What could be taking my parcels from the USA such a long time to arrive here in Canada?

And a random amount of time as well. Sadly, from my experience with US mail transiting to Canada Post, this doesn't sound all that unusual. Just thank God you didn't try to import electronic equipment. By the time Revenue Canada sorted out whether or not some duty applied to a friend's DVD player, it had seen more of Canada than he had.

I ship international packages all the time and I get more complaints from CA customers than I do when I ship to the 3rd world. It's a perfect example of how these days it's not the transportation time, it's the customs time. Here's your checklist: - check with the shipper, verify the address they used and make sure it did get off the dock. Get a tracking number (and verify which service they actually used). Check the tracking # on the shipping agency's website. - if it is a USPS/Canadian post hand-off, tracking info is just going to be sorta-kinda. It may tell you if it made it to customs. It won't tell you what station it's made it to, as UPS and Fedex will. - for future reference, nthing the fact that you're better off with UPS or Fedex. You'll pay more for the shipping, but the shipping charge will include the ridiculous Canadian brokerage charges, which you'll probably have to pay at delivery if it went postal system. - don't worry about the gap in the postal code. Shouldn't be an issue. I *would* make sure that any apartment or building numbers made it onto the address label. If not, and you used UPS or FEDEX, contact the company with your tracking number and advise them of this. - I also wouldn't worry about the timing issue. Amazon, for one, has stuff go out ahead of schedule all the time, and packages seem to leapfrom in the system. One package may have sailed through customs; another could be in a container where someone's still out to lunch. - do be aware that you're going to have to most likely sign for the package and pay duties/customs, so if you had the package set up to be delivered to your house, you may have a problem. Try to be there where and when the package is delivered, unless you have someone you can trust to get it, pay for it, and be reimbursed. CA customs/duties can be pretty high, too.

And to get back to your question, it's possible the companies you ordered from shipped the items late. No - I received email confirmations stating that my items had been shipped. Any chance that you can set up a similar set-up? I've no family or non-online friends from the USA, so no.

Canada Post sucks. And when stuff is coming from outside of Canada it sucks even more. I have stuff from the U.S. shipped to my mum in Washington state (I'm in BC) and we meet up in Bellingham, WA for lunch and transfer of stuff. This works out nicely. Any chance that you can set up a similar set-up?

And to get back to your question, it's possible the companies you ordered from shipped the items late. I ordered some things from fredflare.com and they didn't ship my order for a week, whereas an order in the US would have been shipped and received well before then. Maybe they didn't feel like filling out a little extra paperwork right away?

- for future reference, nthing the fact that you're better off with UPS or Fedex. You'll pay more for the shipping, but the shipping charge will include the ridiculous Canadian brokerage charges, which you'll probably have to pay at delivery if it went postal system. This is bad/confusing advice. Brokerage charges are imposed by the shipping company. Any of them could bill you on delivery, depending on the value/origin of the package contents. USPS and Fedex will generally charge a flat or reasonable rate, close to the actual customs fees or duty. UPS will charge you a percentage of the value of your package, and they will screw you. Canadians hate shipping UPS from the US for a reason! http://www.photoprice.ca/article/tax-duty-brokerage-demystified

As others have said, the Canadian customs office is notorious. They're by far the slowest and most likely to lose/keep/delay packages of any nation I've shipped to, with the possible exception of Germany. Even nigh-worthless packages ($2 worth of tanning goggles, a used book, a $10 CD) can disappear into Customs for weeks, only to plop out the other side long after the replacement package has been received. I have friends who've gone so far as to add "notice: may take longer to Canada" boilerplate to their Ebay auctions.

Then there was the time my mother back in the US sent me this beautiful quilt she'd made me for Christmas. And when asked her much it was worth, she said "$500!" My mom basically thinks of this as insurance, i.e., how much she wants them to pay her if they lose her package. UPS shows up at my door with a bill for like $160 in duties and their charge for acting as my customs broker (that was actually way, way more than the duty). My mom was mortified. But I think she still believes that if she cites a high value for a package, they'll go "ooh," and be more careful with it.

Canada Post has been super slow--even by its usual standards--lately, according to my Canadian relatives.