Canada... YEAH!

Come on now, this is our wonderful govenment in action....

.....surely they can't make two mistakes with the same package???




...and this from a guy who works in city government.:ashamed: