Hi,
In the past I’ve made no secret about being married to a Polish family (and a wife :rolleyes: )
That said we are constantly mailing things to Poland from here.
In general, our postal system is quite well put together and is fairly safe. But all those safety measures seem to fly out the window when you are going from one country’s postal system to another’s; in this case Poland’s.
There have been incidents where things never made it to my “family” and times where 8 weeks later (after we resend the the original item) that it shows up @ the recipient’s residence.
We almost always insure the items we send, but in alot of cases it’s not the monetary value that’s the emphasis with the package. So if the package bites it somewhere along the way, we’re screwed.
I couldn’t help but be frustrated as I stood at the post office reading the “domestic only” fine print on the certified mail form.
When I got to the counter I emphasized many times the package was a costly one to create and was looking for any safeguards I could take to help ensure the package arrived to it’s destination all in one piece.
She barely did anything, just mumbled something and the one would I heard was “insure” which I was quite familiar with…
Which leaves me to believe that maybe the post office isn’t the best place to ask these kinds of questions. Surely there are other dopers out there that have family outside this country.
I know everyone at this point must be wondering “Is there a question here for me?”
yup, that’s my question,
" What safeguards can I take in regards to mailing items, expensive or otherwise outside the country?"
Is there anything other than insuring my package that can be done to feel safer about mailing items over seas?
What about DHL, UPS, FEDEX? Are there better safeguards built-in to mailing items in this fashion?