darkoshi | Entries tagged with mail & shipping & delivery

I am curious if it is legal for various political fund-raising groups to send email and paper communications which imply they are written by or at least written with the approval of a certain candidate, and containing their supposed signature at the end, when the same mailing contains the legal blurb "This communication is not authorized buy any candidate or candidate's committee."

Is there no law against pretending to be a public person and sending mail in their name?

In this case, the mail is from the Democratic National Committee, and while Joe Biden probably doesn't disapprove of the fund-raising mailing, I still don't understand how it can be legal for them to print his signature (along with the text "With gratitude, Joe Biden, President of the United States") if he didn't "authorize" it.

Okay..... I now remembered that Biden isn't a "candidate" anymore. But I still wonder if he specifically authorized them to send that message with his signature. I suppose it is possible.

A few years ago I created an email folder where I move political donation appeals rather than deleting them right away. I often don't trust them; it seems an easy way for scammers to get people to send them money, by pretending to raise money for a certain cause. If I wanted to donate, I would instead go to the official website to do it. But I created the email folder to track how often the same senders spam me and if they continue to do so after I unsubscribe.

That folder now comes in handy now to check how often the above occurs. I only found one or two examples where the email is purportedly written by the candidate and also has the "not authorized by..." clause.

There are several examples where instead of "Not authorized by", it actually says "Authorized by [the candidate]" or says "Paid by..." without mentioning if it is authorized or not.

Related info:
When Words Are Not Enough: FEC Fines Candidate Committee for Omitting Disclaimer Box in Mailings (March 2007)

If the public communication is authorized by a candidate, his or her authorized committee or an agent thereof but is paid for by any other person, the disclaimer must clearly state that the communication is paid for by such other person and is authorized by the candidate, committee or agent.
...
If the communication is not authorized by a candidate, his or her committee or an agent thereof, the disclaimer must state the full name and permanent street address, telephone number or World Wide Web address of the person who paid for the communication, and that the communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

I suppose that emails and mailings sent to a specific person may not be considered "public communication", so maybe that is why not all of the ones I get mention if they are authorized or not. And maybe some of those really are from scammers too.

...

WAIT! Now I see that this paper mailing has another paper in it which is purportedly written and signed by Kamala Harris, which ALSO has that blurb on it, "This communication is not authorized buy any candidate or candidate's committee"! So I'm back to my original question.

I am returning a pair of solid bike tires I bought as the size listed in the product description does not match what was sent. The tires are fairly heavy and bulky so I feel it would be prudent to put some buffer material in the box to keep them from thumping around when the box is transported.

Of the fitting buffer material I have on hand, I could either use a heart-shaped mylar Valentine's balloon, or 2 pieces of nice sturdy styrofoam.

I feel weird about putting a Valentine's balloon in the package, even though it would be a good way to get rid of it. (I would feel bad about throwing it away which is why it is still lingering around here in August.)

I feel oddly clingy about the nice sturdy styrofoam because when I wave them in my hands they make a nice breeze, and maybe they'd be good to use as a support for something.

So which shall it be? I think the balloon.

But the styrofoam would be more logical and it would be a good way to get rid of it too.

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Ah hah! A third option has presented itself - a smaller box that fits inside the bigger box. But then I'd be getting rid of neither the balloon nor the styrofoam and this would be the perfect opportunity...

UPS Retail Shipping Rates

Shipping rates are based on package weight and size and origin-to-destination distance (ie. zones).

On the above page you can enter your zip code to get a downloadable "zone chart" spreadsheet, which will tell you the zone number for your shipment.

You can also download the "Retail Rate and Service Guide" PDF which has weight charts and details on how the charges are determined, rules, limitations, etc.

