I sent a package to France. I"m concerned it may be stuck in customs

[jafeter]

Hello,

   I'm a new seller who sent a Hermes scarf to France via Canada Post Small Packets air mail. I foolishly didn't get tracking for my package. I have no way of knowing where the scarf is. Seller has been messaging me..she is concerned. I've been doing a little research and it appears France has a bad rep when it comes to packages. Could the package be stuck in customs? Could someone shed some light on this situation?  

[treasure.hunter.d]

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@jafeter wrote:

Hello,

   I'm a new seller who sent a Hermes scarf to France via Canada Post Small Packets air mail. I foolishly didn't get tracking for my package. I have no way of knowing where the scarf is. Seller has been messaging me..she is concerned. I've been doing a little research and it appears France has a bad rep when it comes to packages. Could the package be stuck in customs? Could someone shed some light on this situation?  

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Looking at your listings I see the item sold on August 30th. When did you ship it?

I can only assume that you shipped it fairly shortly thereafter so that would make it 3 weeks out and not arrived. No intent to rub salt in the wound, and no disrespect meant as this will be a hard lesson learned, but sending anything of that type and value to anywhere without tracking was foolish.

Unfortunately, if memory serves it's at least 30 days (perhaps even 45) before Canada Post will even initiate a trace on a package sent via that service.

All you can do at this point is cross your fingers and hope it shows up. Do your best to deal with the buyer letting them know that you need to wait the 30 days (please verify that number with Canada Post) to trace the package. Letting them know that you will "happily" refund them in the event the package is officially declared lost is a good bit of customer service.Hopefully they will be understanding and let you take full advantage of the CP trace before demanding a refund.

Best of luck.

Cheers,

thd

[ricarmic]

Here are some of my form letters I use in these situations, they often help......at least to get them to wait a bit longer....

http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/I-haven-t-received-my-item-or-Item-not-received-case-the-...

[pjcdn2005]

Since there is no longer insurance on small packets, do you know if Canada Post will actually trace the package? And...is there a way of even doing so? I realize there is now a scan code on the packages now but I doubt that they are scanned anywhere after being accepted at the post office.

When CP did have insurance on small packets, I believe that they wouldn't investigate a missing international package for either 45 or 60 days. I don't think that it is reasonable to ask the buyer to wait that long.

[jafeter]

Thank you for the info. No offense was taken. I guess sometimes you have to learn by doing. I shipped the item September 2 because of the Labour Day weekend. It is going on three weeks. I am getting concerned since Canada Post quoted me 7-14 business days for delivery. I have a funny feeling this package "vanished" in transit....but it could just be slow to arrive.

[pjcdn2005]

I wouldn't have necessarily used a service with tracking but I probably would have used a third party insurance company to insure the package. If you do that in the future, make sure you know what the insurance company will require in order to make a claim.

On another note...your shipping cost on mailing that scarf is listed as $27.50 C to Canada, the U.S. or anywhere else. It definitely wouldn't cost that to ship within Canada and if you used small packet to France, it should have cost around $8.

You should have a look at all of your shipping prices as customers are quite sensitive about how much they pay for shipping. Plus, if your shipping is lower, you may receive higher bids.

You might want to use calculated shipping at least for now so that you are more accurate but make sure that you are entering the correct weight and measurements for the item and for the Canada Post service that you are using. Also you have to separate the United States from other international countries as there are separate CP services that ship to the U.S. vs overseas countries. I think that in order to do that, you will have to use the longer ebay sell your item form.

[mr.elmwood]

All sorts of things can happen. I had a basic small packet airmail, under 250 grams, take five weeks to the USA.

Did you know that the CN22s come off, in transit? It was about four years ago, one came back to the PO I dealt with. All that was left was the corner that had the PO number in the upper right corner. The rest of the label was missing. Up until then I had been "losing" the odd parcel I should not have.

I started taping down the CN22 and INR dropped considerably.

Did you hand letter the label or print it? My hand written "5" often looks like a stick with a hat on it. Do not assume another pair of eyes, or a machine, can always read what you wrote.

Since I started using PayPal Shipping, my INR and "Where's my widget" have dropped to near zero.

I just counted, today is day 15 for you. That is not really very long for international.

[jafeter]

I had quotes given to me by the post office and yes..Canada shipping is a bit lower..but it still would've cost me about 15-17 dollars to ship within Canada with tracking. Please keep in kind, I wasn't going top ship a silk scarf with original box in a  bubble mailer and hope for the best. The shipping cost to France without tracking was around 23 dollars. Tracking would've cost 36 dollars.

