Slow airmail from canada to romania ?

[wolf229657]

Hi guys I sent a parcel to a buyer on december 8th ( it probably left on the 9th though ) and this was airmail small parcel, now I have sent many parcels all over europe including romania and none have seemed to take this long. Last week I went to the post office and asked and the clerk informed me that this is normal for it to still not arrive ( and told me to give it another 2 weeks ), and that if I had wanted it to get their by christmas ( even airmail ( I would have to have sent it in late october, I personally find this very strange but I would like some opinions here, sadly I was told I could not get tracking to some of these areas to europe. While I still have roughly 7 days after what the clerk told me ( being about 1 week since ) I am starting to get worried that perhaps something has happened.

Opinions ? can it really take say 5-6 weeks if airmail small parcel from canada to europe in december ? its now the 19th of jan. The most I have ever seen parcels from canada to europe during nov and dec has been around 3 - 3 and a half weeks.

Thank you

[recped]

It's probably a customs delay! The actual getting the package to Romania only takes a few days. At that point and especially around Christmas it could sit in customs for weeks.

What was the item / declared value?

[femmefan1946]

Is your customer complaining?

If not, keep quiet.

It will get there -- eventually-- but don't give him any ideas.

[wolf229657]

No they are not complaining we are both simply just wondering what the delay is, there was nothing of serious value within just a cd and some minor small items of paper, the value was under 10 dollars.

Having never faced any kind of delay like this before you can understand the concern and because in some regions of eastern europe things go missing especially this time of year.

[wolf229657]

Also they checked at the international post office in their city today and there was no packages with their name, they said to return with tracking but we cannot get tracking ( at least thats what the post office told me when i sent it ) so that is why I am worrying. When you say customs is there is another customs that it could be at ?

[pjcdn2005]

You can use an air service with tracking to Romania but the cost starts at about $65 so most of the time, it's too expensive.

[toff3]

Wolf,

You have to understand that, every so often, the mail moves in mysterious ways that we mortals will never comprehend. 

What the postal clerk told you - that it's normal for an airmail Small Packet from Canada to take more than 4-5 weeks to arrive at its destination in Romania - is nonsense.

Another consideration is that there isn't a particularly good correlation between the time it actually takes to transport a mail piece between two postal facilities and the total time that elapses between acceptance of the mail piece by the PO and its delivery to the addressee. It's what happens before and after the actual carriage of the mail piece that's key.

Why should it normally take a week or more  for a letter from the UK to be delivered in Canada when it takes only hours to cross the Atlantic?

An Expedited Parcel I recently sent to Victoria, BC, was "processed" by the Victoria PO at 4.32 pm local on Jan 16. As of early on Jan 20, it still had not been delivered in downtown Victoria. Who knows what's caused the delay? However, I'm totally confident it will eventually be delivered, safe and sound. (BTW the delivery standard was Jan 19 and I'm looking forward to claiming a refund of the postage I paid from Canada Post).

I'm sure your packet to Romania will eventually be delivered. After all, it's what happens 99.9% of the time.

Tom 

[pierrelebel]

" "processed" by the Victoria PO at 4.32 pm local on Jan 16. As of early on Jan 20, it still had not been delivered in downtown Victoria. Who knows what's caused the delay?"

The same thing could have happened in Belleville and, I suspect, many other locations across Canada.

Here, we have a 4:00pm deadline when the mail gets picked up from the post office (or franchised postal station) to be delivered to the sorting plant.  If a sender misses the 4:00pm deadline, the parcel or envelope goes as of the next business day.

Since the 16th was a Friday, the parcel would most likely only be sent to the sorting station late Monday afternoon, the 19th.

[mr.elmwood]

I know where my parcels are. I can walk down the street to a mailbox and deposit small packets in it. The p/u time is 9 AM. Walk seven blocks to the PO and the p/u time is 5 PM.

Hum?

I asked the folks at the PO "Does the truck go down to Winnipeg every night?" "Yup".

So, I can drop a parcel in the mailbox at 10 AM on a friday and it will sit there until Monday, get taken seven blocks down the street and go down to Winnipeg that evening.

OR

I can walk to the PO and hand it to them. It goes down to Winnipeg that evening, sorted, and on the first plane out Sat AM. Why? The sorting plant sits on a runway at the airport.

Every PO, I ask, "What are the p/u times?" "Does the truck go to the sorting plant every evening?"

Pierre is absolutely correct, there is no delay. After a certain time, it becomes next day business. After 4:30 on a Friday is actually the last p/u time on Monday.

If there is only one p/u time, it is usually close to the end of the day, which pushes everything to Tuesday.

[wolf229657]

She said if I had wanted it to get their by xmas deadline it would have had to be mailed by october 24th i think, and that during this time only that it is normal for mail to be this slow, while I can understand perhaps 4 weeks for airmail during xmas I find it very odd is all and that is why I'm starting to worry.