Billable weight is the weight used to calculate the rate. For domestic and international services, the billable weight will be the greater of the dimensional weight compared to the actual weight.
...
Dimensional weight reflects package density, which is the amount of space a package occupies in relation to its actual weight.
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For domestic shipments: Divide the cubic size in inches by 166 to determine dimensional weight in pounds. Increase any fraction to the next whole pound.
...
A Large Package Surcharge may apply to domestic and international shipments.
For domestic shipments, a package is considered a “Large Package” when its length (longest side of the package) plus girth [(2 x width) + (2 x height)] combined exceeds 130 inches or its length exceeds 96 inches.
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Large Packages are subject to a minimum billable weight of 90 pounds.

Flat Rate Shipping from UPS® (aka "Simple rate")
The largest size (XL) box allowed for this is 1728 cubic inches; for example, a one-foot-square box. The maximum weight is 50 pounds.

The above page indicates the simple rate charge for an XL box "starts at $22.85" (how is it a "flat rate", if it "starts at"?). But in the above PDF, the "Simple Rate" section indicates it costs $26 for UPS Ground (which is the cheapest of their shipping methods).

For comparison, the non-flat rate (not limited to a one-foot-square package) for 50 pounds via UPS Ground ranges from $33 to $113 or more, depending on the zone. From here in SC to Ohio it is $53.

I got a mailing from Nielsen, the radio & TV survey company. It had a round plastic window on the back of the envelope showing a dollar bill inside. There were actually two dollar bills inside! For filling out and returning a short 16 question survey, they say they'll send you another $5.

The end of the survey says "Please provide all the information below, and we'll send you $5 cash!", and then has fields for name and address, AND for a phone number. Along with fine print, "By providing your phone number, you agree that our research associates may contact you to discuss further research opportunities. For efficiency and accuracy, we may dial your phone number using an automatic telephone dialing system and we may leave pre-recorded reminder messages."

I hate those automated dialers, and 90% of the time I don't even pick up the phone any more if the calling number isn't in my contacts. My voicemail greeting says so, and says to either leave a message or send me a text. 95% of the time, they don't.

Anyway, I'm wary of giving Nielsen my phone number, so I'm leaving it blank, and I'm curious whether I'll still get the $5 or not. We shall see! They didn't ask for an email address.

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Update, 2021/03/15:
While walking thru the neighborhood today, I found another mailing like the one sent to me, lying on the ground. As the address was on the street I was walking on, I picked it up and took it to their mailbox. I stuck it behind the mailbox flag.

The backside of the mailing had a round plastic window like mine, but there were no dollar bills visible in it. I suspect someone stole it from their mailbox to take the money out for themselves and then tossed it on the ground. But the envelope flap was closed and I didn't notice any slits or tears in the envelope. So I'm not sure. Maybe Nielsen tries out different types of mailings to see which get the best response? (When searching about it before, I'd read where someone posted that they'd gotten a $5 bill in their original mailing, whereas I'd only gotten $2.)

I hope whoever lives at that house wasn't looking out their window at me, so they won't think that I'm the person who stole their money.

While walking on another street, I'd seen another mailing (not from Nielsen) on the street. But the address on it was far from this neighborhood. Who knows how it ended up here. I didn't want to carry it all the way with me for the rest of my walk to then put it in my mailbox for redelivery, so I left it there for someone else to hopefully find.

Today I signed Qiao up for USPS Informed Delivery at his address, with his consent.

It no longer gives the option to email photos of your upcoming mail to you. Instead, you need to sign in to the site to view the photos (like I always do for my address), or use an app on your phone. I'd never thought that having it sent via (insecure) email was a good idea anyway.

[ updated, 2021/01/22: There IS still an option for "daily digest email notifications" after all. I'm not sure if it actually emails you photos of the mail though, or if it only notifies you that you received mail for the day. ]

While signing up, it gave the option to verify your identity online, or via the mail. I chose the online option, which simply involved entering Qiao's phone number. There were no knowledge-based questions at all. Then the page said the verification was successful! It didn't even text a code to his phone and require him to reply. What's to stop anyone who knows someone else's address and phone number (and suspects that they don't already have an account), from creating an account to see and snoop on their mail??

