A little discussion on modern shipping practices and trends...

[wrljet]

They dont? Wow, thats news to me. Yeah Id be ok with my already paid money going to that rather than alot of the other places its going.

That is largely correct. They rely on postage.

One reason they are always broke is this rule:

Support the USPS Fairness Act

For over a decade, the United States Postal Service has been plagued with the onerous burden of prefunding its retiree health care benefits as mandated by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) of 2006. The USPS Fairness Act would release the burden.

apwu.org

 

[Caluser2000]

US Govt protectionist policies has made US services to be prioritised over the likes of DHL increasing there prices over feright transport serviced based in other countries....

 

[creepingnet]

Over Christmas I ordered a set of those 194 style LED Bulbs for me and my wife's cars - big lot of them from a US Shipper....had to cancel and get a refund because a month in it still was not shipped and never arrived.

On a positive note, ordered a sustainer system for one of my guitars (a "pickup" that makes the strings vibrate on their own thusly incurring infinite sustain) from Indonesia - came in in 2 weeks - way ahead of what I expected. Indonesian post was ahead of schedule on that one. Was already in California in Customs in about 3-4 days - then it took Customs in Cali almost 4-5 days to process.