Originally Posted by Favorite Fabrics
If you do a lot of international shipping via USPS, you *can* make it a little easier, MTS. But you'll have to talk to your Postmaster. The issue is one of becoming a "known shipper" in the eyes of USPS. I believe it's a security issue. They want to know from where all the international packages are originating.
In our case, we had a long talk with our Postmaster, and now our international packages go out with all our domestic mail. We used to schedule daily "carrier pickups" but I guess after several years of this our mail carriers have just made us an automatic part of the route.
The only thing that we insist is done differently (for our benefit and our customers) is that the carrier has to individually scan each international package, so that there is a record showing that it has left our hands and is now in the hands of USPS. That way our customers can see that not only have we made a label for their shipment, but that the package has actually been mailed. (For our domestic packages there's a handy little thing called a "scan form" which automatically accomplishes the same thing.)
Thanks FF, I'm aware of being a known shipper. Aamof, I'm infamous at my post office. "What? More stuff from Japan?"
My point -to the OP in Switzerland- was that as a friend, I don't mind doing whatever is required. However, if I were running a business and certain "external" paperwork requirements were forced upon me, I might look for a way to recoup some of those costs, even though it's a clerk taking 3 minutes to fill out the form. If it's a small shop doing 10 orders a month, I'm sure it's not a big deal staffwise. However, Hancock's is running a much bigger organization, and maybe he's got a dedicated person doing it. I don't know.
Could they have sent an email to their existing int'l customers mentioning the fact the prices would be going up when they next ordered? Yes. But there aren't too many companies that do that for orders NOT yet placed.
Right now, in Japan & Romania that I know of because I've just recently run into this problem, unless you're a "known" registered shipper (and that paperwork can take 2-3 months), you can't send packages over 453 gr via SAL/Express Mail - anything that would fly on passenger planes. A lot of my vendors were caught off guard. So all other packages from individuals or smaller businesses that never bothered registering have to go via FedEx or DHL, which is much more expensive.
In Japan, they decided rather than meet the US DHS requirements, they just put a moratoroium on the shipments. Again, if the company/individual was already registered, they can continue to ship.
I now have to wait 2 months for some packages because they're being shipped via sea that normally would have arrived within 10 days.
But that's just the way it is these days.