[jafeter]

I did hand write the label in large clear letters. I also put clear packing tape over the writing for a bit of added protection.

[treasure.hunter.d]

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@jafeter wrote:

I had quotes given to me by the post office and yes..Canada shipping is a bit lower..but it still would've cost me about 15-17 dollars to ship within Canada with tracking. Please keep in kind, I wasn't going top ship a silk scarf with original box in a  bubble mailer and hope for the best. The shipping cost to France without tracking was around 23 dollars. Tracking would've cost 36 dollars.

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Do yourself a favor and stop asking the Post office for quotes. On any given day whomever is behind the counter may know less than you about it.

Use PayPal and get yourself a scale. No way it costs $15-17 to send the scarf anywhere in Canada via expedited with tracking.

A 15cm square box at 500 grams can be sent Toronto to Vancouver with extra insurance to cover a total of $165 for $13.65 via Expedited Post. That size and weight is definitely way over what your scarf would be.

A penny saved is a penny earned right.

[ricarmic]

If you do plan to weigh and determine each on their own, you can print the relevant pages from the online guides, this will allow you to know before you list and/or go to the post office what a given package will cost to send.

http://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/prices/default-e.asp?ecid=murl07001139

[pjcdn2005]

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@jafeter wrote:

I had quotes given to me by the post office and yes..Canada shipping is a bit lower..but it still would've cost me about 15-17 dollars to ship within Canada with tracking. Please keep in kind, I wasn't going top ship a silk scarf with original box in a  bubble mailer and hope for the best. The shipping cost to France without tracking was around 23 dollars. Tracking would've cost 36 dollars.

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When I said it would cost around $8 to ship I was thinking of shipping to the U.S. for some reason. But for a package under 250 gr the postage to France would be $9.37.  Between 251 and 500 gr the cost would be $18.75. For tracked packet it would be over $40.  I'm not sure where $23 came from but regardless, my point was that some of your shipping prices seem to be out of whack. It's your decision on whether or not you want to change them.

If you use Paypal shipping to print your labels you receive about an 18% discount off of counter prices on expedited Canada and USA; about 14% off on Tracked Packet and 8-9% off of xpresspost. You don't get a discount for small or light packet.

[mr.elmwood]

OP is in NS, everything I send to NS is about $3 more. Mind you, it is still usually around $14.

[rose-dee]

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@jafeter wrote:

I shipped the item September 2 because of the Labour Day weekend. It is going on three weeks. I am getting concerned since Canada Post quoted me 7-14 business days for delivery.

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Small Packet can be quite variable, depending on the destination.  I find SmPkt to the US is usually as fast, or faster than, the estimate, but to Europe the delay is often longer than the estimate.  Customs delays can often be the cause. 

Actually, if you mailed the item to France on Sept. 2nd, you're really only at 15 business days as of today, which isn't unusual.  I'm not including the day of shipping, because sometimes the parcel doesn't get out of the Post Office the day you drop it off. 

Whenever I send anything to Europe via SmPkt, I always send an email to my buyer letting them know that delivery can take 3 to 4 weeks if the item is delayed getting through Customs.  But then I wouldn't send anything with a value of more than about $125 to Europe without tracking, despite the cost. 

Yes, this does mean probably discouraging European sales, but I think most of us who have dealt with sending expensive or unique items to Europe have learned the hard way with eBay's current policies on INR and defects, that tracking to Europe is the better choice than being forced to refund because of sluggish delivery times on untracked services.  Although purchasing 3rd party insurance for such shipments will protect you from at least the monetary loss of the item value if the parcel never does arrive, it won't do any good in terms of avoiding a defect.  Only tracking (says eBay) may save you from an INR case and/or defect(s). 

What I would do is very politely explain to your buyer that Customs processing can often create a delay in parcels going into Europe.  Reassure the buyer that you'll be happy to refund her purchase price and the original shipping cost in full if the parcel hasn't arrived by, say, September 30th.  

Ask her to let you know in the meantime if the parcel does arrive, and be certain to contact her again on Sept. 30th -- if the parcel hasn't been delivered by that date, you'll have to refund (cheerfully!), and ask the buyer to kindly let you know if the scarf does eventually appear so that you can re-invoice her.  Some buyers will, others won't. 

