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Sending a parcel from the USA ( amazon) to Russia

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Author	Message
elvis1 Just Starting Joined: 17 Oct 2009 Posts: 2	Posted: Sat Oct 17, 2009 8:07 am    Post subject: Sending a parcel from the USA ( amazon) to Russia Hi, I am willing to know how to send a gift ( a watch and a flash drive) to a friend in Russia ( Samara). I live in latin america but I have VISA credit card and an amazon account. Thanks in advance
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jo-jo-7 Just Starting Joined: 16 Mar 2010 Posts: 6	Posted: Sat Oct 17, 2009 4:16 pm    Post subject: Re: Sending a parcel from the USA ( amazon) to Russia elvis1 wrote: Hi, I am willing to know how to send a gift ( a watch and a flash drive) to a friend in Russia ( Samara). I live in latin america but I have VISA credit card and an amazon account. Thanks in advance I tried to send something from Amazon to Poland, it is best to have your purchase sent to your house, usually Amazon is fast on sending your order in a few days, then go to your post office and get one of those little red, white and blue boxes. When you send something small like that it is best to have the post office send it and it is insured. The total cost is between $9 to $12. It takes 6 to 7 days to get there.
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elvis1 Just Starting Joined: 17 Oct 2009 Posts: 2	Posted: Sat Oct 17, 2009 9:25 pm    Post subject: Re: Sending a parcel from the USA ( amazon) to Russia jo jo 7 wrote: elvis1 wrote: Hi, I am willing to know how to send a gift ( a watch and a flash drive) to a friend in Russia ( Samara). I live in latin america but I have VISA credit card and an amazon account. Thanks in advance I tried to send something from Amazon to Poland, it is best to have your purchase sent to your house, usually Amazon is fast on sending your order in a few days, then go to your post office and get one of those little red, white and blue boxes. When you send something small like that it is best to have the post office send it and it is insured. The total cost is between $9 to $12. It takes 6 to 7 days to get there. So I better make it come down to Latin america and then re route it to Russia? Any extra secure methods to ensure as much as possible the package arriving to destiny without any hassle/getting stolen/being beated Thanks in advance
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jo-jo-7 Just Starting Joined: 16 Mar 2010 Posts: 6	Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 3:08 am    Post subject: Re: Sending a parcel from the USA ( amazon) to Russia elvis1 wrote: jo jo 7 wrote: elvis1 wrote: Hi, I am willing to know how to send a gift ( a watch and a flash drive) to a friend in Russia ( Samara). I live in latin america but I have VISA credit card and an amazon account. Thanks in advance I tried to send something from Amazon to Poland, it is best to have your purchase sent to your house, usually Amazon is fast on sending your order in a few days, then go to your post office and get one of those little red, white and blue boxes. When you send something small like that it is best to have the post office send it and it is insured. The total cost is between $9 to $12. It takes 6 to 7 days to get there. So I better make it come down to Latin america and then re route it to Russia? Any extra secure methods to ensure as much as possible the package arriving to destiny without any hassle/getting stolen/being beated Thanks in advance Yes, it would be better to do it that way because the package you are sending will be insured. Those boxes from the parcel post are strong, just make sure you put some of those little spongy peanuts inside it. Your items are small so it is a light weight package. Parcel post is better than FED EX. My fiancee is always in Europe working and he gets everything sent from parcel post. It comes to him in good shape and fast.
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polarrrbear Frequent Guest Joined: 31 Aug 2007 Posts: 53	Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:14 am    Post subject: You know there is a major difference between parcel post in Europe and parcel post in Russia. Postal system in Russia is unreliable at best. The most economical way would be sending stuff using EMS. It is still handled and delivered by Russian Post (Почта России), but it is insured as well as tracked and prioritized. So far I haven't had any missing deliveries and I personally think it is the most reliable way for most things within Russia's postal system. For something really important, like some kind of legal documents, I would still use FedEx or DHL. On the other hand, if sending something in regular postal parcel categories, getting to Russia isn't a problem if your country's postal system is ok, but once inside of Russia, having your stuff delivered to the recipient depends on luck. It's just that unreliable. So if you really want to have it delivered, you can either hope for the best and send in regular parcel, or spend extra on EMS or courier services.
