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Shipping to Canada

andirunnerandirunner
in Third Party Tools Vote Up0Vote Down
I have had a total of 8 orders from Canadian residents in my 14 months as a store. Two of these have gone missing entirely and stopped moving, according to their tracking. I have ultimately refunded these customers.

Has anyone else in the States had an issue with mailing to Canada? Am I doing something wrong? I didn't think that mailing was complicated, but maybe I'm the one who is doing something wrong. I am on the verge taking Canada off my list - I feel bad that these customers did not receive their orders.

I have not had this issue when shipping to anywhere else.

Thank you,
A

Comments

  • 4 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • StragusStragus
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    If the tracking has stopped moving, can't you get a refund from the USPS after a while?

    Tracked shipping methods from Canada to the U.S. have $100 of insurance included.
  • GregoGrego
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    Canada's a pretty big place ... had a problem with Montreal (the buyer said he had a number of his parcels go missing) ... so it kinda pointed to his carrier not the whole of the country.
  • CalibrickCalibrick
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    I did a lot of research on different nation's postal systems the past several weeks as I stand my store up. I definitely saw a trend with imports into Canada, but the threads seem to point to Customs themselves, or the hand-off between Customs and the Canadian postal service. It seemed like once items scanned INTO the Canadian postal system from Customs, you were good.

    It also appeared in posts on Etsy, ebay, etc., that Canadian customs is now sitting on content from as much as 30-60 days. Unsure if that is backed up because of poor documentation (those invoices HAVE to show new or used and, this is trippy to me, the cost of each item if bought in the US and the cost charged to the CA customer) and overwhelmed or poorly-trained CA customs administrative personnel.
  • GregoGrego
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    Can't answer to Etsy type buys but historically, (10 years ago or so), when I bought a lot from eBay USA, delays from BOTH US and Canadian customs were common. I don't see the same delays for imports coming into Canada, and I certainly would hear from US or other foreign buyers if there were frequent delays going into their country.

    Having the correct customs form, properly filled out, and sent in an approved manner, (ie not trying to send LEGO as a paper product without a customs form so it can go cheaper Internationally), or sending as a "gift" also slows down handling.

    Because, yes, if they decide they are going to process your item, it will take 30 - 60 days. Luckily, they only stop a very small percentage of items for inspection.
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