That d*mn courier thread.

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esoo

esoo

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Canada, eh?
I figure we all need a place to vent about the crap that happens with our shipments.

So I'll start:
Last UPS shipment, they charged me $70 to process $40 in taxes

Fiancee ordered an item for me from the US before Christmas. DHL took it to Germany and had it there for over a week before finally shipping it normal post to Canada.

FedEx is currently holding my Myojin hostage. Was supposed to arrive a week ago, and it has been sitting in the local depot for three and a half days now. Another package coming in has already been put on a truck for delivery.
 
Tu tombes à point...

After half a week of delaying because probably of the floods in BC, Canada Post managed to misroute my order as it was Out for Delivery in my very city.

Miracle that it finally showed up today as I had no further update on the tracking since then - just "Delays are possible" yet again.

Not as worse as your stories though.
 
I am starting to understand how ignorant I am when it comes to duties/taxes. Here in the US I have yet to pay anything on an international shipment. Granted, it varies from country to country but I’m almost afraid to ask - is it just a matter of time before I get hit with a bill?

Since this is a thread to vent I will add, I had two knives over the holiday season take exactly 30 days to deliver - one from Russia and the other from Australia. 10 days from origin to clear customs, 10 days for a flight to US customs and 10 days US customs to the destination. Both times. At least it’s been consistent
 
Here in France....Generally UPS/DHL charge $15 for the service of acting as a import custom's broker, then the VAT is on top of that

Often UPS delivers the package and then later they send you a bill,
I'm looking at one right now for 27 euros on my own personal item sent to myself.
I only recently discovered how to get around this with an attestation not to resell.

@Bico Doce I don't think you will get hit with any charges into the USA,
 
Nope, it's more a matter of which country and state you live in and add in a little luck....

I have been waiting for ages for customs to release the Markin pety, once they released it I was not hit with import duty and VAT...go figure

Couriers suck, all of them except very few...and for those you pay a premium that is HUGE... (ask World Courier what they charge for your next shipment, they are expensive yet I LOVE them for business critical shipments because they employ folks who actually care)

I am currently watching UPSP ( I know) taking 'care'of a pepper grinder that is seemingly going nowhere for over a week....'in transit to destination country'...they must be using a shipping container or pigeons for it to take more than 7 days to fly from Chicago to Amsterdam.
 
HSC /// Knives said:
Here in France....Generally UPS/DHL charge $15 for the service of acting as a import custom's broker, then the VAT is on top of that

Often UPS delivers the package and then later they send you a bill,
I'm looking at one right now for 27 euros on my own personal item sent to myself.
I only recently discovered how to get around this with an attestation not to resell.

@Bico Doce I don't think you will get hit with any charges into the USA,
Click to expand...

For us here in Canada for brokerage fees - Canada Post $10 flat fee, DHL $20 flat fee. UPS varies depending on the service level - at some levels, the value they charge to process the shipment is a percentage of the declared value.

For all of the couriers, if you want to go through the effort, you can self handle the process if you get the tracking number & commercial invoice ahead of time.
 
I've had two packages "lost" by USPS because they slid under the drivers seat while out for delivery.
 
then There's the Sh!tty Puro"Later".
I ordered a TV which was supposed to come in one 1 day and delayed to 1 week.

Canada is one another level have the worse courier. if you think USPS is bad, you should see Canada Post.
UPS is also one of the worse of all higher-end package couriers.
 
UPS is crap most of the time
DPD is crap most of the time
DHL is crap most of the time
TPG is crap all of the time
UPSP is nonsense all of the time
TNT is crap all of the time
Fedex is so-so, some of the time and crap for most of it
etc....

World Courier does what it takes to get a package delivered, and sorts the issues it meets on it's way, provided you pay upfront!
 
esoo said:
I've learned with Canada to US, some Canada Post levels aren't worth the stress - they cross the border into the US and never get tracking until delivered.
Click to expand...

You'll get more details entering the tracking number with USPS when it crosses the border.
 
+1 for DHL to the US. They fly thru customs where EMS/postal service will take 4x the time
 
esoo said:
Not if you use "Small Packet". USPS/CP showed no tracking from it leaving customs until delivery. I was stressed as the sale had been done as F&F.
Click to expand...

Well yeah obviously if you choose a service WITHOUT tracking...

I don't have no particular problem with Canada Post myself. For the amount of stuff transiting through them in a year, they rarely drop the ball, and usually make it before the estimated delivery date. They're also most often consistently less expensive.
 
ModRQC said:
Well yeah obviously if you choose a service WITHOUT tracking...

I don't have no particular problem with Canada Post myself. For the amount of stuff transiting through them in a year, they rarely drop the ball, and usually make it before the estimated delivery date. They're also most often consistently less expensive.
Click to expand...

It may not have been Small Packet, but it was supposed to have been a tracked service.

Ironically, the worst Canada Post tracking I've had has been from you to me. You'd drop it off, and there'd be nothing until it hit my local facility.
 
For you Canadian folks, what's your experience with duty fees importing into Canada? Quick google search tells me maybe GST + additional 7% adding up to 20% of total price (plus brokerage fees depending on what courier).

