AW: [meteorite-list] International shipping isssues

From: Martin Altmann <altmann_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Mar 31 16:24:25 2006
Message-ID: <006801c654ac$8ecdadf0$936cfea9_at_name86d88d87e2>

Hi Harlan, Adam

Since 6 years, I?m shipping to and am recieving parcels from many different
countries and all continents.
Whole Europe (only Slowakia, Slowenia, Norway, Portugal, Andorra, Albania,
Monaco, Vatican, Moldawia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Latvia, Estonia, Greece,
Bulgaria, Belarus and Ukraine I hadn?t yet),
USA & Canada, Australia&New Zealand, Far East, several countries in Africa,
Middle & South America.

In all this years a single letter disappeared - was from USA to Germany ?
and once a parcel from Morocco was sent back without any reason,
well and about 90% of all, which is thicker than a normal letter containing
a single sheet of paper from Germany to Walachia, a somewhat special region
in Romania, to other regions of that country there were no problems. (No
disquiets for those, who always collect stuff for the poor children there,
I?m sending the cases with a private bus company, everything arrives).
Another exception shall be Russia, where I heard it is impossible to send
from and to send to, as there would be stolen a similar percentage as in
Walachia.
Special caution also need shipments from USA to Iran and vice versa, as your
partner in Iran may get troubles, there it?s better to ship it with a stop
in Europe.

So Harlan, with a loss of less then one-tenth of a percent, I?d say
international shipping is save.

My stuff from Germany to USA takes by airmail in general 5 ? 10days.
Without airmail in general not more than 3 weeks. Only once it took 5 weeks
in the X-mas traffic, but from time to time slow ship is as fast as airmail.
I learned from a post employee, that no matter whether it is labelled as
airmail or slow mail, all items from Germany to U.S. are sent together by
plane.
How long it takes then, depends on the US-services.
I remember the time after Sep-11, there obviously the shipments were checked
more carefully and there were some remarkable delays.

Vice versa from US to Germany it takes quite the same time.
But remarkable delays can happen, if customs gets the parcel (about 7% are
x-rayed at present).
Often not before 2 or 3 weeks one finds a note in the letter box, that one
has to appear at the office. (record was 5 weeks).

Delays caused by the customs can be accelerated, if either the addressee has
a registered customs number (like a firm) or if a high value is declared on
the green sticker.
In both cases the addressee has to pay taxes and most are not willing to do
so.

Registered letters seem to be treated better, from my experience, there
unexplicable delays occure more rarely.
But again, the shipping rate is higher, and most addressees don?t want to
pay it.

Most losses seems to appear on-the-spot at the addressees, who suffer from
the disaffection of their very local delivery personnel.
Some of my collectors ask me always to send registered with personal
hand-over, as quite often the stuff doesn?t arrive, no matter from where it
was sent.
Others have somewhat strange postmans, who insist that the names of all
inhabitants of the apartment must be noted on the envelope ect.
And this might also explain e.g. that Matteo complained that several
shipments didn?t arrive, while other Italian collectors have no problems.

Buckleboo!
Martin

________________________________________
Von: meteorite-list-bounces_at_meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces_at_meteoritecentral.com] Im Auftrag von harlan
trammell
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 30. M?rz 2006 19:59
An: meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com; raremeteorites@comcast.net
Betreff: RE: [meteorite-list] International shipping isssues

international shipping is 100% risk- insurance stops at the border and once
it is out of our hands (U.S.) they might get it, or they might not. i try to
make my buyers aware of that. i have had fair luck w/ fed-ex, but there is
no legit insurance. once it leaves our borders, i really wonder what the
incentive is to deliver it at all.


i will be gradually switching over to yahoo mail (it has 100 FREE megs of
storage). please cc to: bigpineartifacts_at_yahoo.com
________________________________________
From: "Adam Hupe" <raremeteorites_at_comcast.net>
To: <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Subject: [meteorite-list] International shipping isssues
Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2006 07:44:19 -0800
>Dear List,
>
>I was wondering if anybody else is having problems with shipping to other
>countries, specifically Germany? It seems that about every six months I go
>through a cycle were things are seriously delayed or in rare cases lost
when
>using USPS Airmail to Germany. I have made hundreds of international
>shipments and have only had one other incident with another country outside
>of Germany and this was only a delay. I always ship within 24 hours of
>payment and to have something take over 30 days is unacceptable. Can
anybody
>tell me how the German postal systems works and why it is so inconsistent?
>
>I have had 14 incidences with shipments to Germany the last two years:
>
>10-with month or better delays
>2- lost for over six months and returned to me even though the address'
were
>correct
>1-opened with no item inside (100mgs of NWA032 fragments missing).
>1-Never recovered
>
>
>I would like to give German collectors some reasonable explanation to why
>some of their packages are delayed and others are not so any information
>would be useful.
>
>Thank You and Take Care,
>
>Adam
>
>
>______________________________________________
>Meteorite-list mailing list
>Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
>http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Received on Fri 31 Mar 2006 05:19:10 AM PST