USPS First Class International shipping unavailable? Keep getting error.

[devilrobot]

Been trying to print a USPS first class international label all day and I keep getting the same error.

We're having trouble printing your label.

Please enter a valid value for destination city

I've been making sure all the info i entered is correct, yet I am still receiving the same error.  I also went to the USPS website to try and print a label and it gives me this message:

First-Class Package International Service® is temporarily unavailable online. Please select a different Service Type or visit a Post Office™ location to complete your shipment.

Anyone else having the same experience?

[a_c_green]

What exactly do you have for your destination city and Country? Also, your package is not more than 4 lb in weight, correct?

[devilrobot]

Hong Kong is the destination and the package weighs 1 lb 4 oz

[a_c_green]

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@devilrobot wrote:

Hong Kong is the destination and the package weighs 1 lb 4 oz

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Okay, but is the buyer's address showing Hong Kong as the city or the country? Per this summary in Wikipedia about town names in Hong Kong...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_towns_in_Hong_Kong

...Hong Kong is not really a city by name, nor is it a country, but a "special administrative region" of the PRC (People's Republic of China) since 1997, when its lease to Great Britain ran out.

What is showing in the City field of the buyer's address, and what is showing in the Country field? Is this a new account that might not have had any successful shipments using that address yet? 

[goldie2126]

YES, and now can't print label at all. Also the USPS site says first class international shipping unavailable too. 

[washingtonsquarebooks]

The error has been there since 1/1/19. It's not just Hong Kong—it's all international shipping. First-class service is available through Stamps.com and other services, just not through USPS itself. USPS does not seem to have responded to anyone's questions, anywhere on the web. Maddening.

[autonoel]

Having similar problems with E BAY shipping and their customer service is garbage!

System unavailable please try again later. Customer Service said that service is no longer available online

I went to PayPal and printed the label immediately. You lose your E BAY discount and can't use the ship cover insurance. So you end up paying more than what ebay calculated for you because the prices went up.

Not the first time I've had the problem either.

Last time they were supposed to work on a fix.

The fix never happened.

[thepaperweightcollection]

This is broken for me too. Anyone understand whats going on?

[a_c_green]

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@thepaperweightcollection wrote:

This is broken for me too. Anyone understand whats going on?

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If we're talking about the Paperweight Collectors Association PCA Annual Bulletin 2004 Hardcover book you sold recently, what is the shipping weight of that thing? Are you declaring a weight greater than 4 pounds? The form will error out if the limit is exceeded, 4 lbs. is the limit for First Class International, and that book looks as though it could get a bit heavy in a sturdy box.

One problem I've noticed in the past is that the error messages tend to be so vague that no one can tell what the real problem is. For example, an incomplete address that cannot be validated by the USPS system when you try to buy the Shipping label will pop up an error reading something like, "Shipping labels not available; please try again later." Trying later isn't going to help anything when the real problem is an address that can't be matched to a ZIP code. Maybe the problem in this case is that the package is not valid for First Class International.