Quote:
Originally Posted by geekmaster
I just got off the phone with USPS. They said there is a new law going into effect January 2013 to ALLOW shipping personal items that contain batteries. They said you are supposed to remove the battery before shipping, and the recipient is supposed to buy their own battery.
At this time, only shipments from a manufacturer are allowed to contain lithium batteries.
When I brought up the fact that this is NOT a removable battery, and in fact is permanently glued inside, they said in that case to bring it to your local post office so they can make sure all the "proper forms" are filled out correctly.
Apparently the "no battery" policy is for REMOVABLE batteries. Anyway, for safe shipping a lithium battery should be discharged to between 40% and 70%, and the kindles have a diagnostics menu option that will do that for you.
Shipping to most countries from the US is $38 flat rate. If you ship the original kindle box, you need to wrap it in paper to cover any labels (such as the serial number bar code label). You need to fill out a customs form at the post office. For some countries, you need to list "used device, gift, less than $100 value" to prevent import problems for the recipient (depending on country).
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Hey Geek!
I knew there was going to be a change in 2013. I believe it was also detailed in the link I gave. Second paragraph. I sell stuff online & have to know these things. There's tons to keep up with believe me!! Oy! The thing though is, if they catch you, you're in big trouble. I can't take that risk. I ship with them. I drive into the US from Canada to do so & it would be a far bigger headache than I want to ever deal with. There's enough paperwork to cross an international border with commercial goods. Breaking postal reg's is really NOT something I want to toy with. Nor do I even want to begin to entertain what would be required to ship the battery item Internationally. It's hurting my head just thinking about it.
The other thing is the reality of the situation. You spoke to someone who said removable batteries. Ok fine sure. A reader or iPod battery isn't meant to be user removable. Lets leave the tinkerer's experiments discussion out of it. Try telling it to the postie on the other side of the counter that the battery in the reader or the iPod isn't removable like say, a laptop battery could be. He's simply going to read NO ereaders and NO iPods. He's not going to call for clarification. He's going to interpret it how he sees fit & tell you to hit the road. Then you're SOL.
They can ship no problem inside the US but not outside. Now think about it for a second. When you fill out paperwork for an International shipment you have customs docs. You have to detail whats inside the box. Now you're talking about mail fraud and customs fraud by falsifying legal documents. I don't know about you but I'm not willing to do that. I love coming to the US and don't wish to lose the priviledge or the ability to use USPS instead of Canada Post.