posted on September 7, 2001 12:20:10 PM
I like to accept international bids and have had good results and met some nice people.
However, calculating postage can be a pain since most of my buyers are from the US
If you are outside of the U.S., could you please post your country and zip code....NOT YOUR STREET ADDRESS (but I doubt that most would make that mistake). I'm just planning
to take the info to my PO and get some shipping quotes to different countries for the merchandise that I sell.
Canadians, Austrailians, and Europeans would be especially helpful. I once overcharged a
Canadian by $1 and felt bad because it was
unintentional and he felt that I was trying to cheat him.
posted on September 7, 2001 12:54:34 PM
First, if you're dealing with international customers never use the term "ZIP code" with them. That is a US-specific term for US addresses only. Canada has Postal Codes, many other countries have delivery regions, Puerto Rico has Urbanization Zones and on they go. Asking a buyer for a ZIP code will be meaningless to them.
Secondly, you don't need any form of postal code to calculate shipping with the postal service. The Postal Service international rate calculator shown in the response above only needs the country. Your cost will not vary by region. It is set to the country. Just enter the correct weight. That's where the error will occur.
UPS requires a City and Country Postal Code to obtain a quote. If you look at their rate calculator you will see an asterisk (*) next to the countries which actually use postal codes.
posted on September 7, 2001 01:30:45 PM
There is a complete international rate engine in the Endicia software. It performs a real-time internet transaction (in the background) to a USPS site which is updated weekly with the latest rates, prohibitions, service windows, etc.
BTW, the USPS does assign some ZIP+4 codes to international mail. We have a list of these, but USPS really wants to spray them on themselves. The ZIP'S are used to get the mail from your city to the US "gateway" city (e.g. New York, San Francisco).
