[Elecraft] Re: Customs

[Eric Swartz WA6HHQ - Elecraft]

Unfortunately the USPS does not notify US companies when they change
delivery methods. This change to GLS in some Eu countries is very recent and
caught us off guard. The local post office personnel don't even know about
it! We have no control over the fees charges independently at the delivery
end.

We currently offer USPS (United States Postal Service) Parcel Post Air and
Express,  and Federal Express for international and domestic orders. We
could also add UPS (United Parcel Service) if enough of you feel it would be
helpful. We have not done this so far because their charges were slightly
more than the USPS for both domestic and international shipments, and in our
opinion inside the U.S. USPS Priority Mail was superior to UPS delivery.
Also, for Canada, UPS uses a separate delivery service which charges
additional fees similar to GLS in Europe. In that case we have found that
regular USPS is the best shipping method. 

Do any of our European customers know how well UPS works to Eu? And who do
they use for their delivery partners there? ( Please email me directly.)

USPS does not offer tracking on shipments (including Express) once they
leave the U.S. Federal Express does track the packages end to end. I will
ask Lisa to start emailing the Fed Ex tracking number to customers when we
ship that way.

We place the EU customs numbers on all of our packages shipped to Europe,
which should assure no duty is charged (only VAT). Unfortunately it seems
local customs authorities chose to ignore this from time to time :^(

Of the hundreds of international shipments we make each year, only a very
few (3-4) have run into serious problems, but we are always looking for ways
to improve our service to you. (Please note that we insure ALL international
shipments.)  In addition customers sometimes ask us to address a package in
a way that causes incorrect delivery, which results in its eventual return
to us. In all of those cases, when we addressed it properly it made it to
the customer promptly.  

Please email your replies directly to me at eric@elecraft.com to keep list
traffic down. I'll post here if we add any new shipping methods.

73, Eric   WA6HHQ
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Mario Lorenz wrote:
>
> 
> Eric, Wayne: Did you receive any notice from USPS that this have
> been any changes made in the shipment terms ? Eg, did you know
> about this fee change ?