michele

Hi everyone amd having a nightmare trying to get stamps to post letters to England. What is it with the postal system in this Country? It's absolutely ridiculous, not only to I have to search high and low for stamps but when I did eventually find a Mail boxes that sold them (i'm in edgemont calgary) in Dalhousie I go there today for some more only to be told they have non and I'll have to go on another trapse around to get some, it's really beginning to naff me off at leasr in England it didn't take me all day to buy a stamp and post a letter and at least I knew it would get there pretty much on time. Still waiting for a birthday card from back home posted nearly 3 weeks ago granted Canada is a bigger country but it's really annoying any stamp advice please!(sorry for the long moan!)

iaink

Oh yeah, that was a moan alright. Try putting your outgoing mail in your maibox in the UK and see how far it gets!

It is surprising how many places do sell stamps, you just have to ask! If they dont they will usually point you to somewhere nearby that does.

Cant you just get a book at either your local postal outlet, and nearly every greeting card place sells them too, as well as some convenience stores.

Of course it doesnt mean that by the time you send the thing the cost wont have gone up another 2c, but thats life!

Post in the UK sucked occasionally as well you know. I got a card from my folks yesterday, posted less than a week ago, so I guess there is good and bad everywhere

Take a deep breath, count to ten.....feel better yet?

Iain

simonhouse

Most petrol stations sell stamps.. and there are plenty of Canada Post outlets scattered around the city.

As for delivery times - yes Canada is bad for that. Often its taken over 4 days to post a letter within Calgary (I even tested it once!). Once I had a 'failed delivery note' posted to me, and it arrived 6 days after the date they allegedly tried to delivery the package.

Purley

In Regina lots of drug stores sell stamps. I dont know if you have Shoppers Drugmart there but all Shoppers sell stamps here.

ClareBC

try the supermarkets and convenience stores....

Although I think Canada Post sucks (really sucks) I have always been pleased with the availability (and long hours) of the postal outlets....

Clare

Glaswegian

We generally found that post towards the Uk was much faster than post from the UK. For this we blame the UK postal service!

This may be partly due to the fact that some of our post from the UK went via Canberra once!

ClareBC

Odd, I've found the exact opposite. I've always assumed it was the 8 hour start they have on us - but maybe it is location (BC as opposted to AB!!)

Clare

simonhouse

I sent a fully tracked package to England recently - it stayed in Calgary for SIX days before heading off to Toronto. The day the package landed in Blighty, it was immediately sent to the recipient.

I wish Canada Post was as speedy as the Royal Mail. I used to love the fact I could order a book from Amazon.co.uk at 4.00pm, and the thing would be sitting on my desk before 9am the next day. Try doing that from Amazon.ca - it'll take days if not weeks.

dingbat

I posted a letter to Nottingham on Monday - last week, the 28th June. It arrived today in Blighty. It was also fully tracked and spent 11 days in Canada, one day in the UK and then was delivered. Canada Post is utterly useless. Sorry folks.

Letter from the UK, posted Wednesday 7th in London, arrives today. Books from my old Uni bookstore in the UK arrive in 48hrs by Fed Ex. If I ordered the same books here - 6 to 8 weeks. Oh yes indeedy.

wizzard

I think you have to take into account scale as well. The UK isn't even as big as Ontario never mind Canada. I am sure if Ontario for example had it's own dedicated post service that only had to worry about Ontario it could deliver mail quicker. As it is you can mail a letter 3000 miles and still be in the same country never mind international mail. I've enver really had a problem with mail here. International mail I don't care how long it takes anyway because it's not like it's ever anything urgent or i'd use a courier. Internally most mail I send or get is delivered within 1 or 2 days which is fine. As for stamps I seem to have no problem walking into a post office and asking for stamps.

Drew