The USPS site (see below link) says that they send a paper mailing to you after you've signed up, with a code to unsubscribe in case it wasn't really you who signed up.
But what's to stop a bad actor in your own neighborhood from signing you up, then surreptitiously checking your mailbox each day til that mailing comes, and stealing it?

Krebson Security already warned about this kind of problem 2 and more years ago, and it doesn't seem like much has been done since then:
U.S. Secret Service Warns ID Thieves are Abusing USPS’s Mail Scanning Service

It seems to me the best defense is to sign yourself up for the service, before anyone else can fraudulently sign up in your name. But even then, the above report indicates that if multiple people can get mail at an address, you'd have to do it for each person.

But still, a comment by "David" on that page indicates that being signed up still doesn't stop you from being able to sign up again! "Because the USPS doesn’t allow you to reset a password for a forgotten account (instead telling you to create a new one), I was able to sign up a new account for informed delivery, even though I already had one (for the same name) in place."

Perhaps related to that, after setting up an account, there's an option in the settings for "Account Recovery". Apparently if you DO NOT manually enable this, you won't be able to recover your account when you forget the password. In this section you need to enter a mobile phone number and verify it (even though before this point I've already entered Qiao's number twice to set up the account, without it having been verified.)
Activating the Account Recovery service involves a two-step process of validating your mobile phone number and opting-in to the service.

..

As I suspected, no real action is taken when you tick that checkbox about mail not having been received, though it may help with an investigation, if enough mail goes missing on a broad scale, that they're forced to look into it:

Informed Delivery® Privacy & Security Concerns

What action can I take if a mailpiece in today’s alert has not arrived in my physical mailbox?

Informed Delivery® provides notifications for mailpieces arriving soon - not necessarily mailpieces arriving that same day. Pieces can be delayed in getting to your mail carrier. Or, unfortunately, a mailpiece could be misdelivered. We ask that you allow several days for delivery after receiving the notification.

Unfortunately, an occasional piece of mail may fail to reach its destination. Reports of mail loss greatly concern us. Regrettably, when such instances are brought to our attention, there is no sure way of determining what may have happened. With the large volume of mail moving through our network each day, it is not feasible to trace a single piece of letter-sized mail. If the piece is not received, we recommend that you contact the sender to request re-delivery of the mailpiece if warranted. Persistent delivery issues should be reported to your local Post Office.

With the Informed Delivery feature, there is an option to report instances where you've received an image of a mailpiece, however, the physical mailpiece has not arrived in your mailbox. Users can click the checkbox under the specific image in their dashboard to indicate that a mailpiece was not received. This information is routed to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and/or the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for investigative purposes. No additional action is taken; these submissions do not result in any search activity or customer response.

The mailbox had many items in it today, surprising me. I didn't check the Informed Delivery page first. One item that was supposed to arrive Monday is still missing; it was again nothing important, a charity appeal. I wonder where these missing items end up. In someone else's mailbox?

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The big lantana bush is so pretty, full of orange, red, and in-between colored flowers. It's as tall as I am. To think that it started out from a few small plantings. There was a monarch butterfly flitting between flowers. A smaller orange butterfly, not a monarch, chased it away... and was still chasing it when they'd flown beyond the fence.

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My mom made an audio cassette recording of her, my sister and nephew when he was one year old in 1993. I recorded it to the computer into an MP3 file. It's cute listening to them from so long ago; I plan to give them a copy. There is absolutely no noise in the recording, no tape hiss or static or anything, and I didn't even have to do a noise reduction on it which is amazing compared to all the other cassettes I've transferred to MP3s.

But after that one, the tape player started making a loud rattling noise when pressing Play, even without a cassette in it. The rattling noise comes through on the recordings too. So I need to open up the player to see if it is something I can fix or not.

I ordered some items from Target. The shipping boxes they arrived in are so cute!

You can see the boxes in the top photo on this page:
The hot new product Amazon and Target are obsessing over? Boxes

The small box has pictures of the Target dog playing in a box.
The medium box has pictures of the Target dog driving a delivery truck.
All 4 sides of the box show the same thing from different directions (front of truck, sides of truck, back of truck)!

