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Vic you asked this in another thread.
I find it noteworthy that both of the people complaining about long shipping times in this thread are using Military APOs. Is there any chance either of you could find out for us why they take longer to deliver Paizo packages than Amazon packages? If there's some change we can make on our end to facilitate delivery, we'd love to know about it.
Though we mentioned some stuff after you posted that, I think it Deserved another Thread.
Here is some info on APO Shipping Posted by myself and Andrew Turner.
What my MPO tells me--Once a piece of mail (postcard to steamer trunk) reaches the APO office in, for example, San Francisco, it is picked up by the military and either shipped overseas by boat or plane.
Mail designated as bulk, media, or parcel goes by ship, all other by air.
Once it reaches the APO Sorting Facility (Yokohama for me), it is sorted by APO Zip and then Unit Designation Number.
At this point all mail, regardless of priority, is treated exactly the same.
What my Mail Clerk unofficially tells me--
All of the above, plus, Amazon packages get to service members quickly because, next to letters and flat rate Priority Mail packages, Amazon boxes make up the bulk of any daily pickup. In effect, there are so many Amazon packages ordered the MPO palletizes entire movements of nothing but Amazon deliveries. This means that my Paizo package might actually arrive in Osan or Busan before my Amazon package, but the Paizo package will get left at port because the mail trailers are packed with first class letters and Amazon packages. It's a kind of democracy--majority rules.
PS
I checked my mail at lunch today (about 20 minutes ago), and sure enough, the mail room is lined with all manner of Amazon.com packages. They far outnumber any other type of parcel in there.
I added to this.
Looks like from Above Vic, that there is not much you can do..Other then get a Huge Military Customer base ;-)..Or we choose Priority, since then it will fly to us instead of go by Ship.
For Andrew all his shipping should go through San Fransico and for Me it Should go throuh New York *But I need to verify that it does not go through San Fransico since you guys are on the West Coast*
The road trip to San Fransisco from you guys is much quicker then the road trip for New York... But the Pacific Ocean is HUGE! and I am sure that ship for him stops at a few ports before it gets to him *Hawaii and Guam* so that adds alot of time for him.
For me the Atlantic Ocean is much shorter and there is only 1 Port it stops at, Germany. so techincally I would not be surprised If i get my stuff before Andrew does.. But I may be under estimating the time it takes for the road trip from seattle to NY.
Now if My stuff instead goes to the closest miltary Mail port *San Fransico* then that would add a very long time for me. I will find out.
Now right now Since I do not have a group, it really does not matter when I get my shipment.. but in the future if I find a group, it may be worth the extra $6 to get my items shipped Priority, which would most likely cut a few weeks off the shipment.
thanks for the Info Andrew!
Looking at the Military Postal Service Agency web page
Priority mail Usually takes about 7-9 Days from the day you ship it to get to us in Germany.
For all other mail it takes about 35 - 50 days.
That is a HUGE difference!
Depending on senders and recivers loacation it could take longer, those dates are average for me.
Now on what you can do to possible help, I found this info on the USPS web page.
Priority Mail APO/FPO Flat Rate Box.
According to that, They have a deal for shipping Priority to APO/FPO address, $2 less then normal priority shipping.
If this is something you guys can use, More Military members would be willing to use the Priority mail option which would cut down on the delivery significantly!
Vic, Hope the info Help!!
Chief Technical Officer
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I'll have Jeff and Gary look into the APO box!
...and Gary is months ahead of me. It turns out you don't actually need the special box to get the special rate. The special rate is already in our system and is automatically used with the regular large Flat Rate Box when appropriate.
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Looking at the Military Postal Service Agency web page...Can you point me to that page?
I'll have Jeff and Gary look into the APO box!
Here you go, But some Military sites you can not get to from non military networks, I can't seem to get to it from home, but it looks like because the page is having problems.
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I'll have Jeff and Gary look into the APO box!...and Gary is months ahead of me. It turns out you don't actually need the special box to get the special rate. The special rate is already in our system and is automatically used with the regular large Flat Rate Box when appropriate.
you sure about that?.... When I check my Price for shipping my subscription priority it says $12.50 which is the normal price.. As it states here..
The Domestic Commercial price is $12.50, APO/FPO is $10.50.
I am not being charged the $10.50 price.
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We do charge a handling fee. If that were going to, say, Ohio, I believe you'd pay $14.60.
ahhh... got ya... cool...
Thanks!!!
Well like I have said in the past.. The items getting to me so long does not make a difference since at this time I don't have a group, but in the future the extra $6 might be worth it.
Thanks for supporting us where you can!!!
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Chief Technical Officer
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Here you go, But some Military sites you can not get to from non military networks, I can't seem to get to it from home, but it looks like because the page is having problems.
I can get there... but where do I find the bits like this:
Priority mail Usually takes about 7-9 Days from the day you ship it to get to us in Germany.
For all other mail it takes about 35 - 50 days.
I'd like to see if we can revise our delivery estimates with more accurate info.
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Here you go, But some Military sites you can not get to from non military networks, I can't seem to get to it from home, but it looks like because the page is having problems.
I can get there... but where do I find the bits like this:
I'd like to see if we can revise our delivery estimates with more accurate info.Priority mail Usually takes about 7-9 Days from the day you ship it to get to us in Germany.
For all other mail it takes about 35 - 50 days.
Oddly enough.. I can't get there... they might be blocking foreign IPs,
I am not sure where on the page it says that, I had to go digging for it, i think it was in the FAQ, but read it carefully because the numbers assume something but they need to be adjusted for something that effects me, which it states, I just can't remember what it was..
