Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
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I mail quite a bit to England as my family live there. I only ever fill out customs forms for packages. With regular size #10 envelopes I just tell the clerks it is a letter or documents if they ask (most times they don't), and then for larger envelopes I sometimes write Newspaper' on the front.
I usually just pay the regular international rate ($1.34 or maybe $1.48, I use the 'forever' stamps so do not remember the exact rate off the top of my head) for the #10 envelopes and then the larger ones I just get weighed. Thanks,
Paul.
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Stamps are not just "paper". They are fiscal instruments. Collectible stamps are collectibles.
The postage rate your were quoted ($7.10) was for first class international parcel. Depends how you had it packaged (thickness, stiffness, etc.).
Customs forms are required. That has been stated here many, many times. Don't use the form, and you risk the receiving country opening the item, finding undeclared items inside and confiscating it.
Information regarding how to ship, and how much an item will cost to ship is readily available on the USPS web site. Also, several times I have provided the link to the USPS rate information book.
Sellers should know how to ship their sales, and know the risks for doing it wrong. How much risk one is willing to take is a personal choice. It's not the post office's fault.
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Phil, it's not anywhere close to that expense if sending by first class mail international, or first class mail international large envelope. I don't know how the item you had to mail was put together.
For an item not over two ounces being sent to the UK:
First Class Mail International = $2.21
First Class Mail International large envelope = $3.36
Postal clerks do make mistakes. They have hundreds of different rules and policies to follow. It behooves the mailer to know what constitutes letter size, large envelope and parcels in order to point out mistakes.
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Buy yourself a nice digital scale on Amazon; I got decent one for $6.00, and follow the rate schedule from the USPS and mail it yourself. I got into a big heated debate over the thickens of some #10 envelopes I was sending and they claimed the envelopes were too rigid for system and wanted to charge me extra. I have been weighing and posting without there expert help for a while now with no issues.
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I remember that the USPS is exempt from local and states weights and measures inspections. They are supposed to self inspect and maintain their scales but I found big differences between the post offices that were local to me when I lived in New Jersey.
Many years go a friend of ours had wedding invitations being delivered with postage due on them! They had them weighed at their local post office, bought appropriate colorful stamps to put on the calligraphy addressed envelopes, and mailed out the perfect invites.
Another local town weighed them and hit them all for an ounce. Our friends were mortified.
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Wedding invites marked postage due! That's a bummer
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Customs forms are absolutely required on anything that is not a document. Value makes no difference nor does calling it a gift make any difference. If you are sending stamps outside the US you must put on a customs form to be legal - most people don't but it doesn't make it right. This has been explained to me in great detail by my local postmaster and US Customs and Border Protection employees.
Your package would have been high rated if it was mailed in a padded envelope or if it failed to pass through the slots on the template (maximum thickness is 1/4 inch) or if, in the opinion of the clerk it would fail a bend radius test (must be able to be bent around a cylinder at so many ounces of pressure). There are 3 classifications of packages now - it is very confusing.
If you use stamps on a package with a customs form it MUST be handed to a window clerk. Stamped envelopes with a customs form attached placed in a pickup box will be returned to the sender.
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I always use Customs Labels
I usually incribe them "Used postage stamps for exchange-No Commercial Value" and have no problem - other than the odd package going missing. No official repercussions.
Malcolm
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01:17:10pm
" ... Postal clerks do make mistakes. They have hundreds of different rules and policies to follow. ..."
I'll give them that, but when I encounter what I feel is erroneous requirements I just take my envelope home; "Thank you, I have some stamps at home to add to it."
In the Lecanto area there are six or seven post offices within a short radius so I'll try one of the others and probably half the time get a different opinion.
Once I encountered what I thought was an excessive charge, but noticed that the clerk was closing and a different one, probably returning from lunch so I fiddled around at the doo-dads counter and then got on his line.
BINGO !
The envelope was accepted, neatly hand cancelled and away I went happy and smiling as Alice's Cheshire Cat.
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Hi Everyone;
Michael#### said:
"Stamps are not just "paper". They are fiscal instruments. Collectible stamps are collectibles."
Now isn't that just like a lawyer, all that legalese.
They are almost as bad as engineers; you ask them the time and they design you a watch.
Just funnin'....
TuskenRaider
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"Now isn't that just like a lawyer, all that legalese."
Ken, I'm not a lawyer.
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I no longer take ANY mail to the Post Office; I use a sub station at a large local Supermarket. My experience was that the postal clerks would always try to make everything rated as high as they could. I'd have to argue then down to what I knew was a reasonable rate I could mail my stuff for.
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Auctions
i went to the post office this morning to get a packet weighed for one of our members in the British Isles. a 6x9 manila envelope weighing something less than two ounces ...i expected to hear 3 dollars or so. The clerk told me the shipping was 7.40 and i had to fill out a customs form. When i asked why he said the packet contained non paper and the customs was Great Britains idea not theirs. I always thought stamps were paper. Was this clerk a cluck and should i try someone with more understanding ? This is why i mark my ebay listings no international mail..i will ship first class letters to Canada and Great Britain but other than that i usually operate at a loss !
