jwolthuis
msg:3873801 | 10:27 pm on Mar 18, 2009 (gmt 0) |
The US Postal Service is the lowest-cost carrier for low-volume parcels, IMO. Software tools like DAZzle make the generation of customs forms a no-brainer, and free boxes with free Mon-Sat carrier pickup cannot be matched.
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dpd1
msg:3874059 | 9:22 am on Mar 19, 2009 (gmt 0) |
I have to ship a lot of long items and unfortunately some countries have a smaller max length limit than others. But you still can't beat the cost of the postal service. Most other services are 3-4 times the cost, plus they try and get people at the other end with broker fees.
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ambellina
msg:3874729 | 11:21 pm on Mar 19, 2009 (gmt 0) |
USPS is the best way to avoid broker fees that I have found. On our shipments into Canada (from US), FedEx Ground killed us with their brokerage fees, so we stopped using them. We haven't had a complaint out of a Canadian customer about fees since. I believe they sometimes have to pay a small (10%?) provincial tax on the items, but we can't seem to get any solid confirmation on this. Also, USPS has excellent speed of delivery into Europe and Australia. I shipped a Priority package to England two days before Christmas and the customer received it before the new year.
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ambellina
msg:3874733 | 11:23 pm on Mar 19, 2009 (gmt 0) |
Also on the brokerage fee front, when you use FedEx Ground to ship internationally, the customer can refuse to pay their duties/taxes/fees and then the bill comes back to you (maybe 6 months later). With USPS, they don't deliver the parcel unless those fees are paid!
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