MADNESS IN FRANCE! Express Mail parcel held for almost 3 weeks in customs....

[Jim Andrada]

By the way, if you can make it to near the end of that hundred page blog I linked to they mention a discount broker by name IIRC.

[Capocheny]

Emmanuel,

With all due respects... I think your comment isn't truly indicative of the situation with shipping into Canada. Like all countries, there can be snags but I think these tend to be the exception rather than the rule.

Cheers.

I guess you are being sarcastic or ironic or whatever it is called. Whatever.

But returning to shipments from the US to Canada..... I have routinely received MANY shipments from the US, China, South Africa etc, to Montreal Quebec. NEVER had a problem.... (shipment from China often being fastest is seems.) All brought in via regular mail. If you bring in by UPS etc you may end up in customs. Figure it out.

So I am calling BS on these supposedly bad events, based on MY experience.

I bet there are thousands of daily transactions going across the border without a hitch, but we don't know about those do we. Only the complains that are then taken as gospel. It's BS.

My advice for shipment to Canada:

SHip regular Parcel mail, don't worry about express mail and UPS and FedEX etc. REGULAR mail, relax and you will have your shipment from the US in 4-10 days max.

DONE.

Have to agree with you wholeheartedly... I've had items sent in from the U.S. without any issues whatsoever!

Patience is a virtue!

I sent a package over to South Adelaide, Australia filled with camera gear back about 10 years ago. Unfortunately, I used one of those ultra-sturdy "apple-box crates" and, lo and behold, it was held up in Australian customs for well over 6 weeks. The purchaser emailed me wondering where the package was.

At the end of the day, the agricultural department finally released it from quarantine!

[And, yes, the declaration form was filled out with "camera equipment" as being the content in the box. But, in this case, they were concerned with the box, which is understandable.]

The buyer, who is a great fellow with a terrific sense of humor got quite a chuckle over it. We still laugh over the incident to this day!

So, that said, I'll simply reiterate, "Patience is a virtue!"

Cheers

[Capocheny]

I sent some stuff to a member in Canada and UPS was cheaper than USPS but he insisted I use USPS. It turns out that FedEx/UPS etc want to charge an obscene amount for customs clearance on shipments of under $1600 whereas the post office charges $5 or something similar. I read up on it and it seems like something of a scam by FedEx/UPS.

Hi Jim,

I NEVER, EVER use UPS/FedEx, etc for delivery because they do charge an extraordinary amount for their "customs brokerage charges."

I'll stick with USPS even though they may charge a wee bit extra for their service. At the end of the day... it's still far less costly than the charges from the courier services.

Cheers

[dmulick]

Hi. How'd you deal with that? Because I sent a return package to a store with a confirmed delivery date (which was a month back) and USPS just sent me a mail saying it's held in customs- you should talk to the addressee. In this case, the addressee will not help! Why was customs holding and package and how did you free it???

[dmulick]

Any one! Please help!! My package has been with the French customs for a month- they cleared it, and then kept a hold on it (no idea why) and USPS won't help!! How do I get my package freed from customs????

[djdister]

Any one! Please help!! My package has been with the French customs for a month- they cleared it, and then kept a hold on it (no idea why) and USPS won't help!! How do I get my package freed from customs????

The recipient in the destination country (France) should contact the Customs folks to determine the reason for the hold up. Very difficult to do from the sending end...

[Steven Tribe]

Delay in Customs (basically these days just an enforcement of Value added Tax on entry to the EU) can be due to the recipient of the item in France not paying paid the release fee (tax plus admin fee).

[Regular Rod]

"One day we will rise up and kill them all..."


RR

[Bill_1856]

Nothing new there. I understand that Napoleon supplied his troops in Russia with food and warm clothes via French Express Mail.

[Jody_S]

Probably missing documentation. Your recipient will need to contact Customs and supply proof of value, then pay the taxes, but it may already be on it's way back to you.