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re: Unfortunate experience at the post office with International mail
I mail quite a bit to England as my family live there. I only ever fill out customs forms for packages. With regular size #10 envelopes I just tell the clerks it is a letter or documents if they ask (most times they don't), and then for larger envelopes I sometimes write Newspaper' on the front.
I usually just pay the regular international rate ($1.34 or maybe $1.48, I use the 'forever' stamps so do not remember the exact rate off the top of my head) for the #10 envelopes and then the larger ones I just get weighed. Thanks,
Paul.
Login to Like
this post
re: Unfortunate experience at the post office with International mail
Stamps are not just "paper". They are fiscal instruments. Collectible stamps are collectibles.
The postage rate your were quoted ($7.10) was for first class international parcel. Depends how you had it packaged (thickness, stiffness, etc.).
Customs forms are required. That has been stated here many, many times. Don't use the form, and you risk the receiving country opening the item, finding undeclared items inside and confiscating it.
Information regarding how to ship, and how much an item will cost to ship is readily available on the USPS web site. Also, several times I have provided the link to the USPS rate information book.
Sellers should know how to ship their sales, and know the risks for doing it wrong. How much risk one is willing to take is a personal choice. It's not the post office's fault.
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re: Unfortunate experience at the post office with International mail
Phil, it's not anywhere close to that expense if sending by first class mail international, or first class mail international large envelope. I don't know how the item you had to mail was put together.
For an item not over two ounces being sent to the UK:
First Class Mail International = $2.21
First Class Mail International large envelope = $3.36
Postal clerks do make mistakes. They have hundreds of different rules and policies to follow. It behooves the mailer to know what constitutes letter size, large envelope and parcels in order to point out mistakes.
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: Unfortunate experience at the post office with International mail
Buy yourself a nice digital scale on Amazon; I got decent one for $6.00, and follow the rate schedule from the USPS and mail it yourself. I got into a big heated debate over the thickens of some #10 envelopes I was sending and they claimed the envelopes were too rigid for system and wanted to charge me extra. I have been weighing and posting without there expert help for a while now with no issues.
Login to Like
this post
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re: Unfortunate experience at the post office with International mail
I remember that the USPS is exempt from local and states weights and measures inspections. They are supposed to self inspect and maintain their scales but I found big differences between the post offices that were local to me when I lived in New Jersey.
Many years go a friend of ours had wedding invitations being delivered with postage due on them! They had them weighed at their local post office, bought appropriate colorful stamps to put on the calligraphy addressed envelopes, and mailed out the perfect invites.
Another local town weighed them and hit them all for an ounce. Our friends were mortified.
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re: Unfortunate experience at the post office with International mail
Wedding invites marked postage due! That's a bummer
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re: Unfortunate experience at the post office with International mail
Customs forms are absolutely required on anything that is not a document. Value makes no difference nor does calling it a gift make any difference. If you are sending stamps outside the US you must put on a customs form to be legal - most people don't but it doesn't make it right. This has been explained to me in great detail by my local postmaster and US Customs and Border Protection employees.
Your package would have been high rated if it was mailed in a padded envelope or if it failed to pass through the slots on the template (maximum thickness is 1/4 inch) or if, in the opinion of the clerk it would fail a bend radius test (must be able to be bent around a cylinder at so many ounces of pressure). There are 3 classifications of packages now - it is very confusing.
If you use stamps on a package with a customs form it MUST be handed to a window clerk. Stamped envelopes with a customs form attached placed in a pickup box will be returned to the sender.
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08:51:47am
re: Unfortunate experience at the post office with International mail
I always use Customs Labels
I usually incribe them "Used postage stamps for exchange-No Commercial Value" and have no problem - other than the odd package going missing. No official repercussions.
Malcolm
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
01 Oct 2015
01:17:10pm
re: Unfortunate experience at the post office with International mail
" ... Postal clerks do make mistakes. They have hundreds of different rules and policies to follow. ..."
I'll give them that, but when I encounter what I feel is erroneous requirements I just take my envelope home; "Thank you, I have some stamps at home to add to it."
In the Lecanto area there are six or seven post offices within a short radius so I'll try one of the others and probably half the time get a different opinion.
Once I encountered what I thought was an excessive charge, but noticed that the clerk was closing and a different one, probably returning from lunch so I fiddled around at the doo-dads counter and then got on his line.
BINGO !
The envelope was accepted, neatly hand cancelled and away I went happy and smiling as Alice's Cheshire Cat.
Login to Like
this post
re: Unfortunate experience at the post office with International mail
Hi Everyone;
Michael#### said:
"Stamps are not just "paper". They are fiscal instruments. Collectible stamps are collectibles."
Now isn't that just like a lawyer, all that legalese.
They are almost as bad as engineers; you ask them the time and they design you a watch.
Just funnin'....
TuskenRaider
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this post
re: Unfortunate experience at the post office with International mail
"Now isn't that just like a lawyer, all that legalese."
Ken, I'm not a lawyer.
Login to Like
this post
re: Unfortunate experience at the post office with International mail
I no longer take ANY mail to the Post Office; I use a sub station at a large local Supermarket. My experience was that the postal clerks would always try to make everything rated as high as they could. I'd have to argue then down to what I knew was a reasonable rate I could mail my stuff for.
Login to Like
this post