UPS is inefficient and expensive

Hi all,

My background story
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almost three months after I ordered on Shapeways, I decided I should call the local UPS guys, here in New Caledonia.

They told me the package had been waiting for a month because they didn't have my address nor the invoice.....
First disappointment. :evil:

And then, today, they called me, to say I can come and get the package at their office.
Joy ... until the guy told me on the phone I had to pay a tax which is 90% of the price of my order!!!!! WTF?

My order is $62 in value on the invoice, but one of the models had been cancelled by Shapeways. So the UPS guys won't trust me, the invoice says $62 while it is in fact only $56.

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So, my questions:
- why do I have to pay $50 of taxes for a package which is $56 in value?
- why does the package not display an invoice clearly on it?
- can't Shapeways offer the regular postal services shipping option? They usually costs me nothing or very little in taxes, and are much faster.
- when Shapeways cancels a model once it's been ordered, can't the invoice be updated, so that the delivery guys don't surcharge us with taxes?

To your question Nr. 3: https://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=3758&a mp;a mp;a mp;start=0&

@fx2
So we're in the same boat ...
No more orders from me until I can bypass those greedy UPS guys.

I'm glad ebay and amazon don't use that .... "shipping" company.

Check out my "story" with UPS... and the conclusions i made..

https://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=3224&a mp;start=0&

Interesting.
I'll ask them the details about how the hell they get those kinds of amounts for their charges.

I went to the local UPS office, to take my package.

First, the invoice indeed is displayed on the package, but the price isn't visible, only my address.
They couldn't find my telephone number, even though they've got my full address ... great.

Second, I asked them what is the minimum package value before I get charged. Answer:
$30

And third, after all that frustration, something positive at last,
the models look absolutely gorgeous
my first time with bronze and steel.

We hear you guys. There's so going around import taxes for UPS seems to charge an inordinate fee for handling the taxes. The same thing has happened to me personally when I received stuff from the US here in the Netherlands.

Things should improve once we get more production facilities worldwide, and in the mean time we *are* aware of the issue and we're investigating alternatives. If you have any suggestions, please let us know!

Bart

My suggestion is always the same: link to my thread Postal shipping option, please ! . I think it would easily solve the UPS extremely high fees problem for a lot of countries around the world.