secure shipping home
 

Any advice on posting a new cellphone home?

Apparently the BlackBerry store does better deals than elsewhere, so today I took possession of a sealed box which I want to get orf to blighty asap.

Does canada post have a secure, insured option or should I just pony up and fed-ex it? (as I'm not paying anyhow).

Cheers!

Re: secure shipping home
 

FedEx or UPS, they carry your packet end-to-end, with a tracking number which you can follow on-line.

There have been too many horror stories here on BE of things that have gone missing, somehow "lost" after the hand-off between one national post service and another for me to trust anyone but one of the premium brand couriers with anything valuable or irreplaceable.

Re: secure shipping home
 

That's the way I was thinking.

Any opinions on FedEx vs UPS?

Re: secure shipping home
 

I have no strong opinions either way - both seem to provide the same service. I would go with some combination of which was cheaper and which was more convenient.

Re: secure shipping home
 

just double check on any brokerage fees the may charge, not just you but also the recipient


Both are capable of quite high fees

Re: secure shipping home
 

Fedex and UPS likely will have high broker fees, they do at least for Canada when something is coming from outside of Canada, so double check there so the recipient isn't surprised.

Canada Post offers insured options for international as well as tracking with their Xpress Post International and Priority International, the insured value can't be more then 1,000 and its an add on service if the value is over $100.

Tracking is included in both.

4-7 days for Xpress Post and 2-3 days for Priority Worldwide.


If your going the UPS/FedEx route, my experience is Fedex is better overall.

Re: secure shipping home
 

Thanks JS. I checked on Google maps- there's a UPS store in my office plaza, but I'll check CanPost too.

Re: secure shipping home
 

DHL?

Re: secure shipping home
 

I don't know about Canpost specifically, but other BEers have reported a number of times that tracking of things shipped using a national mail carrier comes "umplugged" at the hand-off and that while you can track the item from where you last saw it, to the airport where it left the country, the tracking/traceability stops and that the sending service pretty much shrugs their shoulders, saying well we handed it to them on X date, we can't help you any more.

Be aware that the insurance value becomes the import value for import duty - I got burned by that mistake once too, giving a generous value for an item in case it was lost or damaged but then got stuck with a nasty customs bill. :frown:

Re: secure shipping home
 

Had no idea tracking stopped in some countries.

USPS/Canada Post track start to finish and that is the only experience I have with international mail.

Oh and Hong Kong to USA as well, tracked start to finish, but as you say might vary depending on countries involved.

Re: secure shipping home
 

I think it is supposed to work country-to-country but unfortunately it doesn't always. :(

Re: secure shipping home
 

Other than letting you know where something was but isn't necessarily there now, I'm not sure how useful tracking is.

I've had things delivered while tracking has shown an earlier stage and I've seen tracking say something was one side of town but supposedly take three days to get across town. A ten minute journey.

If something gets lost, is there an arrived at 'lost' signpost? ;)

Re: secure shipping home
 

I find tracking to be "interesting", but take comfort that the shipper knows where my parcel is.

The problem is that I know that they record parcels going into a cage, then track the cage. So when my parcel is shown having arrived in Philadelphia from Buffalo, and 30 minutes later is shown departing for DC, I know perfectly well that they didn't unload the cage and check the contents.

Re: secure shipping home
 

UPS have been a complete disaster for me. They will only deliver if someone is there to receive the package which, if it's sent to home, is never the case. The other companies allow waiving of the signature and will leave the package on the porch and/or will take it to a depot where it can be claimed. UPS don't do this. Instead they keep trying to deliver, even though you phone them every day saying not to, and eventually, after their count of tries runs out, return the package to the sender. They then try to collect some nonsense non-delivery fee.

If a US company won't ship to me USPS then I go to another company. Whatever I'm buying I want to have it, it's not sufficient to bring it to my house, show it to the dogs and then take it away, as UPS does.

Re: secure shipping home
 

That sounds like a messed-up UPS depot or even delivery driver. I have never heard of the degree of problems you have experienced with UPS.