I've recently sold a couple of travel kits to members living in Canada. The problem is that there's no way for me to get a delivery confirmation unless I use either International Priority Mail ($18 or so) or registered mail (about $13) This is crazy. Regular first class postage to Canada for these items is less than $2. Does anybody have a way to mail to Canada for a reasonable cost and get delivery confirmation? Or do you just mail without delivery confirmation and hope your package doesn't get lost in the mail?
How do you safely mail to Canada?
- Thread starter Rick Sparks
- Start date
I wouldn't be that worried about delivery confirmation as Canada Post isn't so bad (unlike Italy). However, if a confirmation is required then, I am unsure if there are any other way. I would think that UPS, FedEx or any other private would be more expensive...
actually it is a big issue mail to and from Canada, our Canada post, unfortunately and sadly is very lazy, I am very sad to say that and I for one never ship package to Canada or the US from here I am lucky enough to be 25-30 minutes drive away from Point Roberts where I ship everything from, needless to say about the speed but the price is ridiculous, I wanted to ship one razor nicely wrapped and tugged in an envelope, Canada post wanted 8.50 CAD for it took it across the boarder and shipped it first class mail for a whopping amount of 3.30US which is around 4.25 CAD. Sorry to hijack the thread but had to give in my 2c worth
I live in Canada and receive LOTS of parcels from the US (LPs, rare books, razors/shaving products, etc) occasionally without confirmation. I haven't had a problem (knock on wood). I'm sure there is the occasional unfortunate incidence, but from my experience they are few and far between.
+1
Several hundred parcels from the US, mostly 1st class international.
No problems so far!
This has been my experience, too. No problems receiving packages without confirmation. I do find it is incredibly slow when I order things from the US, for some reason. I have received stuff from Germany and the UK a few times that arrived here in Canada really fast, but it always takes a few weeks for US shipments. Weird.
As a buyer of one of the travel kits, and literally dozens of other kinds of things - mostly from the Bay - I must say that I've never had a problem with receiving items shipped from the US here to Canada. Not once in probably around 100 purchases over the years.
My personal preference is for items to be mailed using USPS at the lowest available rate. It may take 10 days or so for the item to arrive, but it ALWAYS arrives and doesn't cost too much.
CASE STUDY: My most recent arrival was a 1960 ball handled tech, shipped from New Jersey on May 20 and arrived here in western Canada yesterday, May 27. It cost $1.75 US to ship with USPS. That's all good from my perspective.
Other USPS services or another shipper like UPS are not the way to go as far shipping to Canada is concerned and the costs escalate dramatically and become prohibitive.
And I must say a big thank you to those of you who are selling in the BST forum and are willing to ship to Canada. Although simple to do, I know there's the extra step of filling out the customs declaration form. But without sellers willing to ship to Canada, many Canadians (who are very nice people by and by) would have severely restricted access to vintage razors and other shaving collectibles. It's much appreciated!
My personal preference is for items to be mailed using USPS at the lowest available rate. It may take 10 days or so for the item to arrive, but it ALWAYS arrives and doesn't cost too much.
CASE STUDY: My most recent arrival was a 1960 ball handled tech, shipped from New Jersey on May 20 and arrived here in western Canada yesterday, May 27. It cost $1.75 US to ship with USPS. That's all good from my perspective.
Other USPS services or another shipper like UPS are not the way to go as far shipping to Canada is concerned and the costs escalate dramatically and become prohibitive.
And I must say a big thank you to those of you who are selling in the BST forum and are willing to ship to Canada. Although simple to do, I know there's the extra step of filling out the customs declaration form. But without sellers willing to ship to Canada, many Canadians (who are very nice people by and by) would have severely restricted access to vintage razors and other shaving collectibles. It's much appreciated!
+1!!
- Thread starter
- #12
What I've started doing is alerting Canadian buyers of the slight risk of loss due to there being no way to track a package mailed there from here. If they're willing to take the risk I'm more than happy to ship there. It really is odd that we should have this problem. Many people don't realize that Canada is not only our next-door neighbor, but they're our largest trading partner. We do more business with Canada than any other country on the planet and it's just a shame that I can get delivery confirmation from France and England, but not from Canada. Thanks to all for your input on this issue.
I have not had any issues provided items are send USPS. the couriers (FedEx, UPS, Purolater etc) tend to have additional fees paid by the receiver upon delivery which is a pain. USPS has border fees included.
Good move.
A lot of problems would be avoided if buyers and sellers would talk about the various shipping options (risks & costs) and agree on a method beforehand.
Just plllllease do NOT ship stuff to us in Canada via Courier. As mentioned above they tack on additional costs often, and they are very outragerous. I've also received many items from USPS, and other international places, and never had a problem. And in fact I've received a few things from USPS that have tracking (waiting on one right now), and the first time the item was even scanned was when it was delivered to my door. It wasn't scanned ANYWHERE in the USA, so what good is it anyways, they didn't even have record that it was mailed (other than they were 'expecting' it to enter the system). Now I have something else comming, and the same thing is happening. For the most part even the cheapest option isn't really any slower, if anything by a day or so for most places. but YMMV ofcourse.
You know your postal service sucks if you need to purchase delivery confirmation to make sure it doesn't get lost. We need a new mail monopoly.
I've shipped packages to Canada without a confirmation number several times -- no issues thus far. The thread sapito318 mentions is a great resource.
The best confirmation is always having the receiver let you know that the package has been delivered. Unless you purchase insurance, having the package tracked to the point it to where it was lost is worthless.
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