[pierrelebel]

You can find the official Canada Post guidelines for Christmas mailing:

https://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/personal/campaigns/holiday/pdf/holidayMailingDates_2014_en.pdf

You will notice the huge difference between surface and airmail.

[wolf229657]

I can see that and yes I know they quote that but when an official canada post is saying oh no no its normal give it another 2 weeks then what ?

[femmefan1946]

What fascinates me is that Canada Post has not released for public use their instant teleportation system.

Or started using it for more than picking up mail.

They must have one, because every mailbox and postal outlet around here has exactly the same pickup time-- 5PM. If they are all picked up at exactly 5 PM then they either have thousands of trucks each dedicated to one box, or there is teleportation involved.

Yes, I just listed a Star Trek graphic novel... maybe that's affecting my always nebulous judgement.

[pierrelebel]

"around here has exactly the same pickup time-- 5PM"

Around here the boxes say 4PM  and the same information is available at the post office and four postal stations in town.

Now, it is not unusual for the contractor (yes Canada Post uses mostly contractors instead of their own staff to pick up from mailboxes) to be early and pick up at 3:30 or 3:45 so he can get home early!

Anyone putting mail in the mailbox after the contractor has collected will experience a one day delay.

And life does go on.

[mr.elmwood]

Pickup at the mailbox on College in Belleville said 4 but it was emptied by 3:30. The PO is a block away. The mailbox, out front of the PO, is emptied at a different time than the bins inside the PO.

ALL sellers need to be hyper aware of the times of actual pickup and transport. Saying "I dropped it off" is nowhere near the same as it is on the truck and moving.

[recped]

Boxes around here all state 5:00pm as do the local postal outlets. The trucks that pick-up from street boxes are not the ones picking up from outlets.

Since I'm known as the great procrastinator I have observed the pick-ups in person many times since I usually arrive plus/minus a couple of minutes of 5:00pm.

Of the 15 or so locations I could drop off mail (street boxes & outlets) within 10 minutes of my house I would say that it's VERY rare that mail put in the box by 4:58 does not get picked up and at the same time any mail put in the box after 5:05pm will almost always sit until the next day. When I show up at an outlet at 4:58 the truck is usually outside, it's gone by 5:05.

I don't know about "thousands" of trucks but certainly there are dozens that cover my small area of Toronto.

According to this page, Canada post operates about 11,000 vehicles!

http://www.autofocus.ca/news-events/features/in-the-mail-a-history-of-the-canada-post-fleet

[pjcdn2005]

I'm a professional procrastinator too lol and often used to see the mail being picked up right at the cutoff...5 p.m. But now that the time has changed to 4 p.m. I rarely see the carrier unless I get there 15 or 20 minutes early.There are probably many times when my packages sat overnight in the box although now that I realize he picks up earlier, I usually try to be there earlier too.

[decal-fx]

---

@mr.elmwood wrote:

Every PO, I ask, "What are the p/u times?" "Does the truck go to the sorting plant every evening?"

---

Yes that's what I do too. Here in Peterborough, my local drug store PO official cut off is 4:30 although the PO courier doesn't usually get there to about 5:10 PM. I'm friendly with all the workers there and they let me drop off up to 5 PM. 

If I miss that I can go to the Peterborough Sorting Plant that has an official cut off of 6 PM. They have a back door there which the couriers use. I can go there as late a 8:00 PM and my stuff will usually get sorted & scanned and on the trucks to Toronto, Kingston or Ottawa by 9:00PM.

How does this miracle  happen you might ask? Two to three times a year I show up at the back door with a Take-Ten & 50 Tim-bits from the closest Tim Horton's. It's amazing what that $20 gesture buys me. They even know my name and smile when I drop off 20-30 boxes after hours.

[wolf229657]

I talked again to the postal work and I think what may have happened was that it was shipped surface mail rather than airmail, given the cost itself which was around 8 dollars and how long it's been, that would explain the long delay since surface is 6-8 weeks and I have never in my life experience airmail to europe or north america taking this long xmas or not.

4 weeks I could understand.

[toff3]

Wolf,

If that packet went surface then you certainly don't have any concerns that your parcel is overdue. When it comes to international surface mail, all bets are off.

But, with respect, you really should know how you mailed your parcel. That's one of the fundamentals of selling.

As for my parcel to Victoria, it was delivered a day late, on Tuesday the 20th.

I don't understand what Pierre was driving at in his reply to my post but if he's right, it doesn't say much for the efficiency of Canada Post (so what else is new?). What I was on about had nothing to do with pick-ups from POs or street mailboxes.

In case it's of interest to anyone...the next tracking entries after

01/16  1632   Victoria  Item processed 

were

01/19  0453   Victoria   Item processed at local delivery facility

01/20  0738   Victoria   Canada Post processing error, item re-routed. Possible delay. [Who knows what happened here?]

             0817   Victoria   Item processed at local delivery facility

             1001   Victoria   Item out for delivery

             1051   Victoria   Item successfully delivered

Anyway, I've already put in my claim for refund of the postage. At least I know that CP will cough up.

Tom