Originally Posted by Favorite Fabrics
MTS,
Do you mean it's the outbound shipments (from Japan or Romania to the US) that were affected?
And... I don't think that here in the US we have even had the option of shipping via "slow boat" for several years now.
From those countries TO the US. A lot of Japanese ebay sellers were caught off guard. But from what I was able to dig up on other sites, if they were to include detailed information about the recipients that the DHS was requesting, then it would be OK. Some of that info included SSN. Now, I love my Japanese sellers/vendors to death, but the likelihood that I'd ever hand out my SSN is ludicrous. But that was DHS requirement. Which is why Japan Post (which I think I has been privatized over the last few years) decided to just pull the plug on on everything over the 453g limit for outgoing airmail to the US.
You're right about surface mail outbound from the US - unless you go the cargo route. But it is definitely available for some/all (?) other countries TO the US via their post offices.
As for Romania - when the first Japanese vendor contacted me about the probable delay (he had sent it out and the package was returned to him because it weighed over the 453g), I wrote to my friend in Romania and mentioned it to her because I knew she was going to be sending some important stuff to the US within days. She asked at her local post office and they didn't have any restrictions. She went into a panic anyway and got it out immediately on that Friday, for a cost of over $300, which she expected. Whew! Crisis averted.
Except when the packages (plural) were returned to her local post office on Monday. They had gotten as far as Bucharest but got turned back there. It was not a good day. And the alternatives (FedEx and DHL) were over $1000. They were/are still taking packages because they use their own planes - not commercial passenger airlines.
Oy.