Delivery Times from USA to Canada

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Hi, Purchased a book March 22 from a Florida large quantity book seller to Calgary with the only option First Class International.  Estimated delivery Monday, Apr 9, 2018 - Monday, May 7, 2018. Currently at approximately 16 days. Curious to know other buyers recent experience with delivery times from the USA to Canada with this service and if they thought the shipping charges were fair value?

Thanks,

CM

[femmefan1946]

I've been in mail order for some 30 odd years, and I always allow 20 days for delivery within North America, from the US or from Canada.

You can't open an eBay dispute until May 7 in any case.

The FCI package rate includs tracking to Canada. Did you look to see where it actually has been?

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Unfortunately they didn't offer or include any service with tracking. I'm just thinking 14 to 21 days should be a reasonable time frame for a small package from Florida to Calgary. I've emailed after purchase and seems to take several days for them to respond. At the time they were the only seller with the book. Will probably see a few bucks for actual postage. They charged 6 USD for a book approx of 100 pages. Now I'm seeing another seller in the UK  with the same book for half the shipping and 5 to 9 days. I'm wondering if there are maybe some sellers in the USA that ship free in the USA but then  make up postage expenses by mailing Internationally with exorbitant  shipping fees. Used to be fairly easy to find a seller in the USA with several shipping options to Canada. Now, not so much.

CM

[marnotom!]

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

Unfortunately they didn't offer or include any service with tracking.

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First Class International will have tracking under certain conditions, with the biggie being that the seller has to purchase the postage online.

The tracking is much more for the seller's benefit than yours, though.  You'll already know whether or not you've received the item.

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

I'm just thinking 14 to 21 days should be a reasonable time frame for a small package from Florida to Calgary.

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I'm on Vancouver Island.  That's generally the delivery time range I give for my purchases, as well.  My experience has been that the further southeast the item's point of origin is, the longer it will take, so your book from Florida will likely be on the long end of the delivery time scale.

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@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

Will probably see a few bucks for actual postage. They charged 6 USD for a book approx of 100 pages. Now I'm seeing another seller in the UK  with the same book for half the shipping and 5 to 9 days. I'm wondering if there are maybe some sellers in the USA that ship free in the USA but then  make up postage expenses by mailing Internationally with exorbitant  shipping fees. Used to be fairly easy to find a seller in the USA with several shipping options to Canada. Now, not so much.

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Six bucks US strikes me as being pretty reasonable for the shipment of a small book from the US to Canada.  USPS rejigged its mailing offerings for smaller items several years ago, and the price has gone up considerably for non-document mailings as a result.

Do some homework and check out the USPS website sometime.  (https://postcalc.usps.com/ ) I just did and the least expensive option for shipping a 300 gram rigid object in a large envelope from Boston to Victoria is US$16.00.  Maybe you'll have better luck finding something less expensive.

I don't think sellers subsidize their domestic shipping costs by padding international shipping charges.  International sales only make up a small proportion of most US sellers' sales, so this sort of subsidization plan just wouldn't work.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

My concern is that mailing something from Florida to Alberta  Mar 22 by the service chosen and that this is ACCEPTABLE (In eBay's standards) possible delivery being up until May 7 is extremely long open window for a delivery. Even if you don't include Saturdays(Which they still work) it's over a 30 days(Approx 6000 miles via Toronto). Small packet Air from Calgary to Florida is 10 to 12 days and sometimes quicker. Fairly confident if we were to advise a customer in the USA, yes we can ship to you, you will have in over a month we wouldn't have very much business. I will confirm the actual service when the package arrives and update the post.  

-CM

[marnotom!]

For what it's worth, my last purchase of an item shipped by First Class International also had a very broad delivery window, but it arrived in about two weeks.  However, it was also shipped from just outside San Francisco, so it just had to go straight up the west coast.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Book arrived today Mar 18th. Delivery time 19 business days. Ebay seller Item Location Florida USA. Received International Priority Airmail Royal Mail Value 5 Pounds on account GB. . Service specified in the listing was USPS First Class Mail International / First Class Postage Return address is Sarasota Florida. Nowhere in the listing shows as being shipped from the UK. That would appear to be a little bit of false advertising.

-CM

[marnotom!]

Ha! Well, maybe the seller procured the book from the UK seller to whom you earlier referred? 😃

If it's any consolation, it looks as though you got a bit of a break in the shipping charge as £5.00 converts to a little over US$7.00 at current exchange rates.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Should have got a message as soon as I tried to purchase....Tricked ya. Please order from UK seller. We do not have stock!!! Wouldn't  it be more efficient to have your inventory in the USA and ship from there??? Maybe Ebay USA bought Ebay UK and we never got the memo???  Hmmm  

-CM

[susarms0]

The U.S.  Postal Service is ridiculous.  Seems Dejoy dismantling of the Postal Service was very affective.   It never use to take this long. Between the postal charges and slow service I make a point of not buying from the States.

[pjcdn2005]

Zombie thread from 2018.

[kh-leslie]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.