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USPS will not ship lithium batteries abroad

Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 11:11 am
by sukhinov
http://about.usps.com/news/service-aler ... pdates.htm

So, does it mean that USPS, FedEx and UPS will not ship lithium batterries because they use airplanes?
Does it mean that I will not be able to receive (I live in Russia) lithium batteries from ANY country because these strict rules are international?

Re: USPS will not ship lithium batteries abroad

Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 2:22 pm
by skimask
Then order from China.
They'll ship anything, anywhere, anytime, with little, if any, regard to rules, regulations, customs, color, weight, size, mass, contents, smell, taste, quantum physics, law of gravity...

Re: USPS will not ship lithium batteries abroad

Posted: Wed May 09, 2012 1:56 am
by sukhinov
That is what I was thinking about.

I will order everything except batteries from Sparkfun, and batteries from China (together with new shoes for my wife to reduce shipping cost relative to the price of order).

Re: USPS will not ship lithium batteries abroad

Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 9:33 am
by CS Paul
We're looking into it. Probably not using USPS, but we're still unsure about the other methods.

Re: USPS will not ship lithium batteries abroad

Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 9:00 am
by CS Paul
For an update, it looks like ours shipments won't be affected much. Most of our products don't fall within their specs here:

http://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2 ... dt_004.htm

Large shipments may be affected, as well a few items, but they will be dealt with as they arise. No problem for normal-sized orders.

Re: USPS will not ship lithium batteries abroad

Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 10:42 am
by sukhinov
CS Paul wrote:For an update, it looks like ours shipments won't be affected much. Most of our products don't fall within their specs here:

http://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2 ... dt_004.htm

Large shipments may be affected, as well a few items, but they will be dealt with as they arise. No problem for normal-sized orders.
According to this page "Mail­ing batteries internationally, or to and from APO, FPO, or DPO destinations is prohibited regardless of mail class."
That means that I cannot order even coin cell battery from SparkFun :(

Re: USPS will not ship lithium batteries abroad

Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 8:53 am
by CS Paul
Ah, right. That's pretty specific. Still, UPS and FedEx should not be affected. The USPS has dropped this pretty suddenly. I hope they decide to reconsider before next January.

We're working out how to limit it. We'll probably just remove the USPS options at checkout if batteries are in the cart, but can't definitely say yet.

Re: USPS will not ship lithium batteries abroad

Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 10:08 am
by sukhinov
So, orders of batteries via USPS is still unavailable?
If so, does it make sense to wait for a few months, or it will never be available?

Re: USPS will not ship lithium batteries abroad

Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 12:57 pm
by viskr
I've been told that Li batteries will be OK after January if they are soldered into a board. But for now USPS does not allow batteries to be shipped, this covers both shipments in the US an internationally.

Re: USPS will not ship lithium batteries abroad

Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 1:08 pm
by sukhinov
But I want to order stand-alone batteries here; there are not soldered anywhere yet :(

Re: USPS will not ship lithium batteries abroad

Posted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 3:41 pm
by MichaelN
I second the suggestion to order from China. For LiPos, Hong-Kong based www.hobbyking.com is a better option than just going onto Ebay, as you know what brands you're getting, they have user reviews which don't appear to be censored and the prices are great.

Re: USPS will not ship lithium batteries abroad

Posted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 10:46 am
by sukhinov
OK, I removed batteries from my order, added items to the cart, pressed «Calculate Shipping», and don't see «USPS Express Mail International», but see these options:

FedEx International Priority
FedEx International Economy
USPS First-Class Mail International Package

Why?

Re: USPS will not ship lithium batteries abroad

Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 11:44 am
by CS Paul
Express Mail Int'l is also excluded to certain countries for the electronically generated labels we use, Russia being one of them. If you need that shipping method, we can do a manual label, but it's not an available method for regular checkout.

If you would like to have an order shipped by Express Mail Int'l, please place your order with First Class Mail Int'l and select "Offline Fax" as the payment method at checkout, then email your order number to customerservice@sparkfun.com. We can manually upgrade, get payment, and do the label at that time.

*To Clarify* Lithium batteries still cannot ship via USPS - the method described above is only available for orders that do not contain them.

Re: USPS will not ship lithium batteries abroad

Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2012 11:51 am
by sukhinov
No problem, I have arranged delivery via mail forwarding service. Now I will wait till my friends' parcels will consolidate at forwarder, and then forwarder will send one big parcel here.
P.S. One of my friends added Kevlar ballistic vest to the big parcell. I hope it wil not arouse customs suspicion.

Re: USPS will not ship lithium batteries abroad

Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2012 1:46 pm
by MichaelN
sukhinov wrote:...One of my friends added Kevlar ballistic vest to the big parcell. I hope it wil not arouse customs suspicion.
Wow, if you tried that to Australia and were caught you'd be looking at criminal charges...