And a huge thank you to the USPS...

[anghara]

... for simply declaring that it will no longer carry cheap(er) postage rates for overseas. A book I just sent overseas cost me close to $20 - because the only options left are First Class or Priority Mail. My nieces are going to be awfully short on birthday or Christmas presents from now on, seeing as it will probably cost me more to mail them than it did to obtain them.

Might someone inquire of the USPS whether they thought this out properly? They are a SERVICE ORGANISATION. They exist - or should exist - in order to fulfill the needs of the public in the arena of mail. They do NOT exist - or should not exist - simply and solely to make a profit, especially if that profit is earned by cutting out services for which there WAS a need, seeing as the US is traditionally a country full of people with friends and family overseas to whom occasional parcels might be sent. Just what was so damned difficult about getting together a container-full of sea-mail to ship off overseas every so often? I mean, come on!

Oh, and while I'm at it...? This whole new thang they've got, with postage rates now depending on the item's size, and shape, and weight - this is just a form of holding the public at ransom. Now you have no way of knowing how much postage should go on any given item, you HAVE to go queue in the post office if you have anything remotely unusual and non-standard to send (like a bunch of bookmarks, for instance) - and even if you have a plain and simple envelope, if it has a couple of sheets of paper folded inside it and suddenly weighs more than a certain amount you have to pay not one, not two, not five, but SEVENTEEN cents extra postage for every additional ounce. And God help you if you wanted to send an unusually shaped large birthday card to a five-year-old, for instance.

Feh. Not happy.

Comments

[hrj.livejournal.com]

I got bitten by the weird sizes one when returning a manufacturer's product warranty registration card. Because the postcard was too close to being square (rather than standard postcard shape) it cost more to mail than if I had enclosed it in a standard-size letter envelope and just mailed that. The annoying thing is that I'd gone to the official usps web site to look up the correct postage and I'd followed the instructions to the letter. You couldn't get to the page explaining about odd shapes unless you already knew that you needed to go there.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

They introduced the size/shape thing in the UK in January.

My local PO charged me 4 pounds for each GT book send to the US.
The PO near work charged me 4.11.
The one near the underground station charged me 4.22

Each claim that the other prices don't exist.

[pixelfish.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw that too. I was thinking it was partially due to email being so easy to send, that they want to jack up their rates in other areas. Bah to them.

On the other hand, I'm pretty certain the new rates hit direct marketers where it really hurt. There were a few complaining in a CNN article and suddenly I was all, "Hey, I don't mind this as much if it saves trees from the direct marketers." But still I can understand your pain. No fun sending mail out of the country.

[rugor.livejournal.com]

I know Canada Post uses the same rules, and got rid of book rate years ago. The end result, I avoid the mail whenever possible.

[clarkesworld.livejournal.com]

This is going to really hurt small booksellers. I used to do a lot of international business and I know I'd have lost most of it with these new rates.

At least there is still the international priority flat rate envelope. Most books fit in one with plenty of room for padding and that only costs $11.50 to most countries.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

Its going to hurt Amazon, too, because I utterly utterly refuse to pay $30 postage for a couple of books and a CD.

And now - hint, hint - I need a willing courier who'll bring the CD to Worldcon. I'll go without the books; but the CD's not available elsewhere on the planet.

[clarkesworld.livejournal.com]

I really don't think Amazon will notice. They are in a different league.

[anghara.livejournal.com]

*A* CD? A single one? I can manage that, I think, although I'll be packing minimalistically. Email me.

[charlieallery.livejournal.com]

At least there is still the international priority flat rate envelope. Most books fit in one with plenty of room for padding and that only costs $11.50 to most countries

Yup, I use a mail-order bookstore in the US that will send 3 trade paperbacks in the flat rate envelope. The card protects well enough and there's room for a little paper wrapping - and it's surprisingly quick.

