20% at hancocks of paducah ..........and shipping costs!?
12-09-2010, 07:06 PM
#13
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 4,688
HoP's shipping options are extremely easy to find on their website and international rates have not changed in quite some time. It is 30% of the order value with a $20 shipping minimum and has been for at least eight months or more. They use Global Priority or FedEx International Priority so I don't know what the comment about USPS not increasing rates has to do with anything. HoP doesn't even use USPS for shipping within the US. It is beyond realistic for any company to notify it's entire customer list anytime their shipping rates increase, imho, and clearly HoP's rates did not increase anyway.
12-09-2010, 07:34 PM
#14
Super Member
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: North-Central Indiana
Posts: 4,909
Originally Posted by granny_59
I would not shop at a place that only puts 4 yards into it.
12-09-2010, 11:54 PM
#15
Super Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Switzerland
Posts: 1,021
You are right, they do send with FedEx, but did they increase the tarifs lately?
I was asking their (extremely good) customer service when they increased the shipping (I do know what I payed so far) and they told me: two weeks ago.
I got upset yesterday as it happend a couple of month ago that they doubled their shipping rate during a promotion. Not paying attention at checkout I would have payed more than without the promotion.
Back then they told me that they had some sort of mistake in the computersystem and changed the rate.
I am fully aware that they will do fine without me but so will I.
Granny
I was asking their (extremely good) customer service when they increased the shipping (I do know what I payed so far) and they told me: two weeks ago.
I got upset yesterday as it happend a couple of month ago that they doubled their shipping rate during a promotion. Not paying attention at checkout I would have payed more than without the promotion.
Back then they told me that they had some sort of mistake in the computersystem and changed the rate.
I am fully aware that they will do fine without me but so will I.
Granny
Originally Posted by ghostrider
HoP's shipping options are extremely easy to find on their website and international rates have not changed in quite some time. It is 30% of the order value with a $20 shipping minimum and has been for at least eight months or more. They use Global Priority or FedEx International Priority so I don't know what the comment about USPS not increasing rates has to do with anything. HoP doesn't even use USPS for shipping within the US. It is beyond realistic for any company to notify it's entire customer list anytime their shipping rates increase, imho, and clearly HoP's rates did not increase anyway.
12-10-2010, 05:06 AM
#16
Super Member
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Orchard Park, NY (near Buffalo, which is near Niagara Falls)
Posts: 3,884
Originally Posted by MTS
... sending a package overseas from the US these days is one huge royal PITA.
The customs forms have to be filled out (and the online version is worse than the written one). And I have to stand in line at the PO - I can't just drop in the priority kiosk in the PO like I can with a stamped domestic package.
The customs forms have to be filled out (and the online version is worse than the written one). And I have to stand in line at the PO - I can't just drop in the priority kiosk in the PO like I can with a stamped domestic package.
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.)
12-10-2010, 07:59 AM
#17
Banned
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 4,134
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.)
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.)
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.
12-10-2010, 08:26 AM
#18
Super Member
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Orchard Park, NY (near Buffalo, which is near Niagara Falls)
Posts: 3,884
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.
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.
12-10-2010, 08:46 AM
#19
Banned
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 4,134
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.
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.
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.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
luvTooQuilt
Links and Resources
3
12-04-2011 07:21 PM
oldswimmer
Links and Resources
24
08-07-2010 03:55 PM
quiltmaker101
Links and Resources
0
11-09-2007 06:19 AM
