USPS don't know their own postage rates.

[dogbone]

USPS have two international services one has tracking to "major destinations" the other has I presume, tracking everywhere. So I send a mail to USPS to ask about their Global Priority Mail service that has tracking to "major" destinations. My question was "is Australia considered a Major", the answer I got back was that if I want tracking to Australia I'd have to use Global Mail Express.

OK, but then I posted a jpeg of a screenshot of their website that said Global Priority Mail would track to major destinations, and I asked what was considered to be a Major Destination.

The answer I received was that USPS was most pleased with my question. They are unable to answer now, but they will prepare a *detailed* response withing 2 days...

Here's the complete detailed response...

 

[QuarterSwede]

Yeah, I try to avoid using the USPS to ship anything.

 

[mattscott306]

The problem is they just changed their shipping rates about two weeks ago, so their system must be updating still.

 

[it5five]

The problem is they just changed their shipping rates about two weeks ago, so their system must be updating still.

This is true. I'm a postal employee, though I do data entry, not a window clerk. I've heard complaints from people that deal with directly with rates that they are confusing to them too. Give them a few weeks to get everything straight.

 

[uncompressed]

Yeah... having family and friends who work in the postal service, I can verify the rate change issues. Apparently, new firmware and update chips were sent out recently to update to the new rates: upon installation, however, 95% of these chips had errors, so they're still getting that sorted out. You think it's hard trying to send a package with these problems, you should see what some of the offices and processing plants have been dealing with, lol. Unsavory situation for all involved, but it's getting sorted out asap.

I've shipped USPS, UPS, and Fedex, and have had the LEAST problems with USPS. With my father's business, we ship a LOT of packages, and very rarely have issues with delays. I'm not sure what his statistics are, but I personally have never had a package arrive later than the original estimated date...

 

[dogbone]

That's all well and good and I can sympathise with it too but my issue is entirely different. I'm not asking for some software to recognise some change, I'm just asking someone to look in their big blue and red rule book where it must be written what countries are classified as Major Destinations and thus worthy of tracking.

Someone must know, surely.

 

[it5five]

It might even be those rule books that aren't updated yet either. It takes them 3 days just to tell me if I can have a day off. The people answering these questions probably know as much as you do about this.



Which international shipping service were you looking at, because there seems to be three international shipping options with tracking, not two. There is Global Express Guaranteed, Express Mail International, and Priority Mail Interational.

Global Express Guaranteed is the most restrictive of the three, and that allows service to Australia. The other two are basic international services which should mail to any country.