Also, does a kitchen knife fall under CUSMA (for states) or CETA (for EU)? I wonder if you'd be able to avoid duties from custom makers in the US and EU.
 
binsed said:
For you Canadian folks, what's your experience with duty fees importing into Canada? Quick google search tells me maybe GST + additional 7% adding up to 20% of total price (plus brokerage fees depending on what courier).

Also, does a kitchen knife fall under CUSMA (for states) or CETA (for EU)? I wonder if you'd be able to avoid duties from custom makers in the US and EU.
Click to expand...

Being in Ontario, I've been hit for HST (13%) + Brokerage fees.

Mail services (EMS/Royal Mail/etc) it's hit or miss whether it gets checked and hit with fees. UPS/DHL always get hit. FedEx has generally come through fee free (but I don't know if that has to do with the service level).
 
My wife once sent a package to S Korea via USPS. I forget all the details but I think the clerk at the post office keyed something in wrong. Tracking then showed the package making it’s merry way around the US on a 50-state tour for the next 6+ months. Literally we could see it visiting state after state.

My wife pleaded several times with USPS to just declare it a loss and pay out the insurance but they always pointed out that no, it wasn’t lost because see it just visited Wichita! And Boise before that! We know exactly where it is!

I think after about a year it ended up back on our doorstep.
 
esoo said:
Being in Ontario, I've been hit for HST (13%) + Brokerage fees.

Mail services (EMS/Royal Mail/etc) it's hit or miss whether it gets checked and hit with fees. UPS/DHL always get hit. FedEx has generally come through fee free (but I don't know if that has to do with the service level).
Click to expand...

Ah no additional duties then, interesting!
 
Canada Post I’ve had reliably good experiences. Mostly. My new neighbourhood in quebec, three times in the last couple months they’ve delivered packages to the wrong addresses on the same street (I’ve gotten my neighbours while he’s gotten mine on the same day) and we have community mail boxes.
UPS I’ve grown to loath and hate. Recently had a package valued under 75 dollars shipped here, which through Canada post rarely has more than hst added and sometimes nothing. UPS charged hst (13% and brokerage fee of 35 and taxed the total as well). All in it cost me the same amount as my package. Safe to say I’ll never be using UPS AGAIN
 
In August 2020 I bought some Blackwood from Australia. 250 USD for the wood and 70usd for shipping through sea. Cause air delivery would cost twice more. In January 2021 I contacted seller telling him that my package was probably lost in transit. He replied that he got it back a week ago. It was returned cause buyer hasn't paid customs fees. And how could I paid any fees if customs/mail service never reached me about it. Not even sure who to blame. Anyways. I paid 150$ for air delivery and got my package one month later.

Next time you see a $$$ custom handle — blame mail services :)
 
Grrrrrrrrr!

Indeed I regularly have to pay UPS $70 in fees to cross the border for $40 worth of Canadian taxes. At least UPS has been relatively reliable in actually delivering my purchases.

USPS would be a joke if it weren’t so sad. In 2019 (pre covid) I had a $500 knife dropped off at USPS in Louisiana. According to tracking it never left the depot it was dropped off at. It fell into a black hole. I check eBay regularly to see if I can buy it again there.

In November, 2020 I had $1600 worth of knives dropped off at USPS in Portland. It was promptly shipped to LA (note to USPS … Canada is North of Portland, not South). It’s sat in LA ever since … going on six weeks now.

I have other examples but have ultimately received my purchases. Shipping by USPS means your purchase will likely be shipped on a grand tour of the USA in a truck with two flat tires and no steering wheel. Routing is completely random and time in route indeterminate. UPS isn’t much better.

I guess I have to cut some slack for shipping in the time of Covid but somehow I think that’s a cover for a more serious form of rot in the system. The reason I say this is that I’ve found that shipping to me from other countries (Sweden and Australia) has been quicker, cheaper and more efficient. Canada Post has been slow but at least everything seems to get delivered within 10 days and costs less than from the USA.
 
I'm waiting for a package from Japan, via DHL that was supposed to arrive yesterday afternoon. Three nagura stones, two of them from Sakamoto-san (a chunk of Koma and some Mejiro), and one Shiro nagura of unknown origin with an odd, faded, circular stamp. I have no idea if it's tenjyou, mejiro, or koma, but it looks pretty interesting. Last but not least, an old barber's stone, a bright yellow Kiita that looks like it came from the Kato mine, but I'm probably just being delusional.

Anyway, we had a little bit of snow it Baltimore on Thursday night. That apparently put a monkey wrench in my package arriving on time. To top it off, DHL's tracking system isn't the greatest. I often get updates four hours after an event has taken place. The last update is from Friday at 9:53 in the morning. The package is on hold because of the weather. It was supposed to go out with the next cycle of couriers, but I guess there was never a "next" cycle".

It's an expensive package that I've been waiting two weeks for, it's really frustrating, as I have some work to do and I really wanted to add the koma to my razor honing progression, and also check out the kiita stone.
 
DPD is great in the UK in my experience.

Hermes on other hand...
 
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