On 3-3-2025 19:28, Helmut Hamm wrote:
Interesting stuff this, as in: I am about to sell off my poster collection.
From what I gathered, from own experience and information elsewhere,
buying stuff in the US is strongly discouraged these days.
Last year a package took about 10-14 days which is (somewhat) expectable.
Last month I ordered a few Blurays from amazon.com.
Each of the 3 packages were sent back to Amazon at some point.
The last one I could track heading to LAX, waiting there for 10 days
before going back again.
Yet Amazon UK seems to work just fine.
Shipping posters out to the US from the Netherlands would be asking for
trouble I guess.
Unless I use a reputable courier service (if there are any left that is).
Not sure if that is worth it, I don't have 2000$ posters.
And yes, it has been decades since I posted something so this is not a
bot or anything.
Peter
DHL Germany still works fine, but I have stopped using the Postal
Services for international orders years ago.
At some point I had enough of explaining to clients that their package
is NOT lost, that it is simply sitting at the border waiting to access
the US, and that no tracking update for at least three weeks (or
longer) is perfectly normal.
I can ship a folded poster to the US for €25 and it will reach the
buyer in 4-5 days, including full tracking. If that is not fast
enough, I can ship two-day Express for a small extra. And most of my
packages within in Europe or the UK are delivered the next day.
Helmut
www.filmposter.net
*Gesendet: *Montag, 3. März 2025 um 17:53
*Von: *"Bruce Hershenson" <[email protected]>
*An: *[email protected]
*Betreff: *[MOPO] I have had it with the massive Post Office problems
I have had it with the massive Post Office problems. I just sent the
following to all my U.S. customers:
*IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT 3/03/2025*
First, some background. When I started in mail order 57 long years ago
(and in this business 35 years ago), the U.S. Post Office was
incredible! It was inexpensive to send packages, and everything got
where it was going, in the time promised. And yes, if you did not pack
that well, packages sometimes got damaged, which is why we started
packing so great, and because of that we almost never had *ANY*
damaged packages.
In fact, in 2000, the U.S. Post Office had a "flat rate" box, that
could hold around 50 folded one-sheets, or around 200 lobby cards, and
they only charged $3, no matter where in the U.S. you sent it. But
over the next 15 years, theU.S. Post Office went downhill in many
ways. First and foremost, the prices kept increasing dramatically.
Second, shipping times started getting longer, and more and more
arrived "late". Worst of all, there were more damaged packages,
including ours.
But in the past few years, things have gone from bad to terrible.
Prices are *MUCH* higher, delivery times are *FAR* longer, and *FAR*
more packages are lost or damaged. *Worst of all, the **U.S. Post
Office's tracking system has imploded*. Packages get scanned in, and
then there is no more tracking for weeks, and rightfully customers are
furious, and they want a refund, but we can't even put in an insurance
claim for 30 days, so we are caught in the middle.
And in the past few *WEEKS*, things have gotten *SO* bad that we feel
we must now take a major step:
1) Effective immediately, *WE WILL ONLY QUOTE UPS ON DOMESTIC ORDERS
(within the U.S.)*. If you insist on having your order sent USPS (the
U.S. Post Office) we will do so, but *ONLY IF YOU SAY YOU WILL WAIT
UNTIL AFTER WE HAVE FILED AN INSURANCE CLAIM (and collected on it) IF
YOUR ORDER IS LOST OR DELAYED.*
2) *WHY* are we doing this? Because, while some UPS orders in the U.S.
are delayed or damage, it is not *NEARLY* as bad as with the U.S. Post
Office. And with UPS, we have a personal representative who fights for
us (and gets many orders located and moving) and we have no one in the
U.S. Post Office who does the same.
3) *WHY* are non-U.S. customers excluded from this (for now)? That is
because the U.S. Post Office often does as good or better a job that
UPS on out of the U.S. orders. But this varies from country to
country, so we give non-U.S. customers the choice of UPS or USPS.
4) We *VERY* much hope the U.S. Post Office "gets its act together",
and that we can resume offering their service. The Postmaster General
has resigned and this entire massive problem is starting to get
national coverage, so *MAYBE* they will work on fixing this broken
system.
5) The only "silver lining" is that, for now, just about all the
packages *HAVE* been showing up and getting delivered. But a very few
have been permanently lost, which is why we insist on full insurance
on all orders (unless you have your own private insurance that covers it).
To sum up:
*1) STARTING IMMEDIATELY WE WILL ONLY QUOTE UPS ON U.S. ORDERS.
2) YOU CAN HAVE US QUOTE USPS (the Post Office), BUT ONLY IF YOU
REQUEST IT, AND IF YOU ACCEPT YOU CAN'T GET A REFUND UNTIL AFTER WE
COLLECT ON INSURANCE.*
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