In late September, our daughter posted a parcel to us. She has posted similar packages to us in the past and they have almost always arrived within a week, so when it did not show up after a couple of weeks, I started to think something was off. After it still had not arrived a month or so later, I started checking into what the problem could be. Although we've never had to pay them in the past, we knew we would likely have to pay customs fees, taxes, and charges this time, because new rules have gone into effect, lowering the level at which these kick in for packages coming from outside the EU. In addition, shipping costs count towards that limit and those have increased. She did not know this when she sent the parcel and neither did we. But we learned about it while the package was en route, so we assumed we would get a slip through the mail slot telling us how much we would need to pay to collect the parcel. It didn't even get that far.
She was unable to track it on the USPS (United States Postal Service--LOL--the states aren't united and service is not the word I'd use, but there it is) website after a certain point, but I was able to track it on the an Post site. I discovered that it had been sitting somewhere for 10 days and then sent back to her. In the end, it went back to her home city, where the morons in that sorting facility apparently did not see the stickers on it and sent it back out to an international sorting facility in a neighbouring state. Someone there was awake that day and they sent it back to her.
Before we knew what was going on and that she was getting it back, I tried to find out what was happening. Turns out that EU customs rules changed on 1 July of this year. There is now a requirement for electronic customs information to be sent to the postal service in the country of the recipient. This information has to be provided by the originating post office. You see where this is going. USPS is not doing the necessary work and parcels are being sent back in huge numbers. People are extremely angry. To be fair to USPS, they are not the only incompetents around--people in other countries are having things returned, too. Canada Post was having the same issues, but they have fixed it, from what I have learned. Also, people who send things from the US using a service other than USPS are not having any problems at all, which is telling.
A few years ago, she sent something that was returned and we later found out it was because there was a magnet in the parcel, which was prohibited. When I spoke to a woman at an Post, she said there was nothing prohibited in the contents of this one. When our daughter got the package back, there was a sticker on it indicating that it did not clear customs and another that said, 'returned, refund.' She brought it and her receipt back to her local post office and was told that she could not get a refund because they did their job and it got to Ireland. Never mind that because they did NOT do their job, it could not get out of the sorting facility. Is she supposed to commandeer USPS computers and send the electronic information required after somehow learning what that information is supposed to consist of? No, that is the job of the clerks at USPS, who clearly are not up to the task all over the country, judging by the number of irate customers out there! Wait until Christmas! A lot of people in the US send things to Ireland, especially during the festive season. They won't be happy when the stuff is sent back and USPS essentially steals their money by not doing their job and not giving refunds. It's not cheap to send things here--our daughter is out over $80.
I have told people not to send me things from now on. The incompetence on the part of USPS is costly--but not for them, so they don't care, I guess.
18 comments:
The USPS has been problematic for many years. My job relies on them heavily and it is always tilted in their favor when something bad happens. Rarely have I gotten a refund even when they found that one of their carriers was dropping my mail pieces in the trash so he didn't have to carry their weight.
While I believe affordable mail delivery is necessary, especially for the poor and rural, I don't know how long in its current format.
Wow! That is incredible!
Wow! I would not be happy at all!
Wow. What a story. I know the UPSP has gone through lots of cut backs. I think for awhile the government was trying to get rid of them completely. I thought things might be better now, but it sounds like it's still pretty bad. Its sad because the PO has been a part of history and you would think people would care. Thanks for sharing!
It is pretty rotten :-(
It is sad and I feel for the people who are going to get nasty surprises over Christmas!
This situation is so much worse than most people consider. Not only did the last 'admin' undermine the post office in every functional way... (removing many mail processing machines, you could see them in the caged lot areas just sitting there). (You can pay extra for tracking, certification, quick delivery and return receipts etc and never get any of it.) But now on top of things taking weeks to go a few miles, there's no guarantee that ballots will be received, tracked, arrive and counted for any election. With covid most places allowed all mail-in to those who wanted-it so this is probably going to change the outcome of most any election from here-on-out. Particularly since the same person has been left to continue to corrupt and destroy it. That puts DT in control of every election anywhere in the country on-going. Why Biden hasn't fixed it from the jump is beyond me. So any election is now only as genuine as their local USPS Workers and Postmaster is corrupt (or not). For those who just want to mail-in a bill payment it's just not even possible really because they'll likely get charged a late fee. For those older folks who don't want to try and learn 'a new system' it puts them at even greater financial peril. This is also true for people who have used USPS for their home-businesses too. (Some sites give people their money back if an item is late.)
