Is Postal Service GPM reliable?

Can not buy insurance for shipping with flat-rate envelope.

[iloveu]

I just sent a product to my customer in Japan by USPS GPM (Global Priority Mail) this morning. I shipped it with GPM flat-rate envelope. At frist, I wanted to buy insurance for the shipment, but the staff said the service type I chose was not available for buying insurance, and she gave me a much bigger envelope and a bunch of forms including customs declaration to change the service type. I felt it was a lot of work to do and it costed me more money. So I decideed to still use flat-rate envelope to ship the product without insurance.

Does anybody have similar experience? Is the GPM service reliable? I am worried if the package gets lost, I have to pay it by myself. Since I am new to ship internationally, we need you guys' comments.

[grobe]

I find it reliable with about the same loss of packages as domestically--loss happens but rarely.

There are alternative shipping insurance sources other than the Post Office. One which I have seen mentioned (but have no personal experience) is U-Pic

The US Post Office only offers GPM to countries with fairly reliable postal systems. The country with probably the most questionable postal system in Western European is probably Italy--and USPS doesn't offer Global Priority Mail to there.

[HRoth]

I use GPM regularly and get a lot of orders to Japan, some of them very expensive, although they can still fit in the GPM small envelope. Nothing has ever gotten lost. The only problems I have had were orders sent to Brazil, where the order will get lost no matter how it is sent. I have given up sending things to Brazil, in fact.