USPS Will Not Ship Li-ion Batteries Internationally Anymore

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The post officer wonders why its going out of business, and wants us to bail it out, but when you go in there, they have a list the size of a wall of stuff they won't ship.

Let them go bankrupt and toss out all those pensions and then see if they still refuse to ship stuff.
 
Doesn't bother me living in Australia. I won't knowingly buy from anyone who ships using USPS because its usually quicker to swim over to the US and buy it and swim back.
 
This is more than likely a repsonse to a government concern about Lithium-Ion batteries being used as a part of an improvised explosive or anything like that. I wouldn't be surprised if the other shippers soon phase in a similar restriction once USPS test drives the system. Honestly I can't imagine USPS even ships too many batteries to international locales anyway, so they were probably asked to be the guinea pig since they have a smaller pool to work from for developing a dry run for new policy. Plus USPS is more liekly to store their packages on international flights than DHL, FedEx, or UPS who have a more robust private fleet of planes. Given the effect it would have on global commerce it would be highly unlikely that they would keep this up for long anyway.
 
This is being forced upon USPS by an international aviation safety council or something like that, and has to do with international mail containing lithium batteries (anything with Lithium) being carried on commercial flights. This rule does not apply to cargo planes. We have heard that the state department is working on resolving the issue with whoever this council is and they hope to have the issue resolved by Jan 2013.
 
We are now dependent on the Army and Air force or Navy Exchange for anything that resembles a portable electronic item. This is a game changer for us. I would hazard to guess overseas military is responsible for millions of dollars in revenue for Amazon and other online vendors. This is going to put a dent in that. This will create quite a stir in APO/FPO circles. Too bad the people who get paid to work these kind of issues were asleep at the wheel and this is just now becoming a public issue. I would hazard to bet that were the USPS a private company, as opposed to a government parasite, this would never have become an issue.
 
Ok, if Li-Ion batteries are a danger to aircraft than of course we can not have Phones, Cameras or Laptops in the cabin either.
Ah yes, and take those iPads away from the Pilots as well! Don't want their pants to catch fire 🙂
 
Wow, I guess I'm the only one who actually want to only ship USPS/Canada Post. Whenever I get anything from the states I will only buy it if they ship USPS. UPS is a ripoff at the border. They charge a percentage of the item's worth at the border for a brokerage fee. So the more expensive the item the more I pay. Thats on top of the shipping I already paid. And then they charge you a percentage of that fee and the taxes for them advancing the money to you. You can phone them up before you get the package and pay the amount with your credit card and not get charged the advance fee. USPS/Canada post just seems to charge the taxes plus a flat rate, $5, sometimes nothing.
 
[citation][nom]Morval[/nom]Wow, I guess I'm the only one who actually want to only ship USPS/Canada Post. Whenever I get anything from the states I will only buy it if they ship USPS. UPS is a ripoff at the border. They charge a percentage of the item's worth at the border for a brokerage fee. So the more expensive the item the more I pay. Thats on top of the shipping I already paid. And then they charge you a percentage of that fee and the taxes for them advancing the money to you. You can phone them up before you get the package and pay the amount with your credit card and not get charged the advance fee. USPS/Canada post just seems to charge the taxes plus a flat rate, $5, sometimes nothing.[/citation]
Sounds complicated.
 
They're so dumb. They should have just cut off bulk shipments of LI cells and not said anything to the public. Now they look like idiots and their losses are going to get even worse. It seems the Earth is populated solely by cretins.
 
[citation][nom]perfectblue[/nom]Capitalism at its best...[/citation]

This is not capitalism, but evidence that the government doesn't know how to run anything. In case you didn't attend school, the United States Postal Service is not a "capitalist corporation" but a poorly ran government program. Thanks for playing.
 
I use USPS every day without any problems. They ALWAYS deliver at the same time. Using UPS and Fed you'll never know when they'll show up.

 
USPS is NOT supposed to make a profit! Millions of rural americans that are not in a profitable enough area to ship to would not have any cost effective options if it was not for the USPS. It's not all about YOU!
 
FYI, the USPS makes a profit, however, due to bizarre retirement regulations put in place by the government in the last few years, they are being forced to pay for every future employee's retirement ahead of time to the tune of billions of dollars a year.

As far as this ban goes, I doubt it will last long, and someone most likely will be fired for letting it take place. In the mean time, it would be not only nice, but downright patriotic if UPS or FedEx stepped up to help out the service members and DOD civilians overseas that facilitated the building of their global empires, by filling the void left by this ban.
 
[citation][nom]mrmez[/nom]Doesn't bother me living in Australia. I won't knowingly buy from anyone who ships using USPS because its usually quicker to swim over to the US and buy it and swim back.[/citation]

I ship almost exclusively USPS; for any international items more than maybe eight pounds, UPS/FedEx are typically 5x the price or more.

In my experience, most of the international delay is with the receiving countries' customs more than anything else [I actually don't ship to Italy any more for that reason].
 
[citation][nom]slammer5565[/nom]We are now dependent on the Army and Air force or Navy Exchange for anything that resembles a portable electronic item. This is a game changer for us. I would hazard to guess overseas military is responsible for millions of dollars in revenue for Amazon and other online vendors. This is going to put a dent in that. This will create quite a stir in APO/FPO circles. Too bad the people who get paid to work these kind of issues were asleep at the wheel and this is just now becoming a public issue. I would hazard to bet that were the USPS a private company, as opposed to a government parasite, this would never have become an issue.[/citation]
I don't think that APO/FPO shipments are subject to the same restrictions as international mail. When you factor in that commercial bulk shipments are the primary issue at hand, I doubt that the DoD will apply this prohibition to your packages. APO/FPO mail is only handled by the USPS inside the US. Once it leaves the country, it's transported by the military in most cases.
 
Now THIS is funny!!!: L-3 Avionics Systems, a major supplier of certified/TSO'd avionics for the commercial sector, sells this really nice backup display called the "Trilogy." One of its selling points is that it can function on backup power if the aircraft loses main power. And the source of this backup power? Yep, you guessed it! A LITHIUM-ION BATTERY. LOLZ!
 
This is why USPS is bankrupt, they are clinicly stupid!!! FedEx, DHL, UPS if these guys thought that it was bad for their bottom line (cause crashed burning plates are expensive) they would have done this years ago. How do you think the batteries get from China and Asia to the U.S., Europe and every where else? Sure they go on cargo ships, but not all. I am a traveler and have yet to see ANY cell phone or laptop burst into flames in an airplane, maybe USPS should check to see their laxy employees are not spilling grape soda on the boxes of batteries while they are suppose to be working but are in the back loosing our mail.

I hate stupidity and I hate when people blindly follow stupidity even more, if you know the logic is flawed here tell your post man, let them know.
 
On 11/9 USPS announced that the Lithium Ion Ban would be lifted on 11/15/12. Here is a page with all relevent info:

http://www.mpfproducts.com/usps-lifts-ban-on-international-shipments-containing-lithium-ion-batteries/
 
On 11/9 USPS announced that the Lithium Ion Ban would be lifted on 11/15/12. Here is a page with all relevent info:

http://www.mpfproducts.com/usps-lifts-ban-on-international-shipments-containing-lithium-ion-batteries/
 
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