You may have to consider this a hard lesson learned.  Personally I think you'll find the parcel will turn up within a few days, but not all buyers are willing to wait.  Even if they are willing to wait and the item does arrive, they may express their dissatisfaction through low DSRs or neutral/negative feedback, either of which will result in a defect for you. 

You will get a defect if you refund in these circumstances anyway, so your best bet at this point is to try to be as courteous and accommodating as possible in your communications with the buyer, in the hope that the parcel will arrive and the buyer will feel you gave them decent service (and attention). 

By the way, I wouldn't hand-write any address label going to Europe.  Print it out in a large, standard serif font, like Times New Roman.  The handwritten numbers "7" and "1" in particular can be very confusing -- their "7s" look like our "1s" and sometimes vice-versa. 

Lastly, did you describe the item on the Customs form (CN22) as "Hermès scarf"?  Everybody in France (including unscrupulous postal workers) knows the high value of Hermès products.  Hopefully you just listed it as "Silk Scarf".  Another important point to remember: always try to use generic descriptions on Customs forms.

Best of luck with this, but I think you'll find the parcel may arrive before the end of this week.

[mr.elmwood]

By the way, I wouldn't hand-write any address label going to Europe.  Print it out in a large, standard serif font, like Times New Roman.  The handwritten numbers "7" and "1" in particular can be very confusing -- their "7s" look like our "1s" and sometimes vice-versa. 

This is why I like Paypal Shipping. The label prints correctly, clearly, in the proper format, black ink, easily read by the machines.

Not insured w/o tracking, I would call it "cloth scarf".

[rose-dee]

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@mr.elmwood wrote:

OP is in NS, everything I send to NS is about $3 more. Mind you, it is still usually around $14.

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I hadn't noticed the OP's location -- another important point.  I'm in NS too, and I always add on at least 2 extra days to the maximum delivery estimate, even to the States.  It can take that long for Small Packet just to get out of Halifax to Ville St-Laurent.

So my minimum estimate in shipping from here in NS to France using SmPkt would be 16 business days, and I'd normally send the buyer a separate email message to let them know to expect (as I mentioned) 3 to 4 weeks. 

To the OP -- I assume when you say you didn't send the scarf as it was in its small box, that you packed the original box, with the scarf, inside a larger box?  I just checked Canada Post for a ca. 280gm parcel in a Canada Post standard large box (36x32x10cm), and Tracked Packet is around $49.00 (you'd get a bit of a discount through Paypal labelling). 

So, for the future, if you have an item of similar weight, size and value to ship to Europe, you can either list the tracked shipping at around $45 (which will discourage sales), or do what I do and "subsidize" my international shipping in order to get a sale on items that I think may be particularly attractive to European buyers.  Some sellers like to roll part or all of the shipping cost into the item and offer low (or free) shipping, but I look on that as rather disingenuous, so I don't, but it is another option.

[rose-dee]

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@mr.elmwood wrote:

This is why I like Paypal Shipping. The label prints correctly, clearly, in the proper format, black ink, easily read by the machines.

Not insured w/o tracking, I would call it "cloth scarf".

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You're right about Paypal shipping labels -- and they pick up the buyer's address exactly as the buyer has entered it on Paypal, not as we may be trying to interpret it.

The problem with "cloth scarf" is that if the OP declared the true value (which she should), and entered the proper HS code (OP, please tell us you did), "cloth scarf" with a value of ca. $150 or more could raise eyebrows and cause the parcel to be inspected.  Not a critical difference, but that would be my choice -- try to be accurate but not specific, especially with vintage designer clothing and accessories, etc.

[mr.elmwood]

A few times I have had to re-jig the address as it does not fit the Paypal fields. I stop and consider what the buyer meant. After all, they are trying to fit a foreign address into a North American format. Doesn't always work.  French addresses can be complex due to symbols, what should be capitalized, etc.

UK addresses can be fun as some are more descriptive "Jolly Green House, Mews 2, Corner Lane", etc.

[jafeter]

So I have spoken to the buyer and mentioned I would refund selling price+shipping costs if it did not arrive by the end of this month. I thought that was reasonable and so did the buyer...

As far as packaging goes...I did send the scarf in it's original box which required me to mail in a larger box...that no doubt contributed to the shipping cost. I wrote silk scarf on the CN22 form with the correct value.

[mr.elmwood]

Unless the original packaging is important. I remove it and downsize in weight and dimensions.