How will USPS changes affect international sellers?

[SanaGem]

Hi dear team!
According to official USPS information on tracking of Import Registered Mail, packages sent from many countries outside US will no more be visible ( trackable by number given by original post ).
http://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2015/pb22424/html/info_002.htm
Here is a list of the contries that provide tracking:
http://faq.usps.com/?articleId=1437076354655
I am shipping goods from Ukraine and sadly my country is not on the list, along with Poland, Moldova and some others.
We have been dicsussing it among Ukrainian shop owners. Now a few questions arise: Will it push buyers away that their orders are not trackable? Should we now rewrite shop policies and indicate that we do not provide tracking? And the most important question, how do we know that the order is delivered? If the package is claimed lost or undelivered, how can we protect ourselves and prove it was shipped? How to stand against scam if a buyer receives an order and says it never arrived? Too many questions... Would be really helpful to hear advice from admins and experienced Etsy members.

[CircusOfCelebrations]

Oksana,
Sadly, that is why I have had to stop selling to many countries. Last year, I had to remove many countries because I simply will not ship where I cannot track it. Add to that all of the problems people are having with VAT, and I am currently only selling to the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. These restrictions and taxes are not eaxactly making it easy to sell globally.
I'm also curios to hear what others think and are doing about the USPS changes. Is another international shipper a practical solution? I'vd always found rates for my 2+ lb. and large boxes to be outrageous with UPS. Maybe there's a solution that will work for the Ukrainian shops and US shops too.

[LeedsRadio]

Cindy -

Are you saying UPS has outrageous charges or USPS?

[SanaGem]

I called Ukrainian Post help line today with this question, and the person on the phone was unaware of these changes. I emailed them and hope to hear back.

Cindy, if you are in US and remove some countries from your Ships to list - you still potentially have all American buyers. If we can not ship and track orders from Ukraine to US - we can not sell securely on Etsy at all.

We are used to having not trackable packages to Australia, Italy and UK. If we received orders from these countries, which were a minority among all US orders, we would just bless the package and hope to hear from the buyer when it arrives. Now if our countries' postal services do not get coordinated, we will be in a big trouble.

[BlackCatStudio98]

I just made a purchase from the Ukaraine. I never expect tracking when I order from other countries, and I don't provide tracking when I ship internationally because it's too expensive. Tracking would definitely be ideal. but I don't worry too much about it. The majority of my sales are in the US though.

In the last month my international orders have come to a complete halt, and I'm wondering why.

[Former_Member]

I have never been able to track my packages, all I can do is initate an investigation when a customer complains and then it takes forever until I receive an answer. USPS is just not interested in providing any information.

If you think about it it´s ridiculous really. Nowadays everthing has to be "online" and trackable. it would be no work to scan the the bar code on a letter. we have the technology but do not use it the way it would be possible.

[LeedsRadio]

I ship everything with tracking. Not sure whey anyone would think that it would be expensive as it is FREE on both Priority Mail and Express mail as long as you generate labels electronically. And to destinations where First Class packages can have Delivery Confirmation, that is also free as long as you generate the labels electronically.

All you need is one irate customs every few months who doesn't believe you have shipped, or one dishonest person who received the item but who want to get over and having tracking is what you'll want.

[SanaGem]

Amy Lloyd Young, I can assure you that Ukrainian post works fine and you will receive your order soon. Very surprising for us why Ukrainian post is not on the list.

I agree with Richard, tracking is very helpful if you have to deal with occasional dishonest buyer and especially if you have a case on PayPal ( which is one and only payment method we can work with ) It used to cost from $5 here and more, depending on the package weight, to ship a small package abroad with tracking. Same price for all countries, just depending on the weight. And we were ok with that, all Ukrainian sellers used to ship their orders with tracking. We work hard to get our shops noticed and to make sales. Not everyone will agree to buy from the other end of the world and wait for it to be shipped, and even less likely if it's not trackable.

From what USPS site says, it does not depend on us, how we make shipping labels. It is only a matter of agreement between USPS and other countries' postal services about the standards of their work, and we can not control it ((

[CircusOfCelebrations]

Oksana, I didn't realize that the US made up such a large part of your orders. I also didn't mean to belittle your troubles by expanding the topic. Sorry if it came across that way. I definitely understood that it was very troubling to the Ukrainian sellers.
Richard, I meant UPS. I use USPS because my larger orders that are 3-4 lbs. and boxes that are like 21x15x15 were very expensive to ship UPS, compared to Parcel Post. I had just brought up the idea of UPS as a question of whether the Ukrainian shops could use UPS or another shipping company at a similar cost to the USPS. Unless we are helping them find some options and suggestions. Let;s drop my point about US shippers.
Thanks,
Cindy

[BlackCatStudio98]

So international tracking is free if you print labels through Etsy? I think I better get a printer so I can print labels electronically. I go to the post office where you have to ship express to get tracking for international packages and it costs $45 which is why I ship first class which does not include tracking.

Just to clarify, I always have always had tracking on domestic orders even when it wasn't included with first class shipping. However tracking doesn't always update, so it isn't 100% reliable.

Thanks Oksana, I'm not worried, I'm sure I will receive my package. That's good to know though that your postal service is so reliable. :)

[SanaGem]

Good morning!

Here is a petition to USPS from European crafters and Etsy sellers:

https://www.change.org/p/usps-usps-redefine-the-tracking-policy-for-international-packages?recruiter...

If you want to support us, welcome to sign. It does affect not only Ukrainian sellers but many European countries whose postal services usually provide fast work and tracking.

Cindy, I did not take it personally )) It is ok, every seller is looking at the situation from his own angle. Being in US, you have choice of postal services inside the country and you can do well without selling internationally.

For us ( and by us I mean sellers from many other countries, not just Ukraine ) there is no choice: Etsy is mostly American marketplace and we need to reach American buyers. In our country we have only one Ukrainian Postal service that works internationally. Other express courrier services like EMS are too expensive for small handmade goods. Shipping a small package by EMS starts from $40. When we handle a package addressed to US to Ukrainian post, we can not choose what postal service takes care of it in US - can not pick USPS or UPS or anything else. There must be certain international agreements between postal services of our countries.

This is why I started this topis to get attention to the issue, perhaps have admins look into the situation. European teams are working now on petitions to USPS and to their local postal services.

We will continue working on Etsy and getting ready for the coming holidays. We just want to do it securely and meet all Etsy requirements ( without tracking we do not have seller protection and may get in trouble in dispute situations ) Like some of you said, many sellers do not do tracking and customers may not care about it. We are probably more interested in our packages being trackable. Every seller follows his orders, and very often customers miss delivery notes and find out from sellers that their orders have arrived )) In a way we used to do part of the job for postal services, because we want our customers happy.

Just hope this issue gets more attention. I believe Etsy management team has enough power to contact USPS and make an inquiry about the list of "trackable" countries to be expanded, so Etsy remains a truly international marketplace where people can buy and sell securely from any part of the globe.

[SanaGem]

Please support the petition to USPS from Ukrainian Etsy sellers:

https://secure.avaaz.org/ru/petition/United_States_Postal_Service_Tracking_international_packages_fr...

[FeltBabyCorner]

Oksana, thank a lot for working on it! Good luck to us!

[SanaGem]

Thank you, Dasha!

Our petition is already signed by more than 500 people.
Big thanks to Etsy members from US who supported us.