People like me who have been begging Biden to fix this from the start, are going unheard, clearly. The recent election we just had with key states, there's probably thousands of ballots in the USPS garbage because they didn't bother with them. (Especially in blue voter areas with red influences in power.) If all this continues through this admin then it (along with the pandemic mail-in process) will indeed remain this way and the corruption will have free-reign to go unabated until... It is looking like this one issue alone could be the final nail in any democratic due-process for the US.
This is a complex issue and my response to your post was trying to confirm your frustration with more of the picture. I wish we could create a full image of what is happening and send it to all of the politicians who wont have a clue how bad it is because they have 'people who do menial tasks for them' and never hear about it (or suffer from it).
I feel like there should have been a way to get your money back. I wonder if it's possible to appeal to a higher authority? Maybe if people start fighting back they will have to start correcting some of these problems willingly? I know in one case they gave us our tracking money back because it never got any past the 'intake' scan at the time I paid for it. I have called the phone number and gone to higher supervisors for discussion on things a few times, it'd be worth it for 80$. When I worked for UPS it was up to us to assure that our outgoing parcels were 'up to international regulations'. That was the dept I worked in. We opened anything that didn't 'look right' or that was already falling apart just to be sure. (We had to fix boxes that were too unstable to survive the trip because of the contents as well.)
I have another example for you: I bought a few money orders there and the worker whom I'd seen there for years, knew I had some vision issues and gave me $100 back saying I had miscounted. Well when I got back i realized I had $100 too much so I called them saying I'd bring the money back and when would he be there next? The Postmaster asked the crew if anyone was $100 short and they all said no. At the end of the day the man preferred to put his own money into the drawer than get in trouble for miscounting. I hope the man appreciated that I was trying to do the right thing even if by bringing it to their attention it made things somehow worse for him. (Probably they watched things more closely for a while.) To me that just confirms that they have a culture that is more political than it should be.
Yet another failing institution :-(
Your UPS story fits in with what I found out when I looked into this--parcels sent that way are not having problems and they get to where they are supposed to go, so clearly they are following the proper procedure.
There's nothing I can do about it, except warn people and tell them not to send things anymore, which I've done. Our daughter sent the package and she will have to handle it in the way she sees fit. I just feel bad for her that she is out so much money, both for the shipping costs and for the contents, which are not things she would use. And she's out the time it took to acquire the gifts and to attempt to ship and to go back and talk to them about why it was returned.
Yes and I'm afraid it could really 'do us in'. I'm not too proud to ask for other (NHS/Euro) countries to stage a coup if it becomes necessary. I'm not at all inclined to think that it wouldn't ever be necessary. They wont even lockdown intentionally high-spread regions to just go ahead and kill each other off, something has to be done like they did in Italy etc.
I'm not too pleased with UPS at the moment (no one should deal with their stores they don't ensure their service because they are contractors). However, for those who might want to send you the occasional gifts, the 'actual facilities' (or hubs like Office Depot/Staples) to ship through, might offer less hassle since they care about their reputation and aren't run by DT/DeJoy.
Shipping costs to here were already high and they've gone higher. At the same time, the limit at which VAT, customs fees, etc kick in has been significantly lowered. There is no need for all that money to go to waste on that kind of stuff, when it could be of far more benefit elsewhere. If someone wants to give me a gift, I would much prefer that they donate to a food charity or somewhere that provides help and care to non-human animals. Not to mention the inconvenience it would be to the senders to have to have to find a place to ship that's not a local PO. I have more than enough already.