This has got to be one of the best postage stamps ever:

https://store.usps.com/store/product/buy-stamps/scooby-doo-S_565504

It was issued last year, but is new to me:

"This new issuance is a 12-stamp sheet featuring Scooby-Doo helping out by watering a blossoming plant in a flowerpot—a simple act symbolizing a component of the DOO GOOD Campaign’s effort to provide young people with tools and activities geared toward enriching the environment."

Woken up by a door bell.
Get up, check the door thinking it's something I ordered.
Then see that it's a car seat for a baby.
First think, oh that's what Qiao ordered for my niece's baby.
I see a FedEx truck driving away down the street.
Then remember that Qiao ordered a stroller, not a car seat.
Worry that Amazon sent us the wrong item.
Check the label on the package, see that it's addressed to our neighbor, not us.
Oh! I wonder if they got our package instead?

Walk over to neighbor's house for the first time and wonder which door to use.
There's no package of ours by either door.
I choose the front door, as it has a door bell.

They've rung our doorbell before, to bring back our little dog who had dug out of the yard.
We've said hi before.
I may have given them Qiao's phone number, but I don't think we have theirs. Qiao has spoken with them briefly a few times.

Ring the door bell. Wait. Ring door bell again. Wait.
Knock on the outer glass door. Wait.
I see a dog inside through the glass of the doors, eating or drinking or something. It didn't hear me yet.
I knock harder, and the dog hears me, and barks. It jumps up on the door.
Hi there! (Nice doggy!) Tell them someone's at the door!

I can hear kids running around inside.
They've heard the door bell or the knocking or the dog barking by now, I'm sure.
I hear one of the kids say "Don't answer it!"
There are 2 cars outside the house. I'm pretty sure an adult is home.
I keep waiting. Maybe it just takes them a few minutes to get out of bed and dressed, like me.
I knock a few more times, waiting.
Waiting. Kids running around inside.
Waiting.
I decide to send them a message on Nextdoor.com instead. For F*CKS sake.
Sudden irrational anger.
(Remembering the other times I've rung neighbors' doorbells & knocked on doors, waiting in vain for someone to answer. Dammit; people not answering their doors anymore in this day and age.)
I walk back to my house, maybe stomping as much as one can stomp in flip flops.
I bang the top of the package with my fist in passing.
Maybe we should just keep the dang thing.
That'll show them, not answering their frickin doorbell.

Now I'm all riled up; certainly no chance of falling back asleep.
I send them a message on Nextdoor, from Qiao's account.
Any reply they send will go to his email, so I guess it will have to wait until he gets up to see if they've answered.
I start writing this post.

Noonish. Our door bell rings.
It's the neighbor.
I give them their package.
They don't have ours.
Not surprising. It'll probably come later in the day. Hopefully.
I wonder if FedEx will notice their mistake.

Then I remember that I can check for a reply on the Nextdoor.com page too.
They sent a reply before coming over. They didn't hear the door bell; "guess it needs to be fixed".
Great. I still don't have their phone number. I forgot to ask.
I'll ask via Nextdoor.

Half an hour later.
Zorro growls and then barks.
I check the front door.
USPS mail carrier walking back to the mail truck.
(Dithering here over whether or not to use the gendered word "mailman" even though the person looks like a man. But what word would I use for a woman?
Mail carrier. Mail carrier. Mail carrier. Say it enough and it will sound natural, I'm sure. Mail carrier. Mail carrier.)
USPS for this delivery, not FedEx.
It's the stroller.
They didn't even ring the door bell this time.

Qiao ordered something, and the FedEx tracking shows it was delivered last Saturday afternoon, when we were both home at his house. At the delivery time that is listed, I was in the living room using my laptop, and the doorbell did not ring. Supposedly the package was left on the porch. It was 70 pounds (an exercise bike), so it would not be easy for anyone else to just walk off with it.

