Shipping Overseas from Canada with Canada Post

Shipping Overseas from Canada.Being able to ship overseas is a great way to increase your sellingbase when you offer items on okay. However there are a few thingsthat you need to be careful about.I use Canada Post for all of my shipping needs. You can use UPS toship overseas but it is very expensive, but way faster!There are some warnings that you need to be aware of when you shipwith Canada Post internationally/overseas.First of all your choices usually are:International ParcelSmall Air Packet InternationalXpresspost InternationalPurolator International (Basically a UPS service offered through Canada Post).Now. Things you need to be *very* careful with.International Parcel Surface:This item goes by surface in Canada, then by boat to your overseasdestination. Going by boat can take upwards of 2 months beforeyour buyer get's the item. Unless you tell them this before handyou could be getting poor feedback due to speed of your delivery.International Parcel Air:This is a faster service then the surface. Your parcel usually arrivesin 5-10 business days. However, you do have to keep your parcelunder 2KG. Otherwise it is to heavy and will not be sent by air.Xpresspost International:This is way more expensive then surface or air. You also couldbe assessed a fuel surcharge that drives the prices up. However, yourpackage usually arrives in 5 business days.Now, here is the interesting warning that I have for you.Surface and air are great economical ways to ship overseas. When abuyer pays by Paypal you even get to print out a nice shipping labelwith a tracking number.Paypal Tracking Numbers for shipping overseas:For air and surface the tracking numbers are basically useless. Canada Post has confirmed that these numbers are just assigned forwhile the package is in transit inside Canada. Once the parcel leavesCanada your tracking number is no longer tracked. When you purchaseXpresspost this tracking number is tracked until it reaches the destination. :)I created a test parcel to check out how much shipping was to Germany.I found that surface was by best the least expensive way to ship, whileXpresspost was the most:Surface: 33.95Air: 46.55Xpresspost: 61.45Purolator: 110.16An experience with tracking:I sent a number of items to a customer of mine in Germany by surfacethrough Canada Post. My customer paid for his items by Paypal andwe gepleted the deal. Now, since the items went by sea they had notarrived in a month and a half so my customer opened an "items notreceived" geplaint with Paypal. This is totally understandable. Paypal took all of the money from my account (total for items shipping)and put it in trust. So if the items did not arrive my customer couldget all their money back.Paypal requires you to have proof of delivery, through a trackingnumber. Now, unless you want to purchase the Xpresspost shipping foroverseas you do not have a tracking number! I thought I was coveredwith my little Paypal shipping number but I was told that this numberwas not good because it did not provide proof of delivery!Luckily my customer closed the geplaint when my parcel's arrived. Butthink of what will happen if they didn't! Even if they get the parcelthere is no proof of delivery. They could claim that they did notget their items and get all their money back.Be aware when you ship outside of Canada that unless you purchasethe expensive Xpresspost shipping that you will not have proof ofdelivery for Paypal in case of a dispute! This could cause you to loose not only your product, but also the money for it along with the shipping!LatsyrhcTamarack Collectibles