Late shipping

I don't mail packages Internationally any more (except US) because of the high cost of shipping, not worth it for the kind of items that I sell. I had a buyer in England who really wanted some yarn that I had listed, so I explained the cost of shipping, she was fine with that so I sold it to her.

 

I had an email from her today to say that the yarn arrived today, she was very happy, even though I had mailed it on Dec. 2nd 2015! Wherever has it been all that time? I am very glad she was not upset, and it renewed my resolve not to mail packages Internationally, just lettermail and small packets.

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Late shipping

I did the same thing but mostly due to Ebay's ridiculous international return non policy. Losing the postage is worse than losing the item, but it is far too easy and expensive to lose both.

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Late shipping


@triber wrote:

I don't mail packages Internationally any more (except US) because of the high cost of shipping, not worth it for the kind of items that I sell. I had a buyer in England who really wanted some yarn that I had listed, so I explained the cost of shipping, she was fine with that so I sold it to her.

 

I had an email from her today to say that the yarn arrived today, she was very happy, even though I had mailed it on Dec. 2nd 2015! Wherever has it been all that time? I am very glad she was not upset, and it renewed my resolve not to mail packages Internationally, just lettermail and small packets.


How did you send it?

 

The sounds typical if it went surface (4-7 weeks to the UK), but it could have also been held up clearing customs (I've had items take up to 4 weeks to clear).

 

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Late shipping

I sent it small packet airmail. I grew up in England, and mail there used to be really quick. A few days we got a Christmas gift from my niece in Wales, mail early December air mail.

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Late shipping


@triber wrote:

I sent it small packet airmail. I grew up in England, and mail there used to be really quick. A few days we got a Christmas gift from my niece in Wales, mail early December air mail.


It likely still is.

 

The hold up would not be in the UK, it would be here.

 

Obviously a package can't go by land travel to the UK so it would be flown there. That means that the only difference between how you sent your package and air frieght or tracket packet is that the Post Office purposely lets your package sit around somewhere here in Canada for as long as they feel is appropriate before putting it on a plane and sending it on its way.

 

Just another level of stupidity and callous disregard that the Post Office has for Canadians.

 

thD

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Late shipping


@triber wrote:

I sent it small packet airmail. I grew up in England, and mail there used to be really quick. A few days we got a Christmas gift from my niece in Wales, mail early December air mail.


Small packet airmail packages sometimes get sent lumped in with surface. There are a myriad of other possibilities as well. Occasionally delays happen when an item falls off the sorting conveyors/machines and isn't collected till later. Occasionally items get tied up in export delays. Occasionally items get tied up in customs clearances in the destination country. The thing with light and small packet (and USPS first class as well) is they have no guaranteed service levels based on the reciprocal agreements in place between countries/postal services. They are the lowest priority to be cleared through customs as well because of this. One thing you can do to eliminate possible bottlenecks is to declare your items with the appropriate HS code and have an accurate description of the contents.

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Late shipping

Thank you, I have stopped putting in HS codes, maybe I will start doing it again. I did have a good description of the contents.

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Late shipping

It's amazing how people work themselves into a lather over a simple matter of a mail piece being delayed. Surface vs air mail, the relative merits of the Canadian and UK postal systems, HS codes...on and on.

 

For crying out loud, an item was seriously delayed in the mails. It happens. That's all we know. We have no clue where or why or when this happened to Triber's mail piece. We don't (and will never know) whose fault it was (if it was anyone's). Bad luck for Triber that it was his/her mail piece that got stuck somewhere, when thousands of others were processed normally.

 

All we can take from this incident is yet more evidence that, ultimately, 99.9+% of the time, the mail gets through. The worldwide postal system is a marvel and needs to be preserved.

 

Tom 

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Late shipping


@treasure.hunter.d wrote:

Obviously a package can't go by land travel to the UK so it would be flown there. ...


 

Surface parcel, and small packet (surface) travel to the UK in container ships -- they are NOT sent by air.

 

That's why surface takes so long. Load into a container, wait until container is full, send full container to a port, wait to be loaded unto a ship, wait until the ship has a full load and is ready to sail, wanders across the ocean, unloads, goes through customs, then via the UK mail system.

 

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Late shipping

When I asked about surface v air at the post office, I was told that nothing goes by ship anymore. I was told that airmail packages get priority on the spaces left on planes for mail, if there is room left, the surface mail goes. Sometimes the surface will be as quick as air because there is room after the airmail is loaded, but if there is a lot of airmail packages, then the surface mail can keep getting bumped.

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My understanding is the same as triber's.....
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@triber wrote:

When I asked about surface v air at the post office, I was told that nothing goes by ship anymore. I was told that airmail packages get priority on the spaces left on planes for mail, if there is room left, the surface mail goes. Sometimes the surface will be as quick as air because there is room after the airmail is loaded, but if there is a lot of airmail packages, then the surface mail can keep getting bumped.


For mail from Canada, the information in the first sentence above is definitely false. Never in a million years would Canada Post charge surface rates for a mail piece that will be sent by air. They simply can't afford to. Most if not all of Canada Post's international air mail is flown by Fedex to Memphis, from where Fedex flies it to its destination or vicinity. I don't have the figures but we all know that Fedex ain't cheap... and I'll bet they bill CP in US$.

 

Surface is surface is surface. God only knows how surface mail gets to its destination but get there it does...eventually.

 

Tom

 

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