We contacted FedEx on Sunday, and they said they'd put a trace on the package. The FedEx driver stopped by on Tuesday and told Qiao that he had stopped by 2 places on this street, one of which he remembers. He said he didn't remember Qiao's house. And he said if the package doesn't show up by Friday, to contact Amazon.

What I'm wondering is, doesn't FedEx use GPS to track where its trucks go and where they stop? Many years ago when we had a problem with a UPS shipment, they had GPS info to determine that the truck left the package at the wrong address. Does FedEx not have that? Or are they just trying to cover it up?

I've got plenty of files on my computer for keeping notes on various things. Now I've created a file specifically to keep track of where I put odds and ends. For those times I'm putting something away, and think, "Where can I put it, so that I'll remember that's where I put it?"

When I first moved into this house 8 years ago, I bought a pair of curtain hold-backs but didn't end up using them. Now I'd like to, but can't find them. I'm not sure if I got rid of them or not. I looked for them in the garage yesterday, but they weren't in the obvious place. Instead, I found the roll of magnetic strip that I was looking for last week. (Even though I had searched for that in the exact same place, so having a notes file wouldn't have helped in that case.) But I had already ended up buying another roll of magnetic strip.

I suppose now if I buy another pair of curtain hold-backs, next week I'll find the old ones.

The reason I need hold-backs now, is that I've put up the curtain track as mentioned in this post. It works so well - the sliders slide along the track so easily - that the curtains tend to spread out on their own, even after you push them to the side. So having a hold-back would help.

I'm still working on the curtains and black-out liners.

I thought the hardware would be the hard part. But the curtains and liners have given me more trouble.

Originally, I found a pair of curtains I liked in a JCPenny store. I tried to order them from their website, as the store didn't have them in the length I wanted.
First problem: when I put the item in my cart, the price was $10 higher than shown on the webpage. I called customer service and after explaining the problem, submitted the order over the phone to get the right price. To avoid delivery issues because of our dogs in the yard, I wanted it shipped to the store. But another item I was ordering (shears) didn't allow ship-to-store. So I ended up getting both items shipped to my house for free. I also used a 25% off coupon which the webpage had given me. And then there was 8% tax.

2nd problem: after hanging up the phone, I rechecked the amounts I had written down and realized that I'd been charged the higher amount for the curtains after all! I called back, talked to someone else, and though they couldn't easily correct the order, they assured me they'd credit my card for the extra $10 after the item was shipped. And they did - no problem with that.

3rd problem: UPS emailed me that the item would be sent by SurePost. In other words, I could expect it to be delivered by the U.S. postal service on Thursday. On Thursday, I checked the tracking page, and found that UPS had attempted delivery twice, and I hadn't been home! They hadn't emailed me to tell me that they were going to deliver it themselves after all!

So I worked from home on Friday, and received 2 other packages that I had ordered, but not that particular package. The tracking page simply displayed "In Transit". They ended up attempting the 3rd delivery again on Monday, when I wasn't home! Because of that, we had to drive across town to pick the package up. Actually, Qiao picked it up for me, wonderful guy that he is.

Next problem: The curtains had a sort of plasticky-metallic smell to them. I aired them out, but the smell didn't go away. The label said dry-clean only. But what the heck, I took a chance and washed them. Then I ironed them to get rid of the wrinkles caused by the washing. No harm done. The smell was reduced, but still present. It seems to be intrinsic to the fabric.

I don't want smelly curtains. So I decided not to keep these after all. I'll give them to Goodwill.

Next problem: The black-out liners. They smelled ok to begin with. But after hanging them in the window for a few days, with the sun hitting them, they started to emit a dirty-sock odor. Sigh. I don't want smelly curtains.

So instead of using those, I'm now scavenging old black-out liners that I had replaced in the past, and cutting and sewing them to the correct size.

The shears, at least, were fine.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/612496.html

Such gorgeous weather this week. All warm and gentle, breezes and blossoms. Have photos, will post, later.

I noticed this evening that the scent of wisteria has a hint of cinnamon to it. I wish it were possible to post examples of scents, not only words and pictures.

