Do you track# all of your packages?

[trinketsbydana]

Hi everyone,

I just got that first message saying someone didn't receive their package yet. Luckily, she was kind about it and asked f it was running late or whatnot.. but the weird thing was that I sent it out to Asutralia from the U.S. the same day I did with another Aussie bond package. Now I know the locations aren't exactly the same, but I noticed ...generally speaking, it takes a week to arrive.

I pay for tracking through paypal labels in the U.S. but for international mail, I usually just take it to the post office if possible or put first class rate stamping on it and send it off from my house's mailbox.

Is there a way to efficiently send out packages from home internationally? I'm curious.

Also, do you all have a price range for items you purchase insurance or tracking on or is it all of them...none?

Thanks!

Dana

[PangaeaDesigns]

Tracking and insurance aren't available for USPS First Class, only Priority and Express. Also, you can ship two packages to the same country the same day and they can arrive weeks apart. It all depends on what happens when they arrive in customs, both here and there. And distance doesn't really matter either. A shipment can arrive in Australia from the US in a week, but it might take 5 weeks to get to a Canada address.

So the bottom line is, First Class international shipping is unpredictable and there's not much you can do about it.

[Former_Member]

Yes, I agree with PangaeaDesigns, first class mail isn't really reliable in terms of international shipping( hell, not even domestic shipping sometimes). So I guess if you are shipping valuable items out of the country and want to have tracking and insurance, you could offer buyers USPS priority, however, that will cost much more than first class mail and if the buyer's willing to pay for it, you can send it via priority. UPS and Fedex are probably much safer for international shipping, but the postage is way too expensive for some items. But as long as the buyers don't mind paying for them, you can still offer it to them.

[ProfessorBooknoodle]

It used to be that we would get the occasional troublesome email from the other end. When we started to use Delivery Confirmation on ALL domestic shipments and announced that fact in all listings, those types of bothersome messages almost completely ceased. International shipping is a different kettle of fish. To have the ability to truly track an international shipment can be expensive. We sell a lot of books internationally, and because we keep track of troublesome delivery areas, we have had very few problems. Very few. We also pack to withstand the worst treatment a package can receive en route.

[Former_Member]

I always use tracking, even despite my items are relatively low-cost. Luckily, it is not a huge difference in cost between regular and trackable mail to US from Israel (and so far I had US sales only)

[ProfessorBooknoodle]

For international shipments, we have found that third party insurance is efficacious. One then doesn't have to post the value on the exterior of the package. Well maybe on the customs form. My better half takes care of this and she is good with all the details - we rarely have problems.

[IndigoPaisleyDesigns]

I do purchase insurance and tracking on all my original artwork,
gives me peace of mind:-)

[Former_Member]

I almost always use tracking. In one of my other shops I made the mistake of not adding tracking and it cost me. It seems that the few times I have sent items without tracking they "didn't arrive," It just seems fishy to me that of the hundreds of packages I've sent from my shops the only ones that have ever said the package didn't arrive were the few without tracking. Hmmm.... Expensive lesson.
Always use tracking.
I would suggest using small flat rate USPS boxes for international orders. You can do it through Paypal.

[Zehland]

I like to insure shipments over $100 even international ones. Usually, I ship by USPS first class mail for international unless the customer asks for Priority. Here is what I do:

I use ShipRush for USPS, which is a free service to print USPS labels. You can download it here: http://www.shiprush.com/products/shiprush_usps.shtml
Ship Rush offers international First Class mail and you can get delivery confirmation with it. The drawback is you cannot buy the postage with the free version, so I either add stamps or bring it to the Post Office to add the postage.

Now that I have a tracking number from ShipRush, I use http://shipsurance.com to purchase insurance if over $100. It is less expensive to purchase than USPS insurance and you can insure most international first class parcels as long as there is Delivery Confirmation.

This works for me but if you have a lot of international sales, you might want to use the paid service or Stamps.com which also offers what you are looking for.

As mentioned earlier, tracking is really iffy internationally. But if a customer complains and it does not show delivered, at least you can file a claim for insurance. I have not had to do this yet, though.

[trinketsbydana]

Wow-- thank you so much for all the great input everyone! I didn't know about shiprush and I guess the feeling of iffy international mailing wasn't alone on my part. I sell a lot of paper crafts and it isn't that expensive so insuring $6-$15 of paper seems so costly.

It's good to know that the package may just arrive late. :\
I'll have to start putting the option of priority shipping for the willing customers.

Thanks for all the advice everyone!