The current Auspost international options defy imagination. The executives must be getting larger bonuses for coming up with this.
From their web site: Australia to the USA with basic tracking, minimum cost:
Letter (Express) - $31.45 (250g)
Standard Parcel - $19.95 (250g)
Send a letter and pay extra as compared to classing it as a parcel. Yesterday I posted a letter and asked about tracking and was not told it could be sent as a parcel only as a $31.45 express letter. I elected to go with the basic $3.50 airmail even though Auspost or the USPS lost one and this was the replacement. Hopefully two times is the charm?
I was aware of those product features. They are ‘in one’s face’ on the Auspost website when looking for postal costs. From my perspective the delivery times for the Express and Standard are the same as they overlap and are indeed ‘estimates’. Some of my dated experiences are chronicled in Fun with Auspost.
Tracking Auspost style is in reality like a Airtag with a dodgy battery. You might know where it is, but you might not because of the lack of rigour in scanning except at the point of receipt at the PO and at delivery.
There does not appear to be any reasonably priced (in my eyes, say $10-15) internationally tracked letter product except Standard parcel that simply (is supposed to) advise where the item is, or in cases the last place it was known to be prior to having gone missing.
Once upon a time there was ‘priority mail international’ that met that criteria. It seems gone into history.
The Auspost international mail cost are appalling high. I mentioned my problem in June this year when a C5 envelope as a letter was changed to a parcel rate, (less than 250g) to the UK, that cost me $14.50 for a parcel, when previously for past 10 years, before Auspost changed the dimensions of the envelope, it cost $3.50. However, to my amazement, the same size envelope with my hand painted Christmas card was “special price” to UK was $2.60 if I endorsed it with ‘Geeting card only’ during November & December. The card was sent by airmail, so why has the Auspost made the delivery of the same size envelope with a birthday card during the rest of the year so expensive at $14.40? Auspost is losing massive amounts of money as clients are sending Christmas greeting cards by email. They need to do some lateral thinking to their business model, or paper letters will be consigned to history as the telegram has. International Economy - Australia Post
Quite the reverse, actually. The Letters division of Australia Post has lost money for years. The fewer people who send postal mail the less money they lose.
Parcels is where it it is at. Letters are a lost (and lossmaking) cause and have no future.