[nycshelly.livejournal.com]

Oversize envelopes have long needed extra postage and I seem to recall paying extra for small, oddly shaped envelopes one year for my holiday mailings, back in the '90s. This really isn't anything new.

The USPS is one of the national agencies that does, as I recall, need to make money to stay viable. Not only does it have competitors now, it also must deal with the erosion of its business thanks to email.

I'm not happy about the higher rates (it's hurting me in my eBay purchases), but I do understand them.

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

I suspect that this is going to drive business *away* from the USPS and to UPS and other carriers, at least for domestic deliveries.

[nycshelly.livejournal.com]

Yes and no. It's still more convenient for me to mail USPS via mailboxes and the nearby Post Offices than to go to UPS. FedEx maybe, because it's FedEx Kinko's now and we have one of those down the block from work. But they ain't cheap.

I don't mail much anymore, mostly birthday cards and cards and gifts for the holidays and not much of those. I'm sure folks like me are hurting the USPS because we email more than ever.

[khyungbird.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking about it and I am only going to use FedEx or UPS for foreign packages from now on. It's a *few* dollars more expensive to use FedEx (as opposed to three or four times more expensive, like it used to be), but spite is a powerful thing, and as far as I'm concerned the US Post Office can collapse into pieces for all I care.

[anghara.livejournal.com]

*All that being said*, parcels containing small items which used to be sent sea-mail at reasonable rates and kind of got there when they got there and that was fine are not being eroded by email in any way shape or form. *I* have a need for that service. So do a bunch of small businesses who send small things overseas. I don't know the whys and wherefores but this seems to be a question of the corporate entity doing what's convenient for THEM and not what their public actually wants or needs to have them do. And that's just oogy.

[fairmer.livejournal.com]

Libraries in general, and mine in particular, have been especially hosed by this--our international interlibrary loans postage situation is Out of Control, officially.

I don't even want to talk about it. Let's just say, everyone is sort of going crazy, and being the "shipping manager" is no longer the sinecure it used to be.

That said, the USPS is no longer a government-supported organization, and they have to make their own way in the marketplace while still abiding by a number of regulations--all of the crap and none of the benefits of being a federal organization--and if they can't afford to provide the services we need, well, I guess that they can't afford to. As a small example, they can't give a fuel surcharge every time the price of gas goes up, like UPS and FedEx do.

Sure would be nice if the government went back to supporting them, though.

[norda.livejournal.com]

Michael and I do a lot of international business, and we're getting badly bruised by this.

[kesalemma.livejournal.com]

This is the way it's always been in Australia, at least in my memory. I remember my grandmother buying special fine paper that weighed less for airmail letters. Sadly, until recently, Australia Post was a government service. I'm not sure if it is anymore. Mind you, it's only been recently that they've brought in flat rate international airmail envelopes and parcel packaging.

[anghara.livejournal.com]

I remember those airmail letterwriting pads - onionskin paper and all. But that's not my beef - I am perfectly happy for international AIRMAIL to cost more if you send heavier stuff. But you used to have a choice - if it didn't matter when the thing got to where it was going, or if you were foresighted enough to send a parcel six to eight weeks ahead of time, you used to have the option of sea mail - parcel stuffed into container, container stuffed onto ship, like that. As far as I know, container ships still ply the seas as we speak. What bums me out is that the postal service folks have unilaterally decided that such options are now beneath them, or too much work, or something - because your choices of sending anything heavier than a simple letter-sized envelope overseas are now First Class (airmail, thus expensive) or Priority (gets it there airmail AND expedited, so twice as expensive).

The only reason I can see for cutting the sea-mail option is profit margins. And it annoys me that a good service is being sacrificed to pad the bottom line.

[netcrimes.livejournal.com]

I am also pissed about the USPS. They also got rid of the letter sized Global Priority mail envelope, and your oversized envelopes have to be a certain size or they charge more. I have to now fold over the 6.5"x 9.5" envelopes I purchased or I'll get charged an extra 30 cents. It's bullshit.