"No Sales to the US" Topic

I tried to buy a product from the UK and was refunded the purchase price as they no longer ship to the US as postal prices are 'now prohibitive'.

I appreciate their view, but it would've been nice to give me the option to pay the shipping cost. Especially as I can't get the product in the US.

I guess we'll see a lot more companies go under due to shipping issues impacting their markets.

Who was the company?

It was a small firm. No need to name and shame as they were very polite about it.

I'm heading to Europe in February so I'll have it shipped to a co-worker and pick it up then. I'll just have to wait.

Thanks. Was not looking for a name and shame, I was just curious.

The U.S. Postal Service announced two or three weeks ago their new Holiday rates, and that they were effective immediately! Because of that increase many hobby manufacturers overseas announced they would be holding any new orders from U.S. customers until after the rates went back down after the New Year unless the buyer agreed to pay the higher rates.

It's really kind of simple. Pay now, or pray the stuff you want is even still around later! That sound you hear is the prices in the Flea Market going thru the roof!!

Impeach the "Postmaster General"!

Impeaching the wrong guy. Impeach Congress who sets all sorts of crazy rules they have to follow.

My understanding was that the raising of rates was not only temporary but was only US domestic. Maybe I misunderstood.

The USPS problems are related to efforts to bankrupt them by making pension funding fatal. By normal business standards, the USPS makes 2-3 billion per annum.

Mentioned before but worth repeating.

WRT the Royal Mail, the US is no longer part of North America, but is lumped in with the Rest of the World for shipping rates. This is a result of the previous administration's failure to negotiate rates with the Universal Postal Union. Failure, in this case, is used in the objective sense. The administration announced the US would be leaving the UPU and literally did no negotiations for postal rates. In the end the US stayed in the UPU but with worst outcome.

Some small UK businesses seem to find it easier to simply suspend shipping to the US rather than deal with the customer's sticker shock.

My people mentioned to me today about shipping out a box containing about 15 or 20 resin ships of various sizes in a package about the size of three shoe boxes and the actual shipping cost was $215.00 USD!

Russ Dunaway

So will the void be filled by US based makers or those who create 3d print files?

Probably best to "sketch out" an order on a shopping cart. Go to the check out section and see what the postage is.
Most companies have websites that do this before any mention is made of payment et al.
The Peter Pig website might be a good place to start having a look at how postage would be.

Postage is mainly weight influenced but makers of large items will find that length measurement is also a big consideration.

best wishes
martin

Maybe there is a "freight forwarding" business opportunity developing here?

Checked recently on a purchase from Noble Knight, a wonderful company from which I order often. USPS rates to Canada on the purchase were $69 USD USD. After some searching, I found the same items from a Canadian vendor for $8.95 USD Cdn flat rate postage, via Canada Post (so no weird courier-like surcharges). The item shipped the day after it was ordered. Overall cost was close to $40 USD Cdn less.

USPS rates now are a very serious deterrent to any of my future purchases. Assuming this repeats across industries, the normal responses will apply, chiefly product and supplier substitution.

I have several times recently chosen a British or European supplier over an American supplier because the postage differential is so large.

Anything coming courier to Canada from the US is even worse than USPS, however. To the $30 USD-$50 flat courier rate is usually added (depending on the courier) a handling fee to charge and collect fees and taxes, whether those fees are charged by customs or not, or an additional fee based on the value of the order, or both. Canadian tax is then added by the courier to both the handling fee and the flat rate value charge. The double-charge, double-tax on my last order – which I successfully disputed – was close to $90 USD on a $200 USD order.

Enfant Perdus says that the US is lumped in with the ‘rest of the world' for postage from the UK. Sadly it isn't. The US has its own unique status as a result of leaving the UPU. It is generally at least 50% more expensive to ship to the US than anywhere else on the planet.

I'm guessing the company in the original post by jdpintex charges its postage as a percentage of order value. This can leave a big deficit between postage charged and actual cost.
I found this out a few years ago and changed to charging the actual cost.
It only takes a couple of minutes to get the cost off the royal mail site. Granted this method might not suit the big companies with large numbers of orders per day. It would give the customer the chance to place an order, if they are willing to pay the postage.

From the UK the US is the same price as any world zone for letters and cheaper than Australasia for large letters. For larger parcels the difference is 30 – 40% over zone 1 (non-European & not Australasia) but only a bit more than Aussieland.

Having said that, it is still dammed expensive.

@BobGrognard, I was just going off what my UK friends and dealers have told me. Shortly after it went into effect I had a gentleman rather sheepishly ask for more money as he had calculated shipping to North America. It was when he arrived at the Post Office that he learned the terrible truth.

Also, we are still in the UPU. But because we didn't participate in the rate negotiations (while also not withdrawing) we got our special, horrible rates.

Gosh, someone needs to fix this. I sent some figures to the UK to be painted and I am extremely worried about seeing them in the next two years. Not to mention the postage to send them back.