We only occasionally send items to our kids in the States and we have always used FedEx for those "couple of times a year" mailings. So when we headed over there the other day to send the first such parcel in many a month we got a nasty surprise! We found out that in order to use their ground services delivery we now have to get ourselves a customs broker! In order to do that we have to sign all manner of paperwork and also provide said broker with a Power of Attorney that allows that person to act on our behalf.....uhhhhhh....nope, not gonna do and pay for all that. Not worth it to send two or three hundred dollars worth of gifts each year. We could still use their air transportation services with the base price being two hundred and fifty dollars! Nope, not going to do that either. The cost associated with air transportation would be more than the cost of the gifts!
So our son is going to contact us today and explain to us what better ways are available to us for less hassle and cost. He ships things all the time between countries both for his work and for personal items, so he is up to date on all these things. There are other ways of course than using FedEx, but they have been so delightful to work with, every package arrived on time, it was easy to track each one's whereabouts and the staff at the desk here have always been so efficient and so great at explaining things to us....as they were the other day when they were explaining the customs broker requirement. If we were sending things regularly for business reasons it would be worth it to have a broker....or at least MORE worth it.
The times they are a'changing...(thank you Mr. Dylan for those song lyrics and you are so right about that!)
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