Shipping from the US just increased almost 100% on many international products. It is insane. They charge 12 dollars just to ship a CD with case. On most weight and size classes they are even more expensive than the Norwegian post office (which is quite impressive since Norway is one of the most expensive countries in the world).

I love buying stuff from Germany. 3.45 euro for 500grams 😀

Our post office going bankrupt, they need the money.

It is seriously out of whack these days. My wife is from Japan and when we send a light package there it costs as much as when her family sends us an entire care package of snacks and cookies.

That is really killing any kind of business for small priced items.
I found two Xeon CPUs for my Dell Precision 470 for 10$, i ask the guy for shipping costs, thinking ive sent to USA before and its a bigger country, cant be more than 5 euro, but nope. 40$ flat.

USPS is constantly trying to come up with new pricing schemes. What Sliderider said.

Years ago you could surface ship stuff from the US to Canada or Mexico, now it is all done by air and that is pricey (so is the cost of fuel). I think USPS is making money on packages, its mail delivery that they lose money on.

+1

Fondly remembering the olden days(pre 2008?), of "USPS Economy Parcel".... 😢

It was really cheap - how about $53,50 for 40 lbs/18kg, and max was 66lbs/30kg for $76,80.
Or 22lbs/10kg for $36,95, etc etc..... 😳
(to Europe)

'Only' problem was, it would normally take close to 3(three!!!) months(!) to get here....
Going by ship I think.

But at least it got here, and it made it economically feasible to buy silly stuff like a full original factory crate with brand 'new' 5.25'' floppy drives for a pittance... or other huge and heavy lots of cheap computer 'crap'.

Unknown_K wrote:

Years ago you could surface ship stuff from the US to Canada or Mexico, now it is all done by air and that is pricey (so is the cost of fuel). I think USPS is making money on packages, its mail delivery that they lose money on.

Surface mail was discontinued several years ago because too many packages were being lost, stolen or damaged and it was taking too long to deliver. 30-45 days is simply an unacceptable waiting time regardless of how cheap it is with no guarantee that your items are going to arrive at all or in usable condition.

sliderider wrote:

Surface mail was discontinued several years ago because too many packages were being lost, stolen or damaged and it was taking too long to deliver. 30-45 days is simply an unacceptable waiting time regardless of how cheap it is with no guarantee that your items are going to arrive at all or in usable condition.

Doesn't seem to stop China Post. Its ridiculous that sellers there can ship stuff free or cheap (a few dollars tops). My last package international was a CPU to Spain in a tiny box, weighed a few grams tops..... $6 and change! If that package costs over $10 to ship now now, its robbery pure and simple.

I still don't understand how these Chinese sellers are paying such insanely low rates. As an individual when I try to ship stuff using China post it always costs me a bloody fortune. They must be getting some kind of rebate from the government.

Well, there are reasons why I buy more and more from ebay UK instead of ebay US; not only the S/H cost is lower, but the S/H time is significantly faster too!

Makes me wonder about the efficiency of US Postal Service....

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

Makes me wonder about the efficiency of US Postal Service....

That's union labor for you. Slow, inefficient and overpaid.

I also think that one of the reasons why USPS is doing so bad compared to post services in other countries (eg Europe) is that shipping within the US is relatively cheap compared to the huge distances. In Europe domestic mail travel a much smaller area. They know how much uproar it would be if they increased domestic mail so instead they up the prices on international shipping since fewer will notice/complain. What the politicians/post office don't think about is that this seriously screws over small businesses in the US doing international trade.

Shipping from China to the US is pretty fast as well. It has to be government subsidized along with the fact that there is a tsunami of stuff coming here from China every day.

The US Postal Service is really going off the deep end now. Just yesterday I shipped a 2 pound video card to Taiwan, and the cheapest option was $26 (no tracking or insurance). To track and insure the item would have raised the shipping cost to well over $50 (Global Express Guaranteed or whatever they call their money-gouging premium service these days).

The post office itself, which is in an old bank building, was dingy and dark. One of the two revolving entrance doors was broken and taped shut. The various posters and signs were mostly ripped and/or missing letters, and the pens were all broken off their chains at the counters. When I alerted my postal clerk, he said "Oh, yeah, the pens aren't working" and slid one through the bulletproof window for me.

The pens AREN'T WORKING? Clearly none of them give a shit. I'm not sure what destroyed the US Postal Service, whether it was government mismanagement or union sloth or both, but it seems to be reflective of a larger malaise in this country.

Several years ago when I was selling off all my stuff on eBay I used USPS quite often. Aside from being run down, I really couldn't stand the attitude the workers gave me. Even though I always tried my hardest to be polite and take care of my business as quickly as possible, they gave me the impression that I was annoying them. After I while I just started using the automated system to avoid them.

Ah yes, the APC. I use it whenever I can, but half the time the package receptacle is jammed shut because the postal employees haven't emptied the bin.

It also takes a ridiculously long time for them to locate packages in the back room when you are picking up. And for a while, they tried running a mobile location out of a truck a few blocks away, offering limited services like first-class letter mailing and stamps. Hardly anybody used it. I've no clue how they justified the additional overhead of a special-purpose truck to offer a fraction of the services as their main branch two blocks away, but at some point they must have figured out it wasn't working and canned the idea.

The US Postal Service is probably the best example I've ever seen of how NOT to run a company. It's the closest thing to Soviet-style bureaucracy in America.

sliderider wrote:

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

Makes me wonder about the efficiency of US Postal Service....

That's union labor for you. Slow, inefficient and overpaid.

United Kingdom has postal and telecommunication labor union too. Yet, postage from the UK is cheaper than that from the US, and faster too.

Anonymous Coward wrote:

Several years ago when I was selling off all my stuff on eBay I used USPS quite often. Aside from being run down, I really couldn't stand the attitude the workers gave me. Even though I always tried my hardest to be polite and take care of my business as quickly as possible, they gave me the impression that I was annoying them. After I while I just started using the automated system to avoid them.

It seems it's better to use automated system than being shot down by automatic rifle.

Anyone remember Jumanji? "You're not a postal worker are you?"