Kilts and Customs Duties - An Example

[Nick Fiddes]

I agree with pretty much everything you say Mike. But there's a few things you left out. One is that couriers are of course much faster and more reliable. Our fedex/ups packages are rarely 'caged' nowadays as we've learned how to do the paperwork, so deliveries to the US are next day to major centres or day after mostly otherwise. This compares to a few days up to a few weeks or more, quite unpredictably, by air mail then their local partner, whoever that turns out to be. This may not matter to everyone, but as the supplier we still get criticism when things are late or don't arrive when wanted.

Another factor is 'attrition'. I must admit that I'd failed to notice until now that you're actually in Canada. Sorry. I'm afraid the fact is that we pretty much refuse to send anything of value into Canada that way now, since the rate of 'loss' got to quite ridiculous levels. If a customer insists on Canada Post we ask for a written disclaimer that they will not ask us to replace a missing package. Here's a fact for you - we've had more lost packages in the past year through Canada Post than to the rest of the world (including UK domestic) put together. That may tell you how bad it is. Courier packages very rarely go missing. But the standard postal system is a totally different story, and Canada Post way more than most.

Finally, I can't speak for US-Canada shipments, but I don't think you mentioned the weight limit that applies to air mail. If the package weight exceeds 2kg (c. 4.4 lbs) they just won't take it.

So my basic point is it's not just a question of price, but a bunch of other considerations, such as how soon do you want it, how reliable do you want that schedule to be, and who is going to pick up the tab and knock-on costs if a package goes astray? I don't think it invalidates your point that the more business-orientated companies charge more for the 'same' service of clearing paperwork than the bulk-handling public-facing companies do. But like so many things in life, there's an element of you get what you pay for.

[KiltedPilot]

I'm afraid the fact is that we pretty much refuse to send anything of value into Canada that way now, since the rate of 'loss' got to quite ridiculous levels.

Interesting experience Nick.

I was born in UK, and moved from UK to Canada a handful of years ago. I still have a lot of family in UK, sending letters, cards, presents. I have multiple bank accounts and credit cards etc in the UK. I continue to shop online at some of my favourite UK stores.

Thus, over the past few years, we've probably received over 1,000 letters from the UK, and 100-150 parcels. Never has one disappeared, or even been particularly late. Delivery time for Royal Mail/Canada Post parcels is from 2 days to 10 days, and about 6 days typical.

I also receive a lot of parcels via Canada Post from Japan, US, and Europe. None has gone missing.

As briefly mentioned in the other thread, when in the UK (and for a while afterwards), I used to run a small mail order business that sent 8,000 to 20,000 parcels from UK to North America per year. Canada Post never gave me the slightest problem. Rarely did USPS outright fail to deliver, but occasionally parcels took an unusually long time.

Hence your experience seems surprising to me. You might want to request information from the large membership of this forum to see if your company experience is repeated, or something related to your local Royal Mail facilities, etc.

I fully agree with you that there are many tradeoffs between delivery methods -- I often prefer FedEx for my business needs. Different factors favour different shipping methods. My only debate with you is that import costs ARE a manageable factor as well, and a huge one -- something you appeared to dispute.

Mike