Did they give you a reason?

mrmilitaria.com is a shop based near fort Campbell that ships free to APO addressess.  Tailors mostly to the 101st, but should have some stuff.  

I would think that it is not exporting to send it to an APO.  APO's are (if I understand correctly) Army Post Office.  This means that they are going to put it through to the soldier, whether or not he is in CONUS at the time.  Exporting it would be sending to an actual address outside the US.

Contact me by email.  Have them ship it to me and I will forward it to your APO.  Not a problem.

Quoted: I would think that it is not exporting to send it to an APO.  APO's are (if I understand correctly) Army Post Office.  This means that they are going to put it through to the soldier, whether or not he is in CONUS at the time.  Exporting it would be sending to an actual address outside the US. Contact me by email.  Have them ship it to me and I will forward it to your APO.  Not a problem.

That was going to be my next piece of advice.

Bushmaster just fed me this crap and I told them where to stick it. They wouldn't even tell me what and where the so called changes came from.

Now I know where my business is going.

Quoted: Now I know where my business is going.

Roger that!

You haven't seen the worst of it - wait'll you find the merchants who refuse to accept your credit card because it is assigned to an APO address.  Or, if you use a credit card that you did not switch over, they will not ship to aything other than the billing address.  Then, when you find al local willing to receive it, they will not accept a foreign credit card then they try the stuff they pulled on you about "export."

Other places will try to charge you for international shipping, when it costs them no more - or will refuse to mail it becuase they only use UPS and do not want to use the postal service.

Been there, been pissed off many times.

APO is NOT export - it is a US address to a US address, and costs the same as domestic shipping.

In reality APO is an Export, like it or not, that's what the APO are and FPO addresses can be.  Most deploying units have a stateside address for regular mail service and an AP/FPO when deployed.

If you don't believe me go to your local Post Office and ask.  If you send to an APO address it gets a customs sticker.

In any case,  the object gets in to the military Postal System and you lose track.  It may or may not get airmailed, it may go in a shipping container, it probably gets handled by undertrained apes, who believe that "fragile" means "step here".  Too many companies have been screwed by Soldiers and Sailor that have claimed non-delivery and the delivery time is a big unknown, so many companies don't want to have the hassle.

Companies that sell arms or military supplies may have to comply with ITAR, if they only sell web gear and non-weapons stuff, it shouldn't be a problem, IF they also sell wepons and weapons related material ITAR becomes a player and they probably don't want to mess with it.  Not necessarily what I agree with but I understand having dealt with ITAR and corporate shipping, when I tried to send galvanized bolts and metal plates to Canada.  (Yes I fed-ex'd them myself  and charged to the company account.  Could have been fired if caught)  ITAR applies to weapons, communications stuff, computer stuff, riciulously complicated, most companies would raather not lose their licenses and gov't contracts over a minor violation.

So the best bet is to have it sent to a family member or friend that will re-mail it.  And stay away from anything that might be ITAR  listed,  I think optics, or electo-optics are.  Web gear, knives, etc shouldn't be a problem.

I think a large part of it is that shippers don't want to take the time involved. Most ship UPS or Fed-ex and have the items picked up at thier facility.

But when you ship to an APO, it has to be PO (so somebody has to go drop it off) and a customs form is required. Most shippers don't want to spend 45 minutes on a trip to the PO to drop off 1 package.

Personally, I ship to APO's no problem.

Ahem...

Quoted: In reality APO is an Export, like it or not, that's what the APO are and FPO addresses can be.  Most deploying units have a stateside address for regular mail service and an AP/FPO when deployed. If you don't believe me go to your local Post Office and ask.  If you send to an APO address it gets a customs sticker. In any case,  the object gets in to the military Postal System and you lose track.  It may or may not get airmailed, it may go in a shipping container, it probably gets handled by undertrained apes, who believe that "fragile" means "step here".  Too many companies have been screwed by Soldiers and Sailor that have claimed non-delivery and the delivery time is a big unknown, so many companies don't want to have the hassle. Companies that sell arms or military supplies may have to comply with ITAR, if they only sell web gear and non-weapons stuff, it shouldn't be a problem, IF they also sell wepons and weapons related material ITAR becomes a player and they probably don't want to mess with it.  Not necessarily what I agree with but I understand having dealt with ITAR and corporate shipping, when I tried to send galvanized bolts and metal plates to Canada.  (Yes I fed-ex'd them myself  and charged to the company account.  Could have been fired if caught)  ITAR applies to weapons, communications stuff, computer stuff, riciulously complicated, most companies would raather not lose their licenses and gov't contracts over a minor violation. So the best bet is to have it sent to a family member or friend that will re-mail it.  And stay away from anything that might be ITAR  listed,  I think optics, or electo-optics are.  Web gear, knives, etc shouldn't be a problem.

Good point on the customs stickers.

It' still a bunch of crap, though.

if you need any help getting anything, let me know... I'd be more than happy to help out.

Quoted: I think a large part of it is that shippers don't want to take the time involved. Most ship UPS or Fed-ex and have the items picked up at thier facility. But when you ship to an APO, it has to be PO (so somebody has to go drop it off) and a customs form is required. Most shippers don't want to spend 45 minutes on a trip to the PO to drop off 1 package.

That's the impression I got too - they want to stick with their standard shipping system and not have to use USPS.

I only ran into a couple shipping issues when I was in Kuwait.  The wierdest one was Best Buy - a lot of us wanted to order movies and games from them, but they insisted on having an extra line added to our APO address which, as far as I can tell, doesn't exist!  They kept asked for a line between the unit and APO AE Zip Code that was something like a Unit Post Office number - I talked to our post office in Kuwait, and they said there was no such number for their office.  I wrote to Best Buy and told them they were losing a lot of business from Soldier because of this bogus requirement, but they still said they needed that line in the address.  Never figured that one out, so Amazon got my money instead.

Dave

Quoted: Quoted: I think a large part of it is that shippers don't want to take the time involved. Most ship UPS or Fed-ex and have the items picked up at thier facility. But when you ship to an APO, it has to be PO (so somebody has to go drop it off) and a customs form is required. Most shippers don't want to spend 45 minutes on a trip to the PO to drop off 1 package. That's the impression I got too - they want to stick with their standard shipping system and not have to use USPS. I only ran into a couple shipping issues when I was in Kuwait.  The wierdest one was Best Buy - a lot of us wanted to order movies and games from them, but they insisted on having an extra line added to our APO address which, as far as I can tell, doesn't exist!  They kept asked for a line between the unit and APO AE Zip Code that was something like a Unit Post Office number - I talked to our post office in Kuwait, and they said there was no such number for their office.  I wrote to Best Buy and told them they were losing a lot of business from Soldier because of this bogus requirement, but they still said they needed that line in the address.  Never figured that one out, so Amazon got my money instead. Dave

In some places where we have had a presence for a while (such as Korea, Germany), each company is assigned a 5-digit code - it is not necessary, and essentially serves the same purpose as the unit designation (with the various ways people write units down, and the IQ of some clerks, I could definitely see the benefit).  I have never seen this in deployed locations though.  Life is always easier for the REMFs.

Cudos to Tapco.  While they may charge you an extra $24.95 for filling out the damn customs form (though it only costs them the same as sending to NY), at least they get it to you!!  A lot of companies screw military members on shipping overseas for no reason -- or simply won't ship an order -- not just weapons parts and stuff; anything!!!.....hinking.gif