customs forms, priority international, shipping,

[creativeartsoul]

Hi All!

I've been printing Priority International forms from Paypal for some time now and have never had a problem. 

However, one postal clerk in our post office insists that I should have 3-4 copies of the customs forms (similar to the hard-copy ditto forms they have), but when using Paypal shipping, I've always only received one printed copy and stuck it on the package.  Other postal workers have accepted my packages, but this one insists I have more than one copy. 

Are we supposed to print the thing out 3 times?  Has this been a problem for anyone?  I've never seen an option to request multiple copies of the customs form. 

Thanks in advance for the replies!

Cheers!

[angryman]

Your PO person is misinformed. Since the customs info on the PP label is entered electronically, the PO can, in effect, make as many copies as it needs electronically, and doesn't need the nutty, tree-wasting 4 part label that you would need if you filled one in by hand  at the PO. 

The thing is, the PO has a line for the PO worker to get straight answeres, so there is not excuse for them to be misinformed, or to put the burden of researching such things on the customer. 

[brads]

I have run into a similar issue at the Post Office, although I don't understand why you say your forms only print out one copy. 

When I ship overseas, the Paypal issued customs form 2976-A prints out two 8 1/2 x 11 sheets, each with two forms on it for a total of four forms. The forms numbered 1 and 2 say (at the bottom) they are the "Customs Declaration[s]". Form 3 is the "Dispatch Note", and form 4 is the  "Sender's Copy". The problem is that this isn't enough forms to satisfy many postal clerks, since a standard Post Office issued 2976-A form consists of six pages - page 1 the "Manifesting/Scan Copy", pages 2 and 3 "Customs Declaration" copies, page 4 the "Dispatch Note", page 5 a "Post Office Copy", and page 6 the "Sender's Copy".  That means the Paypal issued form is two pages short, missing both the "Manifesting/Scan Copy" and the "Post Office Copy".

On several occasions I have tried to ship something using just the Paypal issued three sheets (not counting the "Sender's Copy") and been shot down at the window because I didn't have enough forms - in particular the "Post Office Copy" they expected to see was missing. On one occasion the Paypal issued forms (3 pieces) were accepted that way, but normally they will be rejected. What I do now is double print the forms and bring three "Customs Forms", and two "Dispatch Notes" to the Post Office with me. Although having to double print these every time is a raging PITA, it seems to satisfy any clerk on duty as they have the number of forms they want, even if none are labeled "Post Office Copy".

My question is WHY does Paypal not print out the full six forms that a standard 2976-A form consists of? I ship overseas quite a bit and this is a constant thorn in my side.

But since you seem to have a very similar problem, until Paypal remedies this you can work around it and print out multiple copies of the form by printing one and then telling the pop-up menu on your computer screen that the form didn't print and then print it again. This prints out two identical forms - four 8 1/2 x 11 pages total. In your case, if your computer is only printing one page/form, you may have to do as you suggested in your post and print three times.

Once again, having to do this is a PITA, but it is a way around Paypal's customs forms shortcoming. I just wish they would fix the thing so it prints out the right number and type of forms without requiring the extra gymnastics.

[LMR]

A lot of post office clerks are really incompetent and lack  knowledge.

It was frustrating that the clerks at my local post office had to learn a lot from my shipping internationally ever since I started shipping in 2003. Everytime the USPS came up with something new, they almost never knew about it and had to learn from what I told them. Many times I took my laptop and showed them all the relevant info on the usps.com website. Once they learned it was all good though, and the clerks at my local post office are surprisingly nice too.

Just today I had an issue with the international custom forms. I had to go to a different post office because it was after the cut off time for next day express mail at my local post office and I had a few domestic express mail packages that needed to be delivered next day so I had to go to a bigger post office with a later cut off time. I also had several international express mail packages that I took.

I just handed al the packages to the clerk, she scanned them and gave me receipts plus the "sender's copy" for the international packages. Everything seemed fine and I left without reviewing them because I was in a hurry and had a long line behind me and the clerk seems to know what she was doing.

For the domestic express mail packages, the receipts she gave indicate the acceptance date and time, but it does not say whether they are next day or second day delivery like the ones I get from my regular local post office. My customers are going to be p'd off if they don't get next day delivery. If wanted two day delivery I would've just used priority mail which 99% of the time arrives in two days. The acceptance time was at least half an hour before the next day cut-off time, so I'm hoping the clerk was smart enough to mark next day on the labels.

For the international express mail packages, the dumb clerk gave me the number '3 -Dispatch Note' for each of the 6 international express packages I had. She should've given me the "Sender's copy"

By the time I realized this it was too late and the post office had closed already.

Anyway, on the receipt they give you, there's a web link where you can give feedback on the particular transaction. Use this, it really seems to work. There was a very stubborn clerk at another post office who didn't follow guidelines and always told me the latest info on the USPS website was wrong. After submitting feedback about 3 - 5 times, he started following guidelines correctly.