Any Canadians have issues with Canada Post Recently?

[Uncle Bill]

Specificly international shipments, I am still waiting for a telephoto lens I purchased a month ago from Australia off Ebay, and an unrelated transaction (legal) from NYC which was done a week and a half ago. Anybody else dealing with a longer than usual wait?

Bill

 

[back alley]

it's not canada post, it's customs.
they hold on to things for ever.

and christmas parcels have already started to move. it will be slower now till january, easy.

joe

 

[photogdave]

I ordered a vintage jacket from a shop in California in September. Even though the parcel was marked "used clothing" it took five weeks to arrive. Customs...

 

[julianphotoart]

The great thing about Canadian Customs is they open EVERY damn package. Officious martinets! As for time delays, I have easily waited over a month multiple times for stuff coming express from the U.S.

But the worst thing about Customs is the $5.00 "handling charge" for each package they open (i.e. 100% of them). Aren't these guys paid to do this exact thing? This is their job; this is what their salary is for. Yet they charge us $5.00 to "handle" stuff. LIke they're doing us a favour to do their job.

 

[peterc]

I'll add another vote for it likely being customs that's holding things up. It takes them time to open parcels, break the contents, throw the remains back in the box, put the box in one of those neat little "Inspected by Canada Customs" bags, decide you owe the government a bucket of money plus handling (breakage) fee, and give it back to Canada Post. Or at least that's been my experience.

Peter

 

[back alley]

and part of what makes it work so slow, the government closed a few processing stations so there are just a handful now 'handling' parcels.
thanks guys!

 

[Frank Granovski]

Yeah. That e-bay seller who I thought screwed me didn't receive my M.O.

 

[John]

Canada Customs

Canada Customs

It is very frustrating to do any mailing because of Canada Customs. Dozens of U.S. companies will not ship into Canada because Customs return the items for tiny indescretions a normal shipper would not be aware of or even care less.

I had one camera sent back to the shipper in Texas stamped "undeliverable". We both thought it was lost for three months. It had been shipped via normal post.

I had one item arrive in 7 to 10 days. It was shipped by "air parcel" post. The shipper insisted on air because of the very poor success rate with "ground".

In both or the above shipments - it was obviously customs that holds it all up. Courier services such as Fed Ex and UPS just send a list to customs with the money. That is how they can deliver from any U.S. city in one or two days. Unfortunately the answer may be to pay more money to bypass the "physical" Customs altogether. :bang:

 

[VictorM.]

Having bought dozens of items from sellers outside Canada, I've only had a few very minor problems with Canada Post or Customs. The real problems have been with UPS.

 

[Kin Lau]

Yes... they're starting open every single package. They used to only do it for about 1/2 the stuff.

 

[Uncle Bill]

To update, my package from New York showed up yesterday a 1940's vintage fountain pen. The 105 Takumar telephoto lens from the land of OZ, however is still MIA and I am starting to get just a little pissed. I heard some joker tried to send an unarmed grenade through the post recently and the customs people got spooked.

Bill

 

[back alley]

i bought a lens from oz and it took over 6 weeks to get to me through the post.

i bought a camera from japan and it took a weekend to get to me through purolator. (owned by canada post)

joe

 

[Heath]

Don't Canaddian Customs own an X-Ray machine? It would be easy to send the packages through the machine to weed out the suspect packages. Everything (well almost) legit would get through without a hitch.

Heath

 

[Frank Granovski]

Don't Canaddian Customs own an X-Ray machine?

No, and we live in igloos most of the time except for our 3-week summer. (2 weeks in Edmonton.) 🙂

 

[Mike Kovacs]

Its great when you have a $20 USD item and get charged $5 + PST + GST. In Ontario that works out to be a 45% tax.

Brokerage fees are a scam pure and simple. Yeah, like I want to pay you $5 so you can calculate tax!

 

[dcsang]

it's not canada post, it's customs.
they hold on to things for ever.

and christmas parcels have already started to move. it will be slower now till january, easy.

joe

heh.. Joe keeps insisting it's customs.

My hat, remember the happy go lucky RFF hat? Well, that was not held by customs but the postie that was supposed to drop the "Hey it's being held at this post office because it's a package and too big to fit into your condo mailbox" mail card actually didn't. I ended up getting a second mail card with a "FINAL NOTICE" stamped on it. It appears that the hat had been at the post office for the previous week and a half already. So it wasn't customs 🙂

If you pick up regularly from one particular post office in your area then I suggest just dropping in or giving them a call and asking politely if they have anything for you because you're expecting something but haven't received a notice of delivery yet. The two post offices that serve my building both don't mind me dropping in and asking when I'm waiting (eagerly) for the delivery of stuff from south of the border..


Dave

 

[back alley]

dave, i can't be right ALL of the time 😉

joe

 

[back alley]

I'm curious.
I have some cameras here for repair from Canadians.
Are they going to get charged all that shit, when I send them back?🙁

the only time i get dinged is if the seller puts down the real amount and if it's high.
if you put down a $20 used camera part, no fees. but if you put down a 300 lens, i might get stung but less likely if it's through the post office.
i got my camera bag the other day and he put down the full amount and there was no fee.
not always alot of rhyme or reason, but in general it's amount declared and how it's sent.

 

[Kin Lau]

heh.. Joe keeps insisting it's customs.

My hat, remember the happy go lucky RFF hat? Well, that was not held by customs but the postie that was supposed to drop the "Hey it's being held at this post office because it's a package and too big to fit into your condo mailbox" mail card actually didn't. I ended up getting a second mail card with a "FINAL NOTICE" stamped on it. It appears that the hat had been at the post office for the previous week and a half already. So it wasn't customs 🙂

My postal carrier has been consistently late in leaving me the delivery notice. Last week, I received the notice 4 days after the package was dropped off at the postal outlet. This week, it's late by 2 days.