Thread: Ridiculous postage charges. What's the worst you've had?

What gets expensive is delivery confirmation - depending on the country, the only way to get that is with express mail.

A few weeks ago I sent a package to Norway, it was around $50 IIRC.

I've shipped many straight razors to Australia for under $5. I mail first class. The buyer gets a "tracking" number that doesn't include real tracking, but does verify the package was placed in the mail. You sometimes see a few hops in tracking until it leaves the US, after which you are blind.

A priority box like this stuffed into an Express envelope like this! 41.85 insured for 695.00.

It doesn't need to go Priority, stanard airmail is fine n you don't need to unsure a $10 razor. The razors I sell on ebay or here, I'm prepared to wear the liability up to $100. That way, the buyer gets postage for about $11. Above $100 an I make the buyer pay for insurance.

I didn't read the OP well enough - yeah, I wouldn't go to the trouble of insurance and delivery confirmation for international shipping of a $10 razor.

Valuable packages though, are worth the expense to me.

I ship out roughly 40-50 packages a day. When I used to get overseas buyers i would charge extra because i had to sit there and fill out the customs forms and all that madness..i hate doing it. Now its all automatic for the most part so i dont hike up the rates.

Personally I don't care what they charge for postage. if it's out of line I avoid the auction and I reckon many others do too so the seller is biting his nose to spite his face. In the end if a seller wants to pad his prices by making money on the shipping end unless he gets someone gullible who wins the auction he really loses in the end with fewer bids and lower prices.

when i bid on an auction, like probably everyone else, i consider the shipping cost and the bidding cost together in the total cost.
if the shipping cost from the country of origin seems out of line i either bid extremely low to stay within total cost, or i avoid the auction as i assume the seller is being unreasonable(forcing someone to pay high shipping rates) or profiteering (charging more than the cost of shipping). if i want insurance or a faster priority of shipping i could ask for it and pay the difference, but if the seller selects the most expensive shipping rate to begin with i cant generally be bothered to ask a seller for alternate shipping priorities..

i think alot of sellers shoot themselves in the foot by selecting expensive shipping.

most of my purchases are international, so, as someone else said, priority shipping only makes a difference until it leaves the country of origin.. most of the time spent waiting is in customs and then shipping within my home country (canada)

anyways.. gripe gripe gripe.. i wish sellers would offer cheaper shipping.

Just a note that there appears to be something wonky on some auctions with the postage calculator from the USA to Canada. Not sure about to other countries. On two recent purchases I have actually been refunded $$ by the seller because the listed shipping fee was way too high. In both cases, I got a very good price on the item so the high shipping wasn't a deal killer.

So if you see unusually high shipping listed, it might be worth asking the seller to double-check the price. It may be wrong.

I know that doesn't help our friend in Australia as his originated in Canada and not the USA, but it may help others.

yes, i have also been refunded money..
i have also sent recently a parcel to australia for approximately 10$ postage. 30+ dollars is unreasonable, unless the seller is requiring insurance or some such.