conus

hello, see a lot of ads in the b-s-t section that say they are in conus. what is conus?

CONUS= CONtinental United States, or the 48 original states not including Alaska and Hawaii.
Shipping is cheapest and the least hassle in conus, as is payment and insurance and etc.

I added CONUS to my acronyms web page, so there can be no more confusion. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

thanks for help lynx arc. now it is so simple. i try not to ever assume anything, and thought it was possibly a foreign postal zone.

Actually shipping 1 lb or under to Alaska or Hawaii or U.S. Territories cost the same as shipping to ANY of the other 48 States.

Shipping over 1 lb is "supposed to go" by weight and zip code. These examples are straight from the "U.S. Post Office" website (and the rates are looking fairly consistant to me). These examples are for 2 lbs shipped via the US Post Office Priority:

Washington State to Maine - $5.75
Washington State to Alaska - $5.40
Texas to Maine - $5.40
Texas to Alaska - $5.75
Maine to Alaska - $5.75
New Mexico to Maine - $5.75
New Mexico to Alaska - $5.75
California to Hawaii - $5.75
Maine to Hawaii - $5.75
Maine to California - $5.75

You can verify this by going to www.usps.com and using their postage calculator.

I'll chime in with mentioning USPS's Flat Rate options. The envelope is $3.85 to anywhere in all 50 states. You can easily fit a couple lights in one. They are picky about overstuffing though.
The FR boxes are newer and you can put lots of heavy stuff in one and it is $7.70 to US destinations. I shipped a couple boxes that I asked the USPS clerk what it would cost to ship non FR. $12-14 ! Great Deal!!

being in Hawaii many times i ask why is the cost more when the rate is nearly the same. Paying 2-2 1/2 times more just because i live in the middle of the pacific. i get the usual S&H B$ excuse.

over the past few years i've given up with this and therefore make no purchases from vendors that state CONUS. i don't even bother. Click, next webpage.

however, in the last 6 mos several of the bigger companies have changed their policies and now Alaska and Hawaii are part of the US. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

thanks for posting this, as i wrestle with this all the time. perhaps more vendors will catch on.

Hopefully Fedex and UPS will catch on also. I used to have to send everything UPS because the USPS costs were higher and Fedex also. I sent a 70 lb monitor to california for under $40
via Fedex and UPS wanted around $70 while I don't even want to think what USPS would charge.
With such USPS rates canadians living close to Alaska would probably consider driving there to ship stuff to the US.

UPS kills us in Alaska! They don't offer "ground" to Alaska (that's a heck of a drive!), therefore we are stuck with 1-2-3 (and I think they have another option) shipping with them and it's a "pretty penny". Sometimes it's worth it though (depending on what it is and your priority to receive it).

Most of the time, USPS Priority is just a "little" more than Parcel and a lot faster!