General Forum

I've had a few ger lost. It's a little bit overwhelming. It's really bad when the other party doesn't understand rhat

Mike, what's the tracking number? Let's see if we can't track it.

I'm waiting on a trade from a reliable member in Texas and was wondering if anyone else was having issues with cross border trades taking longer than normal. I've noticed a few envelopes I've shipped into the US taking several weeks (up to a month), while across Canada seems normal. This thread tells me it is a common issue.

I am having issues too with delivering and receiving trades...I live in Pennsylvania and waiting on trades from the mail. I maile out cards to Ohio and it took 2 months to get there.  Also recently mailed cards to Maryland and they never received the either....VERY FRUSTRATING.....  

In the southern USA, mail to Canada goes to a sorting center for International mail  in Miami.....

Still waiting on notice if a package (ebay) has made it to Canada yet.....

Not sure how much affect IAN is having on the mail.....

Yeah, the international sorting is pretty ridiculous in Canada. I'm on the west coast, in the Vancouver area, and I am fairly certain that any mail I send to the US goes to Mississauga, Ontario first, no matter what state it is bound for... despite the fact that we have a major Canada Post sorting facility in Richmond, right near the Vancouver International Airport. Then, if it is going to the eastern states, it will go to Illinois, or, if it is going to the west, it makes its way to California. So if I mail something to Bellingham, Washington (a twenty to forty minute drive for me, depending on traffic), it will cross the continent twice before reaching its destination.

It is supposed to go via the Vancouver plant at YVR. It is supposed to always go to the nearest point of international exchange. In my case, I am on the East Coast, it would mean Montreal. Outbound to the U.S. is probably always done in Montreal, but incoming mail arrives from the three international points of entry at Canada Post (Montreal Ville St. Laurent, Mississauga Gateway and Vancouver). I've seen all three handling my incoming shipments. The issue is USPS has 6 points of entry (NYC, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco), but none in the Pacific Northwest. Your shipment to Bellingham, WA will go from Vancouver to San Francisco before returning North. On the East Coast, it would rather make sense to send all mail to Canada via NYC as it is the closest point of exchange with Canada, but most mail South of D.C. will be processed by Miami instead (their closest point of exchange, not the most efficient one).  In other words, routing would be something like Charlotte, NC to Miami, FL (not New York City) to Montreal or Toronto or Vancouver then domestic delivery to here.

Nothing compares to the horrors of FedEx....they maul your packages, deliver them 2 miles away, lie about delivering them, etc. I'm still mourning the loss of my Killebrew and Ted Williams items from last week. 

Hi,

Just to put your minds in peace...

We have the same issues here in Switzerland, and I guess all over the world, each year between November & January I have several letters or packages that don't arrive, they just disappear into thin air I guess.

Post Office doesn't care at all, as long as it isn't registered mail, you can sit on it...

Why do we pay the stamps for regular mailing then? Maybe so it can get stolen more easily.

I want to say that having mailed out over 1,000 trades, only 2 have not arrived at destination (one in Canada - several years ago, and one in the USA - most recent); in the return mail, only one has gone missing about 3 years ago. Considering that is over 2,000 items total, I think both Canada Post and USPS workers actually do a very good job in getting the mail delivered. Yes, some take only a few days to get to destination and others take a few months (rare case), but considering what we have all been experiencing the last 3 years, I think we should give kudos to those who have continued to work hard in making sure the mail gets delivered. I know some of our members are USPS / CP workers or retired workers - thanks guys and gals!

I might add that the only other items that might have gone missing over the years are 7 of 10 PIF I sent out at Christmas last year.  Only 3 were acknowledged in any way so I can only think the other 7 got lost in the mail.