Shipping Lessons Learned
April 15th, 2008 by KenricI recently screwed up two shipments. No, I did not send them to the wrong address but I did make less money on the orders due to stupidity and lack of knowledge.
I had thought that I knew all the two letter abbreviations for all 50 US states. It’s ingrained in all our heads right? Well I got an order from “AK” and my site offers free shipping within the continental US. Of course AK is Arkansas and its within the continental US right? Well that’s what I thought until I got my UPS bill a week later and the package had cost me $28.00 to ship instead of $9.00.
How could this be? Was I shipping to some hut in the swamp where they could only deliver it by airboat? Nope. AK means Alaska, not Arkansas. I don’t know how I made that mistake. Now I double check all the two letter abbreviations just in case. Is Missouri MI or MO????
The second shipment went to an APO which is an army post office box. Technically, this is located within the continental US. But for some reason I could only ship Priority Mail to it.
I’m gonna have a chance to talk to the post office about this one again. That’s because today the shipment was returned to me. Apparently I did not include a customs form with my shipment. I found out that my shipment is going to Afghanistan. Well, not sure how I would have known that but I’m assuming that almost everything sent to an APO goes overseas. So technically, this order isn’t within the continental US either.
So now I have to go into the post office and fill out a customs form. Hmmm, its April 15th today, do you think there will be a long line at the post office?
Posted in Ebiz | 6 Comments »
Stumble it!
Hey Ken, I’m surprised your online ordering process doesn’t include label printing as well. I’ve seen those forms where the PO is printed and the shipping label is printed as well, all with one click. No human interaction necessary.
By Clifford on Apr 15, 2008
Clifford, most of my stuff is dropshipped. I just forward the order along and the shipping is charged to my UPS account. However, sometimes I get special orders that I have to handle myself. Like the APO order needs to go USPS since UPS doesn’t deliver to PO boxes.
By Kenric on Apr 15, 2008
I’ve never had to fill out a customs form for an APO order. Are you sure you need to do this? I ship everything Priority or First Class mail unless it is going overseas.
By ubu50 on Apr 15, 2008
I went to the post office and asked again. They said yes since its going overseas. Somehow I think that you’re correct because how can you assume that every APO goes overseas?
By Kenric on Apr 16, 2008
You can’t. That’s why I’ve never filled out a customs form. All APO addresses that I’ve had have been in the US.
There are also two customs forms, a short one and a long one. I can’t remember the rules but I’ve rarely had to fill out the long one.
If you are doing a lot of international shipping, beware of the mail restrictions. Some of them are quite bizarre.
By ubu50 on Apr 18, 2008
You can get custom forms online at usps.com, along with a bunch of other free stuff.
Also any UPS store has custom forms also.
Also get Delivery Confirmation with APO addresses! They get lost in the mail a lot. I had to ship one out and the buyer claimed he never received the package, but I had no proof of delivery so he was refunded his money.
By Mindi on Apr 23, 2008