Shipping cost

[Bulldogger]

So explain how I can get an item shipped from Finland to Iowa for $10 and signature is required. This is on a box that is 2x the size of a Large flat rate box.

My guess: State-subsidized shipping to encourage imports. China does it rampantly. It's making cheap CH electronics available for well less than they cost once imported conventionally for distribution. And sent direct-to-your-door.

Bulldogger

[NoZombies]

So explain how I can get an item shipped from Finland to Iowa for $10 and signature is required. This is on a box that is 2x the size of a Large flat rate box.

I suspect Finnish postage is subsidized by their govt. The receiving end country of any international shipment ends up taking a bath on their final delivery of the item(s)

[tomme boy]

I suspect Finnish postage is subsidized by their govt. The receiving end country of any international shipment ends up taking a bath on their final delivery of the item(s)

OR! They don't have the over promised pensions and health care that we have in the USPS????

[shooterg]

Sent package to a member here on Sept. 12 by MFRB. It disappeared . So much for tracking. Asked about claim form after 2 weeks. PO did not have , said go online. Found out no claims for 30 days. After 30 days online program would not work on my laptop (Windows 10) or wife's older(Vista). Back to PO. Ladies there spent half hour contacting somebody that mailed me forms that arrived barely in time to beat the 60 day deadline for filing. Claim initially rejected as it supposedly arrived 5 days late - even though my PO ladies knew it went in on time. Filed appeal - rejected this time because they say not enough justification provided for value. By time I could get a notarized statement from the buyer(if he would go to that trouble) the time limit for the last appeal would be up. I already refunded the buyer. Plenty more lost stuff stories from locals, seems our problems began when the PO moved sorting to Greensboro NC for this area. It's 11 more miles to UPS for me but that's where the next package of any value goes !

[Cleatus]

USPS does track...but it's horrible. Notice the Delivery date of Dec 7th and as of Dec 13 it was still in transit, and it was sent priority express over night Over a week to go from NJ to CT? I could have walked to CT and back in that time. No wonder big distributors only want to deal with Fedex/UPS...hell I only want to use Fedex/UPS at this point. Lost all faith and trust in USPS.

Scheduled Delivery by

THURSDAY
7
DECEMBER
2017
by
3:00pm
Status

In-Transit
December 13, 2017 at 11:48 pm
DEPARTED USPS REGIONAL FACILITY
WHITE PLAINS NY DISTRIBUTION CENTER
Get Updates

[TAC14]

USPS flat rate packages are the same from any state to any state.

[RED BEAR]

I would not trust USPS to deliver anything. Will not pay bills with USPS if there is any other way to do it. And there tracking is a joke had things get here without ever showing up on tracking. Have had numerous packages disappear off tracking never to be seen again. They deliver when they want to. Lucky to get mail 4 days a week. They have even done numerous news stories about how bad the mail service is in the area. And living in middle of nowhere you must expect to pay more. The best I can say is enjoy Paradise.

[waksupi]

I will say for USPS, I have shipped around 200 guns through them, with no loss or damage. UPS, on the other hand, managed to break the stocks on two rifles. One appeared to have been run over by a truck.

[bob208]

how do they drive the truck to and from hi. ?

[dragon813gt]

how do they drive the truck to and from hi. ?

They drive the truck onto a ship which then sails to Hawaii

[Scorpion8]

albunaitoo- I feel the pain, living in the last frontier is much the same. Some companies won't do USPS either. Call them on the phone requesting USPS, and they say sorry that's their policy, FEDEX/UPS is it. Yikes $$$ especially when shipping is usually more than (2x the Item(s) cost. I tell them UPS/FEDEX couldn't find me if they tried. So ya just lost a sale. bushman

I have done the same thing, especially since we all use PO Boxes off the roads here. I recently left a post with Dillon Precision over their shipping policies, $35 shipping cost for UPS Next Day (the only option presented) for a $28 t-shirt. And UPS won't guarrantee "next day" or even "3-day" in my area, so I refuse to pay for it. Plus one joker told me on the phone that if I called them, they could offer additional shipping options so I asked them since they have a website, why would I want to call them?!? The purpose of the website is so I don't have to call you, which is so 80's mail order. Likewise many places charge more for shipping to Alaska, even though a flat rate box ships anywhere for, you guessed it, a flat rate. The number of companies that lose my business grows daily.....

