On October 17, the Unites States Postal Service updated its International Customs long-form, 2976-A and it is a little tricky for us eBayers. (The short form, the green PS Form 2976, Customs - CN22, is unchanged – for now!) Those of us who ship via USPS and hand-write our customs labels, now have to fill out a longer, more detailed form, and for those of us who print our labels online, it is also more complicated. With labels printed from PayPal, the postal clerk may need to type in your customer’s information, even though your label is complete. With the Holiday Season hard upon our heels, this is not the best time for old dogs to learn new tricks.
According to the USPS, the international customs form was updated to gather complete information about international shipments for homeland security and USPS is now required to input the information before the packages get to customs. For more information, you can ask your local postal clerk for a copy of Brochure 612, entitled Sending an International Package? (FYI: My attempts to find it online were fruitless.)
My local postal clerks tell me it is best to use Click ‘N Ship instead of PayPal shipping for those international orders that require the 2976-A. When you ship through Click ‘N Ship, and bring your international package into the post office to be scanned, for example, the information will be automatically populated when the postal clerk scans it in. With labels printed from PayPal, they inform me, the postal clerk will need to type in the entire address again, even though you have it filled out. Some postal workers will enter the information during down time, while others will enter it while you wait – and the line behind you grows. I ship between twenty to fifty international orders per week - but I know eBayers who ship ten times that – and that’s a lot of typing and a lot of waiting!
I print virtually all of my labels through PayPal. Printing pre-paid labels looks professional and PayPal makes printing labels very easy. Best of all, printing my labels through PayPal helps me track the status of my deliveries for customers who are waiting for a package or claim to have not received a package. Plus, both PayPal and Click ‘N Ship offer free tracking and delivery confirmation for Priority and Express shipping - and even with First Class Shipping, Media Mail and Parcel Post, you can get delivery confirmation for only $.19. I then bring my packages in to the Post Office to be scanned, because I like to have a receipt in hand in case a package goes missing. (Ok, yeah, I am a bit of a control freak!) But for international shipments, it is possible to use PayPal or Click ‘N Ship to print your label, only if the order is being shipped via Priority or Express. For those international packages being shipped via Priority or Express, I have always used PayPal, but I am considering using Click ‘N Ship at least for my international orders, to avoid any extra work and time spent with the new customs forms.
What do you think?
What service do you use to ship internationally?