Save the Post Office

[togor]

and that's bad?

Important question. Your best bet might be to share the joke widely and get a broad set of opinions.

[lyman]

Important question. Your best bet might be to share the joke widely and get a broad set of opinions.

and the answer is ?

[togor]

and the answer is ?

You're the one looking for answers. So go get some.

[jon_norstog]

Big shippers buy their services in volume and get a better unit price. It should be different?

Years ago I wanted to ship some Christmas gifts to some friends in Switzerland. Nothing fancy...some beer glasses, T shirts, homemade candy. At the Kinko's, a hairy declarations form. I get to the front of the line, stay there for awhile. It's Christmas so line stacking up behind me. Shipping cost - $200! After all that time I couldn't walk away so...Merry Christmas, Swiss friends! A guy at work who knows shipping said that same package would cost $50 to ship on the corporate rate.

Oh...and the Swiss Government asked my friends to pony up 50 CHF in import duties. The gift that kept on giving.

Man! Last year I built a racing bike for this man in Kenya, Ibrahim Wafula. He races big events even though he only has one leg. Raced against Lance one year at Leadville ... Anyway I took his physical situation into account in the build, along with the race - a 2000-mile race over bad roads from Nairobi to Mecca. I boxed the bike up sans wheels, saddle and handle bars (bulky items I figured he could pick up in Nairobi) and shipped it DHL. It cost almost $1,200! Plus when it got there Mr. Wafula couldn't come up with about $300 in duties. He was supposed to have a waiver of duties on specialized handicap equipment. I wrote a letter to their revenue director explaining all the differences between this bike and an ordinary bike for the able-bodied ... got the Commerce Section at the Kenyan Embassy involved, and eventually Mr. Wafula got his waiver. In the meantime the bike sat a few weeks at DHL then customs swooped in and seized it. By the time the waiver had come through customs had lost the bike. Or maybe someone at DHL had taken advantage ..

Wafula ended up riding along on the support van instead of racing.

rant rant

jn