conurus

[conurus]

Chronopost is a courier service owned by the French post office. We recently have a package from Chronopost which got forwarded to TNT in Canada and held at customs for 2 weeks. They charge us a $45 brokerage fee on top of GST (value-added tax) on the full value of the lens. We thought that since Chronopost belongs to the post office it is safe to use but unfortunately this incident proves otherwise.

In order to ensure your shipment arrives in Canada safely and quickly it is not important to not use express couriers of any kind, even if that express courier is owned by your national post office (i.e. DHL, Chronopost). You are recommended to stick with the plain EMS service of your country which nevertheless offers tracking and insurance. In the United States, Global Priority Mail is preferred over Global Express Mail.

I am pleased to let you know, however, that we have been in operation for over a year and we have the perfect track record of never losing any incoming or outgoing packages. While past record may not reflect future performance, this is nevertheless an encouraging sign. The majority of packages shipped via express couriers got stuck at customs and held until the tax bill plus any amount they want to charge as brokerage fee are paid, whereas the majority of packages shipped via plain EMS arrive within a week and we do not have to pay any taxes in most cases.

As a general rule, use the slowest and cheapest service by air which still offers tracking and insurance. That is the least likely to run into customs difficulties.

When we ship back to you we never use an express courier for this reason.