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Went to the post office today to pick up a package. They searched and searched and called the truck driver who told them where it should be, and they still couldn't find it. At one point, the lady helping me said, "You've got to go" in a firm voice, and I was like "Oh. ::blink:: Okay." My immediate impression was that she was telling me to step back from the half-door/counter I was leaning on, as she intended to close the window while continuing the search. My next impression was that she was telling me that I had to leave, that I had been there long enough.

She seemed to catch on to my confusion, as she then repeated it, "You've got to go?" in a more questioning tone. She was simply asking if I was still able to wait longer. That was amusing to consider, afterwards. I did wait longer, but eventually left my phone number so that they could call me if the package was found. It ended up being left at the house. The truck driver must have had it in the vehicle after all.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/606967.html

This is an update on the package of toys/gifts that I sent to Germany for my 2 cousins' kids. My cousins see each other regularly, so I sent all the items in a single package to reduce the shipping costs.

After handing off the package at my local post office on Dec 12, the USPS tracking page showed no information (other than "Pre-Shipment Info Sent to USPS" dated Dec. 11 from when I bought the pre-paid label to put on the package) until this week. During that time I worried that the package had been stolen/mislaid/lost, but reassured myself that the tracking system was most likely unreliable - as I had seen them scan the label at the post office and not even that was shown in the tracking.

On Jan 8 the page finally showed something: "Processed Through Sort Facility", "Customs Clearance", and "Customs clearance processing complete" activity in Germany.

Yay! This relieved me, and I expected the package to surely be delivered in the next few days.

But yesterday to my great disgruntlement, the tracking was updated with "Payment of charges - Item being held, addressee being notified".

I come to find out that in Germany, packages - even gifts - worth 45 euros or more are charged an import duty.

I can't figure out how much of a fee is charged however, as the above page mentions duty fees and import tax and value added tax, and it's not clear to me which ones are applicable and which ones not. It sounds like at minimum, a VAT of 17.5% is charged.

The way the 2 pinpressions toys rattled, they sounded like pills in bottles - something that would raise the suspicions of customs officials. (I remember long ago when my mom sent my aunt some supplements that my aunt had requested, they were confiscated by customs). So I put cardboard on them to reduce the rattling, but wasn't entirely successful. Maybe that has something to do with why the package is being held.

On the customs label for the package, I had estimated the value of the contents at $100 which currently equates to 84.37 euros. If I had shipped the gifts separately in 2 packages, each one would have been worth 42 euros, under the 45 euro limit.

If I had known that, I would have done that and paid the higher postage to avoid my cousins being inconvenienced. I don't want them to have to pay a fee just to get their gifts! I mean really: "You've got some gifts. But you can't have them until you pay a fee."

Update: My cousin contacted me to let me know that she received the package. She did have to go to the customs office in a nearby town to pick it up. They made her open it while there to check the contents, but at least they did not charge her a fee, after all.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/592929.html

Earlier this year, I sent a 1-lb package (small/medium-sized tube containing papers - mostly drawings) to Germany via the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). The postage cost $15.08 online for First-Class Package International Service (which was the cheapest option).

I left the package in one of the post office drop-off bins on a Sunday evening. (Using the drop-off bins is no longer allowed for international shipments, as their instructions now say that even when using a prepaid label, you must still hand the item off to an employee at the Post Office counter.)

It took 24 days from that Monday for the item to be delivered to its destination.

Based on the tracking information for that package, it left the local post office on Tuesday, and arrived in Miami FL 14 days later. It was a mystery why it took 2 weeks for the item to travel those 700 miles. I suspected the item might have been diverted to a secret homeland security inspection point, before being sent on to Miami. Maybe to make sure I wasn't sending secret espionage documents?

But if they were doing that, they might as well do the same for all regular letters leaving the country too, which I'm fairly sure they don't. Unless they have equipment to shine bright light through normal envelopes, and are able to scan the document contents that way without opening them. Hmmm. Seems far-fetched - it would require too much effort and expense to do that for all mail. They might do it for individuals deemed suspicious, though.

