Tollergirl

I must count my blessings. I live in Germany (Army wife) and we get mail via USPS since we have an APO that is based in NY. Locals have mentioned the horrible cost of shipping from the US but i did not realize how bad it could be. Anyhoo, for those of you who ship to customers with an APO/FPO, the fastest method seems to be USPS. Not sure how the recent increase in postage impacts the cost effectiveness. I just placed an order with JoAnn's and it is going to take about a month to get here. Here's why: they Ship via FedEx to the NY postal facility, then is gets transferred to the USPS as PARCEL POST to cross the pond! ARGGH! they may as well strap it to a minnow! They got a serious complaint from me! Thanks, I had to vent.

fien777

I don't know the difference between the service of fed Ex and USPS. As I always recieve the flatrate envelopes.
because I can't spend that much money I always look out for the older series of fabric that are a little cheaper.
so I only had to pay customfees twice in all those years.
It's a pitty shipping is going up but unfortunately EVERYTHING is becoming more and more expensive....
As for the speed....flatrate envelopes from the USA always come in about 4 to 7 days after sending them....and I never had anything get lost or damaged.
When I order in the UK it takes longer to get here ;-)

YukonViv

USPS is the U.S. postal system right? I prefer that...Fed Ex doesn't come up here, it actually changes over to Purolater at one point and we only have a purolater desk where we can pick up packages only between certain hours, no delivery, so basically it's a pain in the patootie.

I honestly shop in Canada as most times when I order something, any savings in the cost of the fabric is eaten up by postage and customs fees...it's just not worthwhile at times. I've ordered from Fat Quarter Shop and Bee Sew Happy Quilting and try to limit my orders so they are under the max allowed before customs/duty gets involved...so I only get things that are really, really on sale.

QuiltingCrazie

I'm a army spouse too in Germany...where are you if you mind me asking ?? I'm with u we have an apo. My mom usually goes to joanns for me armed with a coupon and sends what I need when she mails a package. Have you found any thread places in Germany??

ewecansew

I am in Canada and usually prefer USPS. Yes, it would be interesting to do a test, but sometimes parcels come thru with no extra charges and next time, they are added.

Favorite Fabrics

For those of you in Canada... I asked Mr. FedEx about duty to Canada, and according to their tax/duty estimating tool, there is no duty to Canada - and it doesn't matter whether the country of origin of the fabric is US or whether it was made in China, S. Korea, Indonesia or Japan. Meaning, it's not because of NAFTA that there's no duty. It's that Canada doesn't charge duty on inbound cotton quilting fabrics. Mr. FedEx thinks that is because Canada didn't historically have a textile industry. I suppose that makes sense, because "textile industry" is nearly synonymous with "cotton" and we all know that cotton is a southern crop, not grown in Canada.

HST would still be due, though.

Lynnie25

I live in Australia and have just placed an order with FF. I am willing to pay for postage so it can be sent in a secure parcel, tracking preferable and the quickest possible way to get it (us quilters always want the fabric yesterday). I am happy to leave it up to the company / person in the US to source the best possible (and where practicable the cheapest) form of postage to get 'my precious cargo' to me.

Favorite Fabrics

Hi Lynnie25,

We haven't yet gotten our ship-by-FedEx system in place (I think it's going to require Mr. FedEx stopping by again to install some new software for us, and also train us on how to use it).

But when I looked over their international rates, there isn't a cost advantage to using FedEx, for customers in really distant countries, such as Australia. Working from memory - because I don't have the rate chart in front of me - I think it would cost $3 - $4 more to ship that flat-rate envelope by FedEx rather than USPS. The only advantage is the tracking, and it might arrive a little sooner.

My guess would be that it's not worth $3 - $4 just to have package tracking. But it is a valid question to ask: what *is* tracking worth? Maybe $1 - $2?

bigbrownowl

To be honest, I don't order from the USA now - I gave up trying to find a reasonable supplier a while ago. The Royal Mail charges were very hit and miss - sometimes I would get charged, sometimes not. There is very little now that I cannot source in the UK. It is more expensive per metre/yard, but offset against the costs of shipping it all evens out.

My daughter lives in PA now, and although not a quilter herself, will always get me anything I need from local quilting shops, then either bring it over when she visits, or sends through the mail. In my experience most quilting/fabric shops in the US don't want to be bothered with sending anywhere outside the US/Canada. Very occasionally I will buy from US ebay traders - if the postage is reasonable ($50 to send a small parcel of 3 FQ to the UK is NOT reasonable). This is usually for hard to find, or end of manufacture prints (such as the Beatles prints).