I can understand she probably feels sentimental about the connection of sending you something, especially since it seems small compared to the cost of a whole trip. I can also understand why you feel that way. That said, I'm sorry to hear about the VAT lowering, that seems punitive for sure. I remember telling them how unfair it was when I sent myself a box of clothes/shoes to use in N EU and they made me pay to get them out of hock. I was so incensed. I was like 'why would I sell my own used belongings, that's nuts!' At the time it was probably around 15-20$ but it sounded like a hundred with the exchange. I once donated to a kids charity 'on behalf' of some people and we sent them their favorite holiday cookies. They 'didn't get it'. (I'm not sure US:ians are good at things like that, they might feel it more a tease.) Of course, I get why it matters to you. =)
And the shipping, which is exorbitant, is included in that limit, so it the contents plus the shipping that gets taxed. Crazy.
Wait, shipping cost is included in the VAT now? WTH that's nuts. Including the shipping cost which is a total loss to the recipient is wicked. Maybe they should create more insurance options to recover the costs? I think one challenge at least where it comes to the US is that other nations still think whatever entities like the USPS do, 'must be reasonable'. We know that's not true but there's always that stigma of 'if the US does it, it must be right' that people have been trained to think even when they find things done here to be so inhumane, objectionable, ridiculous and often flat-out embarrassing (if not terribly sad).
Maybe my real question should be, are our postal rates commensurate to theirs now? I don't really know because when I lived in N EU they often charged by the word. So you could pay a few cents to send a large post card with a small greeting written on it, but more than that you might as well just send something because a few sheets of air post paper was a big deal. With the internet now I don't know if they fixed that or not but it would seem they'd have to or no one would post anything anymore.
It used to be fun to think of others and reliably send/receive items back and forth, but here at least they've made it such a nuisance that people quit because unless it's 'through a website sale' no one guarantees delivery in a reasonable time anymore, if at all. It seems intentional and 'ballot tampering by intentional incompetence' seems to be part of their scheme. If I could I'd 'remind' the other nations that 'being like the US' is NEVER the goal, I would. (I've tried btw.) It's unlivable here and people know it but the censorship on the good things in other nations keeps people from realizing it could be any better. Someone just starts screaming USA and any mental acuity that existed just flies out of the area. Well those things in part are why you are not here anymore and people like me just wish we weren't.
I really hope they stop that VAT to include shipping price issue soon, was that part of Brexit?
nope, VAT on the shipping was a thing before, but now they've lowered the threshold at which it kicks in. It used to be €150 or something like that. Now it's down to €45. This is on gifts from people outside the EU--if the contents and shipping combined are more than €45, the costs kick in. At the same time, they've raised the shipping rates so it's pretty easy to go over the limit. The effect of Brexit here with regard to this stuff is that now people have to pay VAT on purchases if they buy from the UK, which they are not used to. On the rare occasion we are looking on ebay for something, we avoid UK sellers. And of course, a lot of people here have relatives in the UK, so now gifts they send will be subject to the same limitations and costs as those sent from any other non-EU country.
Postage rates are higher here--it's €2 to send a card to the US and €1.10, I think, to send within the island of Ireland (republic and Northern Ireland). It's the same whether sending a card/letter or a postcard.
Sorry I missed your explanation earlier. That's crazy. I mean from my point of view at least, if ones nation is on the Schengen list then rates should be fairly even throughout. This VAT issue really seems punitive and even like something the GOP/Conservatives would dream-up. What is 'one more way' that we can ef-up people's lives and make their holidays more expensive / complicated? It almost seems like it would be cheaper to 'take a weekend in Oct', hop one of the ferries to the Continental mainland and do one's holiday shipping from there.
We're not in Schengen. We don't do holiday shopping and we can always buy within Ireland or the EU when we want something. That VAT and stuff doesn't apply if something comes from an EU country 😃
How did I miss that? I was more concerned with shipping prices and those being similar throughout Continental mainland and the islands etc, but I hear you.
This is what I must have seen because I'm always thinking of moving to the Schengen area...
"Did Ireland join Schengen?
Ireland has finally gained full access to the Schengen Information System (SIS II) on March 15, 2021, after the EU Council approved the Irish government's request to join the system on December 10, 2020."
I'm not sure if that's 'a move toward' becoming full members or if it's just a way of checking people at the border to maintain more consistent security measures with the others in the region.
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