The item stayed in Miami 2 days; then it took 4 days to arrive in Germany, 2 days to get through German customs, and another day to be delivered.

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Now, the box of toys and Christmas gifts that I sent last week to my cousins' kids in Germany weighed just under 4 lb. It cost $35.06 online via USPS. Again, that was the cheapest option - First-Class Package International Service. USPS Priority or Express mail costs more.

I dropped it off at the local post office on Friday. The person at the counter scanned the prepaid label and gave me a receipt.

As of today, the following Thursday, the online tracking info doesn't even show the package as having been accepted at the local post office yet! It only shows that I bought the prepaid label. Arghrr.

It seems one simply has to put up with this when using USPS. Doing an online search brings up a lot of complaints from other people who've had similar problems.

Maybe the processing of my package is being delayed due to priority being given to "Priority Mail" packages. That would make sense. It would have only cost $6 more for me to send mine via Priority Mail; I wonder why I didn't do that. Hindsight, hindsight. It may have not seemed worthwhile, considering that the Priority Mail delivery times aren't guaranteed either anyway.

Whenever I've checked how much it would cost to send international packages via alternate shipping options, the costs were much higher than USPS. Today I checked again.

For a 4-pound package to Germany, the cheapest rates are:

- via UPS:
$132 - for a 16x11x3 inch box (most likely not large enough)
$159 - for a 18x13x3 inch box (most likely not large enough)
$192 - for a 12x11x10 inch box like the one I actually used

- via FedEx:
$126 - for a ~18x12x3 inch box (most likely not large enough)
$161 - for a 12x11x10 inch box like the one I actually used

- via DHL Express:
$128 - for a 17.5x12.5x3 inch box (most likely not large enough)
$165 - for a 12x11x10 inch box like the one I actually used

So the alternatives still cost way more than USPS. To be fair though, they also offer quick delivery dates - Dec 23 for UPS, Dec 31 for Fed-Ex, and Dec 22 for DHL.

UPS normally guarantees their delivery dates, except for items shipped during the 2 weeks prior to xmas. I would guess that FedEx and DHL's policies are similar.

With USPS First Class service, there's no telling how long it will take.
The USPS Priority Mail expected delivery date is 6 to 10 business days "to many major markets", but even that isn't guaranteed.

When sending heavier packages, using flat rate boxes can be cost effective.
The UPS Worldwide Express 10kg box (for up to 18 pounds) is 17x13x11", and would cost $230.
The FedEx 10kb box (for up to 22 pounds) is ~16"x13"x10", and would cost $202.

But USPS is still cheaper. A 22 pound box via "Priority Mail Express International" would cost $104 online.

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/589300.html

A benefit of buying a label online for mailing a package is that you can select to get tracking info sent to your email address for free. The page indicated that the tracking info is only available when purchasing the label online.

One can pay with credit card or Paypal.

Use Internet Explorer; I had problems with Firefox - for some reason I had to enter stuff twice and then I was redirected to the Login page again. So I switched to using IE.

I have a USPS user account already. Sign in to begin with, or else you'll have to do it later anyway.

You can click "Calculate a Price" to determine how much the postage will cost. But if you do that, don't click the "Customs Forms and Extra Services" button, as the customs form will be printed automatically as part of the label anyway when you print your label.

To actually buy/print a label, click on "Print a Label with Postage" from the main USPS page.

.

Hopefully next time it won't take me 2 hours to print out a shipping label.

Anxiety over not being able to think of a succinct easy-to-remember tag to use for "mailing/postal/shipping/delivery" type posts. I wonder if "postal" can be used to describe companies like UPS and FedEx, or if it only applies to official government postal services? What does UPS stand for.. oh, Parcel Service.

Ah, I already had a tag that I could use: mail

Crossposts: http://darkoshi.livejournal.com/562193.html

Facing Identification Marks - if you've ever wondered about the bar-codes on the upper right side of return envelopes (explains how the U.S. Postal Service uses them).