Wow I hope color models don't have to be shipped with no battery. I am surprised they're doing that, though, considering I bought my CSE from USA and it came with a battery. It was USPS shipping too. I guess it's fine for older models, though, since you can just buy them at the dollar store. TI rechargeable batteries are much harder to find. I usually prefer to buy used calcs without batteries in them too in case the seller left them inside or nearby for years and they end up leaking during shipping.

Actually, according to a forum I read, is it true that the battery have to be inside the device? I could maybe understand loose battery issues since they can be crushed easier outside an electronic device and crushing a phone battery can short-circuit it, resulting in fire and explosions.

It not that I can't ship it customs just wants paperwork that there online forms keep derping on xD

You could just try to do it in person at the post office. Sometimes online tools are more limited because you can't try to negotiate with a computer, unlike with a real person.

Pokety poke... over a month has passed :}

This sucks. Is it possible that shipping those items might actually be impossible and that you might have to get a refund for them and replace prizes with digital ones such as Amazon gift cards?

UnitedTI had issues shipping prizes for one of their contest too, but it was because the winner was Canadian.

Take it easy, I assume you're doing the best you can to get them prizes shipped asap

The issue with other companies like Fedex/UPS is that with some delivery services, the contest winner might end up having to pay extra fees himself when he receives the item. This is why I prefer USPS (although it's still possible to happen if they make you pay the taxes, but it's nowhere as terrible as with private shipping companies). Eg UPS wanted to charge me $70 of fees for a TI-84+CSE and required me to go pick up my item in another city (at that time the UPS store wasn't open in mine) from 8 AM to 5 PM on weekdays, on which I mostly worked and would have needed to spend an extra $12 in public transit.

With USPS, I only spent an extra $20 in extra fees for my HP Prime, which were the Canadian/Quebec sales taxes. It depends how the item is packaged, though. Some Ebay sellers ship their stuff as gift, but as an actual store that could look suspicious.