New International Shipping Rates and Services

Hey everyone, this is Horo - the owner and operator here at Foxbox.

Since starting this service back in 2015, my number one priority has been getting high-quality custom products in the hands of my customers as painlessly and quickly as possible. While the worldwide pandemic has indeed slowed down our supply chain and production times, one of the biggest areas that have been affected recently is shipping times.

If you're in a hurry there's a TL;DR summary at the bottom of this post. You could also just skip the background info below.

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Some background:

International mail, usually processed by domestic postal services, relies heavily on filling the cargo holds of consumer flights. Due to the pandemic, these flights have been down by as much as 95%. As a result, packages can sometimes wait weeks before their turn to leave the country comes up. This is obviously not ideal for anyone involved, and leads to confusion and even mistakes from the postal service. Additionally, domestic mail in both the US and other countries worldwide is experiencing delays due to lack of staffing, transportation, and increased mail volume.

Adding to the confusion, earlier this year USPS changed their stance with the Universal Postal Union, resulting in significantly increased international shipping rates to all locations. These rates went into effect July 1st, and I've been working to negotiate better rates and gain access to new services from my postal partner company.

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Here's what this means:

International shipping rates have increased due to changes within the worldwide Universal Postal Union, and my previous mail services are much slower right now due to the pandemic. In response, I've negotiated rates for a new service providing similar but more reliable service to even more countries worldwide.

Previously, only around 20 countries had support for tracking after the package left the US. Now, that number has grown to almost 70. The new service should also more reliable in all countries, but comes with an increased shipping cost. This new rate, however, is still cheaper than what my previous shipping method has risen too, so it's a win-win. 

As of writing, here's a list of all countries that should support end-to-end tracking with the new shipping method:

Although there are many more countries supporting full tracking now, rates have increased and there are now different rates depending on your country. The rates are a bit too complicated to list here, and depend on if you purchase a mousepad (coming soon at time of writing). You can see the new rates if you try to purchase something and add your address, as always.

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If your country is not listed above, I can still ship to you, but rates have still increased and as before tracking will likely stop updating once your package leaves the US. Once your package arrives in your country, your local postal service will be delivering it, but has not agreed to (or isn't able to) provide tracking details to any carriers. I will continue to research options that cover more countries, but for now this is the best I can offer. I appreciate your understanding and support!

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For all unshipped orders, you will receive the new shipping method (including full tracking if available) at no extra cost. You do not need to do anything on your end, I've already updated everything on my end and you will receive tracking info as soon as your order goes out.

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Finally, for US orders: I've removed the free shipping option which didn't include tracking at all. This was the exact same service as the paid version, but gave you no details as to where your package was. In the midst of this pandemic, delays in shipping can be mistaken as lost packages, and this confusion simply isn't worth the couple dollars saved. I will be offering a free shipping option soon where I simply pay the cost myself if you order a certain amount on the site (roughly two covers). More news on that will come in the future.

If you're in a hurry, here's a TL;DR:

Due to the ongoing pandemic and changes within the worldwide Universal Postal Union, rates for all international shipping services have risen significantly. However, I've negotiated rates for a new service that is around the same price (as the new price for the previous service) but offers better consistency and much more countries for full end-to-end tracking. The full list of countries is further up in the post. Other countries have also risen in price, and service should improve, but still only have tracking updates within the US due to limitations of your country's local postal service. Finally, US free shipping has been removed due to lack of tracking during the pandemic, but free US tracked shipping will come sometime in the future at a certain order price threshold.

I apologize for the inconvenience from the rate changes, and appreciate your continued support throughout these changes. I truly believe that the new shipping methods will have more consistent info during delivery, and will benefit everyone in the end, especially during the pandemic. I will continue working to ship out orders as quickly as possible, and will update you all when new products or services are available.

If you made it this far, thanks again for reading! If you have any questions feel free to message me on Discord anytime. For the latest status of order production and shipping, check out the Order Status page anytime.

Best wishes,

Horo

Foxbox