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Help with international postage (Canada to UK)

darleysamdarleysam On my way toUKRegistered User regular
edited May 2011 in Help / Advice Forum
Here's my situation. I'm sending a small parcel out to Canada from the UK and then having it sent back to me, and I would really love to make it as easy and risk-free for the chap at the other end. Ideally this would be done by me paying for everything from this end leaving him simply with the task of dropping it into a mailbox to return it. Canada Post would seem to offer a service like this (their 'ship-in-a-click' thing here) except that it won't let me buy the label, presumably because I'm trying to do so from the UK, and I guess it's taking the 'ship from' address (Canada) and realising that it doesn't match my credit card. Does anyone have any ideas or advice?

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darleysam on

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    DerrickDerrick Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    Go to a UPS store. They can sort it out for you fairly easily. Just tell them what you need and they should be able to sort it out. Tell them that you as the shipper want to pay all duties and fees and that you need a return tag.

    Derrick on
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    darleysamdarleysam On my way to UKRegistered User regular
    edited May 2011
    I might have to, although the parcel couriers I looked at seemed way more expensive than the regular postal service. Also the nearest UPS is a fair drive away from me.. I'll see what more information I can get from their site.

    darleysam on
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    darqnessdarqness KCMORegistered User regular
    edited May 2011
    darleysam wrote: »
    I might have to, although the parcel couriers I looked at seemed way more expensive than the regular postal service. Also the nearest UPS is a fair drive away from me.. I'll see what more information I can get from their site.

    This will probably be the case. In the US I can send a 15LB package to the UK for $89.00 via USPS. Whereas UPS would charge over $200.00.

    darqness on
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    darleysamdarleysam On my way to UKRegistered User regular
    edited May 2011
    Yeah, it's about $17 on Canada Post. Would at least be nice if they had a way to email them and ask for help, but nope.

    darleysam on
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    Angel177Angel177 Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    Also UPS will charge a brokerage fee as its international frieght (about 30 quid), just ask Canada post I'm sure they have a service.

    Angel177 on
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    darleysamdarleysam On my way to UKRegistered User regular
    edited May 2011
    It looks like the only way I can contact them is by phone. I can't find a single email address on their site.

    darleysam on
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    CorvusCorvus . VancouverRegistered User regular
    edited May 2011
    darleysam wrote: »
    It looks like the only way I can contact them is by phone. I can't find a single email address on their site.

    For Canada Post? Just go to your closest post office, it is going to be way easier than calling.

    Corvus on
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    BlazeFireBlazeFire Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    He's in the UK. The other person is in Canada.

    BlazeFire on
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    LewieP's MummyLewieP's Mummy Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    You could just post it to Canadia, then ask the person who is sending it back to you to post it back to you after you've paid them the cost of postage through Paypal or MoneyGram. I've been getting people to pay for the postage of paintings using MoneyGram, its really easy, and saves me the risk of not having my postage costs paid, as I'm holding the paintings to ransom until I'm paid!

    LewieP's Mummy on
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    saggiosaggio Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    BlazeFire wrote: »
    He's in the UK. The other person is in Canada.

    You could phone them. Or, you could try the Consulate. I don't know if this is too frivolous or not, but they should at least be able to put you into contact with Canada Post.

    saggio on
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    darleysamdarleysam On my way to UKRegistered User regular
    edited May 2011
    Having contacted UPS, it looks like I can send it out there through regular post and can then generate a shipment to get it back, emailing the label out to go on the parcel. I guess that's the most hassle-free (and probably fastest) way to go about it.

    darleysam on
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    WezoinWezoin Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    The reason Canada Post won't let you do this is they can't. Basically, you can pay Canada Post $x to ship this to an address in the UK, they then give a cut of that to Royal Mail (the British mail service) to deliver it once it has made it into the UK. Your Canada Post shipping label isn't valid to the Royal Mail people because you didn't pay them (it'd be the same as buying a shipping label from Canada Post and trying to get FedEx to deliver it using that label, they don't get any money so they won't take it.) You MAY be able to buy a Royal Mail shipping label online, that you could then put in the box, but I'm not sure.

    If you go to a courier service, such as UPS or FedEx, they can sell you a label for both ways because they serve both countries. Your cheapest way may actually be to ship one way via Canada Post and just buy the return label from UPS or FedEx.

    Wezoin on
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    BlazeFireBlazeFire Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    I think this was solved but there was also some confusion about what he wanted to do.

    UK --> OP
    Canada --> Other-Guy

    OP was going to ship something to Other-Guy, then Other-Guy was going to ship it back.

    OP would have shipped it via Royal Mail from UK to Canada.
    Other-Guy would then need to ship it back. OP wanted to get a pre-paid label from Canada Post to ship to UK.

    OP settles on UPS (?). I could call Canada Post from here if you haven't done anything about it yet.

    BlazeFire on
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    darleysamdarleysam On my way to UKRegistered User regular
    edited May 2011
    Thanks man, but it's alright :) I'm gonna sort it with UPS.

    darleysam on
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