Normally it takes 2-3 days to get to a military port in the US, but something else adjusts that to 4-7 days.. so my numbers I posted are slightly higher then what their chart says.
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Here you go, But some Military sites you can not get to from non military networks, I can't seem to get to it from home, but it looks like because the page is having problems.
I can get there... but where do I find the bits like this:
I'd like to see if we can revise our delivery estimates with more accurate info.Priority mail Usually takes about 7-9 Days from the day you ship it to get to us in Germany.
For all other mail it takes about 35 - 50 days.
Oddly enough.. I can't get there... they might be blocking foreign IPs,
I am not sure where on the page it says that, I had to go digging for it, i think it was in the FAQ, but read it carefully because the numbers assume something but they need to be adjusted for something that effects me, which it states, I just can't remember what it was..
Normally it takes 2-3 days to get to a military port in the US, but something else adjusts that to 4-7 days.. so my numbers I posted are slightly higher then what their chart says.
Yup it was the FAQ.. here it is. FAQ
Edit: Found it on another page Here
Thanks!
According to that chart, our standard shipping parcels should get to Germany in 18–22 days. Is that accurate in your experience?
My feed reader picked this up as "1822 days". I was going to make a comment about that type of comment being why I watch Vic's feed, but now that really doesn't make sense. So this has turned into a generalized comment about technology. /nod
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Chief Technical Officer
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My feed reader picked this up as "1822 days". I was going to make a comment about that type of comment being why I watch Vic's feed, but now that really doesn't make sense. So this has turned into a generalized comment about technology. /nodThanks!
According to that chart, our standard shipping parcels should get to Germany in 18–22 days. Is that accurate in your experience?
Respect my en-dashes!
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Thanks!
According to that chart, our standard shipping parcels should get to Germany in 18–22 days. Is that accurate in your experience?
No that is wrong... Once In awhile you will get lucky and get SAM but you can't request it..
SAM is Space available Mail, Basically if it can't get on the ship and there is room on a Plane it will go on the plane. I can choose SAM mail when I send, but you can't Choose SAM mail when you send to me.. It is a roll of the dice on weather it gets SAM from you.
The correct chart is Surface Parcel Chart which says
30-45 days to Germany
But that is based 3-4 days for it to New York, But because you are shipping a Parcel it takes 7-10 days to get to NY from you, which changes the Time it gets to me to
34-51 days, which is what I experience.
I am serious when I say it takes a Looong!! time for you stuff to get to me..
Edit:
If you are shipping to Iraq, Kuwait or Afghanistan you shipment will be sent SAM.
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Chief Technical Officer
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SAM is Space available Mail, Basically if it can't get on the ship and there is room on a Plane it will go on the plane. I can choose SAM mail when I send, but you can't Choose SAM mail when you send to me.. It is a roll of the dice on weather it gets SAM from you.
Ah. I thought it meant Surface or Air Mail!
(Also, why they factored "three or four days" into the tables labeled "Parcel" when they have a note that says parcel post takes 7 to 10 days, I can't imagine...)
Well, looks like we have to change our APO/FPO standard mail estimates to 34–51 days, then (and our Priority estimates to 9–19 days).
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Now look at the Priority Times.
For Priority Mail it Only takes 5-7 days to get to me,
For example Microsoft shipped my a New Xbox 360 to me last Monday Priority, It got here Sunday.
That is a HUGE Difference
34-51 days to 5-7 days, Once I have a group and I need your stuff fast I will upgrade to Priority because that extra $6 is worth that big a difference.
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Well, looks like we have to change our APO/FPO standard mail estimates to 34–51 days, then (and our Priority estimates to 9–19 days).
I don't think you need to Factor in the 7-10 for Priority Parcel, It is Priority mail so it get to NY/San Fransisco fast!!
so for Priority it would be
Iraq - 10-12
Kuwait - 11-13
Afghanistan - 11-13
Europe - 5-7
Korea/Japan - 9-11
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As I understand it, there's no chart mapping APO/FPO zips to particular theaters, so we can't predict SAM vs. Surface in any case.
There is... If it is available to the Public I don't know. If it is I will post it here.
You can also kind of base it on this.. but it is not as accurate
* AE (Armed Forces Europe / Canada / Middle East / Africa) - 09XXX
* AP (Armed Forces Pacific) - 96XXX
* AA (Armed Forces Atlantic) - 34XXX
Edit: None of this is an exact Science, stuff has been known to get to places faster then it should, and stuff has been known to get lost for months!!
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As I understand it, there's no chart mapping APO/FPO zips to particular theaters, so we can't predict SAM vs. Surface in any case.
There is... If it is available to the Public I don't know. If it is I will post it here.
This should Help
EUROPE
AE 090xx-092xx - Germany
AE 093xx - Contingency (Iraq & I think Afghanistan)
AE 094xx - United Kingdom
AE 095xx - Ships
AE 096xx - Italy, Spain
AE 097xx - Other Europe/Canada
Middle East/Africa
AE 098xx - Middle East/Africa
PACIFIC
AP 962xx - Korea
AP 963xx - Japan
AP 964xx - Philippines
AP 965xx - Other Pacific
CENTRAL/SOUTH AMERICA
AA 340 - All Countries
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My feed reader picked this up as "1822 days". I was going to make a comment about that type of comment being why I watch Vic's feed, but now that really doesn't make sense. So this has turned into a generalized comment about technology. /nodThanks!
According to that chart, our standard shipping parcels should get to Germany in 18–22 days. Is that accurate in your experience?
Mine too!
