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Moderators: Winston, aew, bikepunk
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| Richardt |
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  Registered Member #1244 Joined: Thu Nov 04 2010, 04:59pmPosts: 122 | Hi Guys, I wonder how much money is tied in goods destined for Canada but mouldering in the USA Customs warehouses. I am still awaiting several parcels from various suppliers, ordered well before Christmas but nothing arrives. As far as I'm concerned we no longer enjoy "Most favoured Nation" status from the US and I, for one will source all my future needs for goods not available in Canada from Europe and England. I also wanted to buy a Jim Byrnes thickness sander but I see that his website restricts sales to within the US. He is probably fed up with customers not getting their orders and I don't blame him. The US is going into self-destruct mode while they try to butter up the Chinese. Richard | ||
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| Winston |
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winston   Registered Member #1 Joined: Sat Jun 13 2009, 02:08pmPosts: 2310 | That's interesting Richard. I send and receive things from the US on a regular basis using both the postal service and courier services. Only on a very rare occasion do I ever experience a problem with things not arriving in a reasonable time period. Even in those cases, the items arrived, they were just a few days to a week later than expected. [ Edited Fri Jan 21 2011, 12:47am ] | ||
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| Richardt |
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| Registered Member #1244 Joined: Thu Nov 04 2010, 04:59pmPosts: 122 | Hi Winston, Perhaps I'm misinformed and the problem is confined to the western provinces. I did get one parcel yesterday so somebody must be working. Let'see what happens in the next few weeks. Richard | ||
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| knotian |
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 Registered Member #308 Joined: Fri Sep 18 2009, 10:48pmPosts: 92 | Most international shipments through the US are handled by people using Bonded Warehouses. US customs does not open these since the agreement on duty are made by the initian shipper and the receiver. It might have been shipped wrong or some other hang up. Was it ticking??? Ed | ||
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| daves |
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| Registered Member #105 Joined: Wed Jul 15 2009, 12:01pmPosts: 2624 | i ship all the time to Canada. and sometimes i get customers calling and wanting to know where the shippment is. I do send stuff priority mail which is 3 days sometimes it takes 3 week to get to customers in Canada. so i asked the postoffice people and they told me yes we get the mail to the border in 3 days but it may take the canadian postal services weeks to send it on its way. a problem businesses have in the states is there is no longer surface mail, i use to be able to send a 30 pound package anywhyere in the world for under 20 bucks now anything over 4 pounds has to be sent priority which may cost up to 90 to 130 bucks. So a customer buys $25.00 worth of wood and it cost $80.00 to send it. odd is i sent a package from cleveland to BC and it got there in 5 days i sent a package from cleveland to toronto and it took a month. shipping cost is just killing small businesses when stuff goes out of the US it goes right over the borders it gets hung up in the custom houses of the country it is going to. So stuff sent to Canada gets hung up at Canadian customs. When stuff comes into the US then it gets hung up in US warehouses | ||
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| Richardt |
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| Registered Member #1244 Joined: Thu Nov 04 2010, 04:59pmPosts: 122 | Hi Dave, Thanks for your explanation. It contradicts some of the crap handed to me (a small customer) and makes better sense. The small guys are always victims of the circumstances. I try to believe that I deal with companies of some repute and have been around for some time. Take outfits like Amazon. Does anyone know who owns them? They play ducks and drakes with their pricing trying to outwit a vulnerable public. As far as I know they could be owned by a Afghan or Paki oligarch that has the needle for Canada withdrawing troops. Getting true information is another problem. One cannot deal with people anymore. You always seem to land up arguing with a machine. Honesty and loyalty have been chucked out the window. I always feel for the smaller company that speak to their customers to gain their support. Considering your particular company, you most probably have to field a zillion questions a day from people trying to find out more about a particular wood or whatever. Another problem is the PO itself. It has been strangled by email and has to replace the lost revenue. How do they do that? Up their prices and lower their service. ergo? Simple.They have no competition because couriers are understandably more expensive. We can change governments like I change underware but that gets me no further either. Frustrated, Richard | ||
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| daves |
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| Registered Member #105 Joined: Wed Jul 15 2009, 12:01pmPosts: 2624 | the small customer will carry the cost from start to finish. the story of boxwood starts in South america in a jungle. This operation is done by a German company and they ship it to Germany by the container load. It is then broken up and sold to dealers in England then it is handled by brokers who sell it to Canadian or US wood dealers at 1,000 board foot bundles. guys like me buy it in 200 to 500 board foot lots, cut it up and sell it to guys like you. The guy who dragged the logs out of the jungle got paid $1.50 a week for heavy labor, everytime it changes hands the cost goes up and shipping costs are added, the end user is paying $50.00 a board for wood that might cost maybe .05 cents a foot at its source. But you or i can't go to the jungles of south America to get our wood so we are at the mercy of the big companies. what happens with little guys like me is cost of shipping and hand to hand profits make imported wood far to expensive to deal with because the profits are so small. So what can we do? well one thing is build models out of wood that is found local. Now there is no other people involved except the businessman and supplier. Do you really have to build a model ship out of Turkish or south Anerican or English Boxwood that cost $12,000.00 a ton or use Natural pearwood that looks as nice as boxwood and works great and the cost is $400.00 a ton. its about supply and demand if you really really want the wales on your model to be Ebony and Ebony does not grow in north America the log started someplace on the other side of the world. the log was sold and resold maybe 6 times before it got to me. Now you want 2 sticks 1/16 x 3/36 x 24 to mill that 2/3 of the original weight is lost to saw dust but still everytime the Ebony is shipped someone is paying for the weight of the saw dust. What happens is small businesses stop dealing with this type of wood because the cost is hitting $140.00 a board foot for Ebony. | ||
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| daves |
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| Registered Member #105 Joined: Wed Jul 15 2009, 12:01pmPosts: 2624 | getting back to the postal service yes email has cut a huge profit from letter mailing , but Ebay has added a huge amount of packages being sent through the mail. | ||
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| daves |
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| Registered Member #105 Joined: Wed Jul 15 2009, 12:01pmPosts: 2624 | We can change governments like I change underware but that gets me no further either. Frustrated, Richard that is because it is like the guy who goes to the ocean and pours a cup of fresh water in the salty ocean thinking he will change the ocean to fresh water. same with government down to a local model club. changing one leader at a time does not change the organization the organization changes the person, that one fresh cup of water becomes salty the ocean does not become fresh. to make real changes you need to wipe the slate clean and start over. [ Edited Sat Jan 22 2011, 07:29pm ] | ||
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| Richardt |
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| Registered Member #1244 Joined: Thu Nov 04 2010, 04:59pmPosts: 122 | Hi Dave, It turns out you're quite the philosopher! I don't use boxwood and am happy with Swiss pear for the same reasons that you stated above. I thought that boxwood was all grown in England or thereabouts. It seems that the Brit admirals in the Napoleonic era and before should have concentrated on the S American continent rather than playing ducks and drakes with all comers in the Carrib islands and the the Spanish and Portuguese stole a march on them. Now I wouldn't worry about a thing if I could sell my models for $500000 each but I'm not there yet but it don't stop me trying. :>) Richard | ||
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