Shipping from Canada to Qatar

[Simon Benton]

Does anyone have any experience shipping camera parts to Qatar from Canada (or the USA)? On the auction site I had listed a quite rare camera part for sale and it was purchased by a person from Qatar. I had doubts about shipping there but Canada Post offered an international air parcel at a cost of $80 which the buyer agreed to pay. I mailed off the parcel August 2nd and tracking shows it left Canada on August 12th and is still in transit on August 22nd. Canada Post has no explanation as to why it took 10 days to leave Canada apart from it was probably due to increased security. The buyer has filed a "did not receive my item" report which has caused Paypal to make my account non usable.

Canada Post says it should take 6 to 8 days to reach Qatar. Is anyone aware of any holidays/strikes etc in Qatar which may be causing the delay in delivery?

Hope this is the right place to post this.

[Daniel Stone]

Even with USPS Express Mail, the stated time it takes for shipment is for it to ARRIVE in the destination country. However, clearing that said countries customs service might take much longer. I shipped some film to a fellow in Paris earlier this year, and it got to France in (3) days. However, it took (5) WEEKS for it to clear French customs. Stupidly asinine if you ask me

On my eBay listings, I tell bidders/buyers clearly about thus issue. If someone from outside the USA purchases something from me, I reiterate that, again, to them via eBay's messaging system (so they have it on their records, so they can snoop if needed).

Defnintely a pin in the you-know-what, but it gets the job done.
I've shipped a number of items ranging from $100-$5k to buyers in the middle east(including Iran) and the majority of them are now using a "middleman" shipping/forwarding service based here in the USA. These companies generally use FedEx or UPS and generally are much faster than direct mailing.

Hope your issue gets reesolved quickly!

-Dan

[paulr]

I have no experience sending anything there, but imagine it will get through. Your customer is probably wealthy and connected, and the government of Qatar is not in the habit of getting in the way of commerce.

Was the parcel insured, and if so, do you know how long it has to go missing before you can make a claim?

[eddie]

if you provide paypal with the shipping tracking then they may unlock your account.....

it is always a good idea to add tracking numbers right to ebay when you ship. this way they can see it all along. did you do this?

ps. i only ship priority mail overseas....this helps with not having it delayed.

i got a lens from NY to China in 3 days once....door to door!

eddie

[Jody_S]

In my experience Paypal will not 'unlock' your account, but it should not be 'locked' in the first place. They should simply have placed a hold for the amount of the sale.

As for the delivery/non-delivery of the item, in my experience it will depend on the paperwork you sent along with it. France is notorious for requiring all paperwork in triplicate, any info deemed not up to par or falsified to reduce VAT liabilities will result in the parcel being held for a time and then returned. I've never shipped to Qatar, so I can't comment on their requirements, however I have always paid the extra $$$ for insurance on these types of parcels, and for the first time ever, 2 months ago, Canada Post actually made good on the insurance and I got a check in the mail for a parcel that was similarly tracked as leaving Canada but never arriving in Indonesia.

[Simon Benton]

Thank you all for the replies. The parcel was insured for the whole amount and Canada Post said I need to wait 30 days before starting a claim. It is interesting that Canada Post no longer offers Expresspost (EMS) to Qatar only the international air parcel and priority worldwide which is incredibly expensive.

Against my better judgment I decided to mail the parcel and should have listened to my gut. The next highest bidder by $1 lived in Toronto!

[eddie]

Against my better judgment I decided to mail the parcel and should have listened to my gut. The next highest bidder by $1 lived in Toronto!

yeah, that was cause the highest bidder uncovered his bid.....what was the 3rd bidders high? this is what the 2nd bidder would have paid in the event that he was the winning bidder.

keep us posted.

did you add the shipping tracking numbers to ebay or paypal from the beginning or not?

as i said if you do this many times this helps with keeping your account from being "locked"

call paypal. they will unlock it for you.....providing you "guarantee" the money is available to return to the buyer.....paypal will NEVER put up a cent of their trillion billion quintillion dollars!

[Simon Benton]

Hi Eddie - yes I did put on the tracking number when I marked it as shipped. I called Paypal and they will not unlock. The buyer has 23 feedback entries and I have over 1000 with 100% rating but to them the buyer is always right.

[cgrab]

International shipping and customs procedures usually take longer, I have waited sometimes several weeks for parcels from the US and Canada to come through. Often it seems that the post offices from the US and Canada do not really know what they should do with such exotic destinations. From what I gather from the description of this case, it took Canada Post ten days to find a map and a person able to read it, and ten days later, it has not been entered into the system again, so it could be on a slow boat to wherever, or maybe still sitting in a warehouse in the GTA, in Quatar or anywhere in between.
I am a bit surprised that your customer has reacted so quickly, as most people normally are willing to wait a bit to allow time for international delivery. Hopefully the parcel turns up and things turn out well.

[Simon Benton]

From previous experience of tracked parcels when the parcel goes to customs the tracking system records and displays this. All the tracking shows is that the parcel left Toronto, Canada on August 12th. There are direct cargo/passenger flights from Toronto to Qatar so I am just surprised that there is no further tracking info. I do not know (neither does Canada Post) whether or not Qatar is part of the international tracking system.