Mate... there are some real issues with international postal service that i have found also.
1 is the time it takes for a delivery... can be pretty fast or will take bloody weeks... there seems to be no middle ground.
The other issue i have which happened to a set of stencils bound for Canada.
I sent the item with tracking with the expectation that it would be tracked... not so.
Item had not arrived some 4 weeks later and i was getting irrate emails from the buyer accusing me of stealing his money and not sending anything.
I emailed and told him that postal service had tracking and that the parcel could be tracked to wherever it was ( you pay extra for this).
Unfortunately, this is not quite the case... parcel is ONLY tracked to Australian port or shipping depot... once in the air, all tracking is off... all they could tell me was that item landed in Canada some weeks prior... its location now???....CANADA OF COURSE!!!
Apparently, when you buy tracking this end.. its just for that... tracking this end.
I then received angry emails from the purchaser... "i cant believe you would send a $150CA item with such bad tracking and insurance.. what sort of business are you etc etc etc".. you get the idea!.

In the end... i told customer that i would recut the stencils and send VIA COURIER at my own expense and then when the allotted 3 months ( or whatever the ridiculous time period was), i would get SOME of my money back with the AUS POST insurance claim.

I then got an email back.... stencils arrived finally..... took Canada post 2 months to deliver... happy with them.. thanks very much!


Since then, ive insisted that all stencils get posted with FULL tracking and sign delivery.... Result? Price blew out and with high Aus$... stencils OS are now expensive!