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Late last year I sold a shotgun to a member on this site. The package was sent to his FFL holder about 40 miles from his home. After two weeks went by I found the package sitting at my back door. I took it back to the UPS hub and they sent it again. Two weeks went by and this time I was home when the borf brown truck pulled up in front of my house. I was upset to put it mildly. The driver started to yell at me, asking if I wanted the package or not. I took the package and noticed it had been opened. I took it back to the hub and the women explained that there must be something wrong at the other end. I said, "yes there is, they can't deliver the package". So off it went again. After a few days I received a call from the FFL holder saying he had finally received the gun. He also told me that the UPS driver who delivers to him almost daily said that he had never seen the package.

[Eddie17]

I shipped to Alaska, a MFRB. Arrived on time an I was posted it transit from the USPS.
Same cost as any FRB, to all 50 states I believe.

[abunaitoo]

I've never had a package lost with USPS.
Had some delivered beat-up, opened, wet, late, but it did get there.
I think it depends on the post office it's sent from.

[RogerDat]

OR! They don't have the over promised pensions and health care that we have in the USPS????

Most of the financial problems of the USPS are due to Congress being the board of directors. Long story short they are way over invested in pension fund, CBO says they are good to around 2050 right now even if the stopped adding to it BUT ...
If the USPS stops putting so much money into the pension fund which is invested in T-Bills and counts as "income" on the budget then Congress would have to cut spending to compensate AND since Congress set the pension payment at a very high fixed amount (irrespective of profits) that when PO comes up short it borrows the money from Treasury which also gets counted as income in the federal budget. There is no financial reason to keep up the extra pension payments except Congress can't stop that fake income without cutting something or raising taxes.

The USPS turns a decent profit and are blocked from reinvesting it or branching out into other services Like document storage since they own large plots of land with warehouse space up the wazoo, proposed and Congress shot down. Normal stupid people would waste the money the company earns on buying stupid people stuff. Only Congress would order pension payments that exceed profits with a full pension fund and then complain about how the business is run.

[abunaitoo]

To much government control.
Anytime government has to much control of anything, it's not good.
Just wondering............
We can ship powder and primers from here, but the cost for the handling is the problem.
Hazmat is not the majority of the cost. In fact hazmat is not that bad.
Everything comes by air or water. So the shippers can add on a "special handling" charge.
This is the problem.
Do shippers charge "Special Handling" for over land shipping??????

[RogerDat]

To much government control.
Anytime government has to much control of anything, it's not good.
Just wondering............
We can ship powder and primers from here, but the cost for the handling is the problem.
Hazmat is not the majority of the cost. In fact hazmat is not that bad.
Everything comes by air or water. So the shippers can add on a "special handling" charge.
This is the problem.
Do shippers charge "Special Handling" for over land shipping??????

Hazmat is about it. Heck during some specials you buy $99 worth of stuff and shipping is free (still pay for Hazmat). Some items such as primed brass or primed shotgun hulls can only go ground and the only outfit I know will take it is UPS. They require you go to an actual UPS center and show id to create an account used to ship it too. The UPS strip mall storefronts can't do it. Has to be an actual UPS facility.

Most of the "special" handling I have heard of is for next day by certain time, or 2 day before 10:00 am and stuff like that. Now common carrier trucking has some fees for special handling. And drop ship to a residential address is generally way more money than drop ship to a commercial address. I forget what it was I wanted to order, maybe a roll up door and if it went common carrier to my house the shipping cost was more than my driving to Ohio with a trailer to pick it up even with paying for a motel. Something like $400 shipping, if it went to a business owned by a friend it was $125 shipping.

[abunaitoo]

We always get screwed with shipping.
I think it's just an excuse to make more profit.
We have two shipping companies from the states.
Only two, so it's probably a monopoly.
I'm sure they talk to each other to keep charges high.
Of course the government also has their dirty hands out for pay off.
It's the way business is done in a one party state. dem's are the problem.