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jo-jo-7 Just Starting Joined: 16 Mar 2010 Posts: 6	Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 2:28 pm    Post subject: The parcel (red, white and blue) post boxes it is not regular post, it is priority mail, secured, insured and have a tracking number. If EMS is still handled through Russia's post, then the insured priority packages from the postal service should not make a difference when it is insured. If the Russian post is that bad then sending it EMS would not be any better for a solution. Not trying to make a joke, I think a wing and a prayer would be the answer. I have heard that the Russian postal service is not that great, but it is cheaper to do this through his postal service. If both places are insuring the packages then it doesn't matter if it is through another service or not, it is whether Russia does their job like they are suppose to.
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polarrrbear Frequent Guest Joined: 31 Aug 2007 Posts: 53	Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 8:42 pm    Post subject: First of all, you realize he's not from the US, right? He doesn't get a red-white-blue box. Second, so called 'priority mail' is only a category within regular postal service in the US, and it is priority only in name. In other countries, it could be simply called anything, could be a simple "air mail" for all what's worth. Not all countries have different categories of international parcel service. On the other hand, EMS is handled by postal system of each country, but it is a service that's monitored by Universal Postal Union, if anything, it is the most secure and reliable service within the postal system. I suspect they aren't 'allowed' to mishandle EMS as much. In the US, EMS equivalent is Global Express International and Express Mail International, but for many countries, anything above regular international post/parcel is EMS. Simply put, talking about USPS international post/parcel service is a moot point, because he's not going to be using the USPS and his country's postal system may or may not offer the categories of services you think they do. And for what it's worth, employees of Russian Post don't care if it's so-called Priority or regular first-class mail. It's not their service. Do you think Russian Post has special storage and delivery priority systems to accommodate for every and each country's different postal service categories? Also, insured and tracked doesn't mean a whole lot. First, tracking is sporadic at best within Russia. It might disappear for days at a time, even for EMS. For anything less, it might not even appear once inside of Russia. It might, but there's a good chance it might not. About insurance, it might be worth a shot, except having to get the receipt for damaged item may require some waiting in the que, quarreling with postal employee or what not. It takes a luck to get anything done smoothly. And by the time he can reclaim insurance for it, what he gets is the value of the book he ordered and shipping to Russia. He's minus shipping from Amazon to his country. But on the other hand, he might get lucky to get his book delivered. Personally I think it'll be worth a bit of extra to have things sent in one go. If Russia's postal service isn't so bad, I'd agree with you, send it in by post, but since it's not, he's risking even bigger loss than what he will spend on EMS. No, Russia's public services don't perform their jobs as they are supposed to unless something or someone is breathing down on their neck or money involved. There is no how or why, but that's how it is.
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jo-jo-7 Just Starting Joined: 16 Mar 2010 Posts: 6	Posted: Mon Oct 19, 2009 9:38 pm    Post subject: polarrrbear wrote: First of all, you realize he's not from the US, right? He doesn't get a red-white-blue box. Second, so called 'priority mail' is only a category within regular postal service in the US, and it is priority only in name. In other countries, it could be simply called anything, could be a simple "air mail" for all what's worth. Not all countries have different categories of international parcel service. On the other hand, EMS is handled by postal system of each country, but it is a service that's monitored by Universal Postal Union, if anything, it is the most secure and reliable service within the postal system. I suspect they aren't 'allowed' to mishandle EMS as much. In the US, EMS equivalent is Global Express International and Express Mail International, but for many countries, anything above regular international post/parcel is EMS. Simply put, talking about USPS international post/parcel service is a moot point, because he's not going to be using the USPS and his country's postal system may or may not offer the categories of services you think they do. And for what it's worth, employees of Russian Post don't care if it's so-called Priority or regular first-class mail. It's not their service. Do you think Russian Post has special storage and delivery priority systems to accommodate for every and each country's different postal service categories? Also, insured and tracked doesn't mean a whole lot. First, tracking is sporadic at best within Russia. It might disappear for days at a time, even for EMS. For anything less, it might not even appear once inside of Russia. It might, but there's a good chance it might not. About insurance, it might be worth a shot, except having to get the receipt for damaged item may require some waiting in the que, quarreling with postal employee or what not. It takes a luck to get anything done smoothly. And by the time he can reclaim insurance for it, what he gets is the value of the book he ordered and shipping to Russia. He's minus shipping from Amazon to his country. But on the other hand, he might get lucky to get his book delivered. Personally I think it'll be worth a bit of extra to have things sent in one go. If Russia's postal service isn't so bad, I'd agree with you, send it in by post, but since it's not, he's risking even bigger loss than what he will spend on EMS. No, Russia's public services don't perform their jobs as they are supposed to unless something or someone is breathing down on their neck or money involved. There is no how or why, but that's how it is. It is the same in Latin America and this topic is about sending a package from America to Russia.
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