Question for Canadian buyers and sellers of used gear...

I'm having some issues (I think) with a seller from Canada. He is claiming that after a week he can no longer get tracking info from PayPal. Tracking # he provided does not seem to be valid, so we're playing the "I must have given you the wrong # but I can't find the right #" game.

My question, if you ship via Canda Post, can you go in to PayPal and see tracking info a week or more after you ship? I can find the info for USPS on PayPal going back at least two months, but not sure if it works the same way with Canada Post.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I have purchased 3 lenses from Canadian sellers. I live in Indiana, USA. All three sellers sent me a tracking number, which was provided by Canada Post. Canada Post and USPS web-sites operate in the same way. You enter a number to track, the response is the latest scan of your item. When my items were handed over to the USPS, Canada Post informed me of that, and told me to track the same number at USPS.com. I did. It worked. I was able to track my items all the way from Canada to delivery.

I, being a cynic, believe you are being scammed. But, it is entirely possible that the seller lost his mailing receipt, and does not have the number. If that were the case, why would he give you a false number? OK, he made a typo when providing you the number, THEN he lost the receipt. It all sounds legitimate to me.

None of my items took a week in transit. Paypal has nothing to do with shipping. They just relay the number the seller enters. I am sure if you typed in ABC123BabyYouAndMe as a tracking number, PayPal would relay that to your buyer. Meaningless.

In your seller's defense, I shipped a lens, via USPS, from Indiana to the Seattle area. It took 16 days to get there, and it was not scanned after it left Chicago, until the delivery person scanned it as delivered. Weird stuff happens.

Thanks Geo. Yeah, weird stuff can happen with shipping times, and I can live with that. But the inability to even confirm the correct tracking # bugs me. Anything I do through eBay or PayPal or USPS web site will allow me to see that # well after the fact. I'm having trouble believing that when you cross the border that all changes.

I was in this situation as a seller once (package floating around in transit someplace). I sent the buyer a photo of the USPS receipt with tracking so they could at least be pretty sure they weren't getting scammed and had to be patient with the mail.

I buy and sell cross-border a lot. The PayPal tracking tool is buggy at the best of times, particularly when trying to track cross-border or overseas. The easiest and most accurate way to get tracking info is to forego PayPal and use the actual tracking # via the USPS or Canada Post tracking portal. Like the USPS, tracking info is available form Canada Post for an extended period after delivery.

mpix345, best of luck with your transaction. I hope it turns out OK.

I am in Canada and I have sold and shipped two items to buyers in the US in the past month or so. As long as the shipping postage is purchased through Paypal the tracking number should be provided to you automatically through Paypal and Canada Post. There is a very small chance you will get a wrong tracking number that way.

On the other hand, if the seller takes the package and purchase the postage at the post office, Paypal will not have that information unless the seller decides to enter that manually later. Either way, it should take more than two business days for the tracking number to be recognized.

Hope everything works out for you.

saralee wrote in post #17659971
I am in Canada and I have sold and shipped two items to buyers in the US in the past month or so. As long as the shipping postage is purchased through Paypal the tracking number should be provided to you automatically through Paypal and Canada Post. There is a very small chance you will get a wrong tracking number that way.

On the other hand, if the seller takes the package and purchase the postage at the post office, Paypal will not have that information unless the seller decides to enter that manually later. Either way, it should take more than two business days for the tracking number to be recognized.

Hope everything works out for you.

Thank you. This speaks to the issue. The seller claims to have purchased through PayPal. I did not receive the tracking # automatically, but rather directly from the seller, who now says the tracking # no longer shows up in PayPal. That is what sounds fishy to me, and you seem to be verifying the fishiness...

Please, please, please tell us that you DID NOT pay via the gift option, but rather the regular payment option.

mikeinctown wrote in post #17660112
Please, please, please tell us that you DID NOT pay via the gift option, but rather the regular payment option.

I give gifts at Christmas, Birthdays, and about 27 other occasions...but not when buying stuff on the internet.

I think I may have figured out what happened. After a few messages back and forth with seller the shipment and tracking info "coincidentally" showed up in PayPal. When I try to track it now I get a message saying "this level of service does not include tracking". Seller has expressed his surprise at this, and offered an apology. It also shows me that postage was purchased on 8/1. I'm pretty sure the seller paid for the shipping then just didn't ship, until today. He is likely guilty of being a lazy liar, but not a scammer. Something for him to aspire to, I suppose.

I didn't realize there was a Canada Post parcel shipping option to the USA that doesn't including a tracking number... something sounds fishy here.

mpix345 wrote in post #17660152
I give gifts at Christmas, Birthdays, and about 27 other occasions...but not when buying stuff on the internet.

I think I may have figured out what happened. After a few messages back and forth with seller the shipment and tracking info "coincidentally" showed up in PayPal. When I try to track it now I get a message saying "this level of service does not include tracking". Seller has expressed his surprise at this, and offered an apology. It also shows me that postage was purchased on 8/1. I'm pretty sure the seller paid for the shipping then just didn't ship, until today. He is likely guilty of being a lazy liar, but not a scammer. Something for him to aspire to, I suppose.

I find that some third party sellers on Amazon do this as well. Amazon policies are that you ship within a certain number of days and you have to enter a tracking number and mark as shipped. the sellers print out the label right away, which Amazon sees as shipped. The seller then doesn't actually box or wrap the product for several more days. The seller never gets dinged because they marked it shipped on time and you got delivery within the allotted time frame. I noticed this practice when tracking started for all first class packages and Priority Mail for free. The shipment is marked as shipped, but the tracking system doesn't pick up the product for 3-4 days. My last order took a week to get to me from the next state over. (IN to OH)

I shipped a letter from Grand Rapids, MI to Kalamazoo, MI (50 miles) and it took 10 days!

We ship to Canada regularly and it can vary greatly. Also, they are very inconsistent when tracking internationally.

I agree, the seller probably just neglected to ship it and tried to lie his/her way out of it. Sh*t happens. I'd just give it a couple weeks before you start to worry.

BlakeC wrote in post #17663239
I shipped a letter from Grand Rapids, MI to Kalamazoo, MI (50 miles) and it took 10 days!

We ship to Canada regularly and it can vary greatly. Also, they are very inconsistent when tracking internationally.

I agree, the seller probably just neglected to ship it and tried to lie his/her way out of it. Sh*t happens. I'd just give it a couple weeks before you start to worry.

I am not worried at this point, just trying to be patient.

mpix345 wrote in post #17663263
I am not worried at this point, just trying to be patient.

good luck! I have no patience when I order something. I keep refreshing the tracking page to see where my package is! lol

imageswest wrote in post #17662076
I didn't realize there was a Canada Post parcel shipping option to the USA that doesn't including a tracking number... something sounds fishy here.

They apparently do have that option:

Per Canada Post web site:

Tracked Packet — USA

Delivery in 6 — 10 days

Send items up to 1 kg to the U.S. with our lowest cost U.S. shipping with tracking and liability coverage.

Small Packet — USA

Delivery in 6 — 10 days

Send items up to 1 kg to the U.S. with this no-frills, low-cost shipping solution.

You have to love it when someone ships you a lens via a service described as "no frills".

Lesson learned here is make sure any Canadian sellers use "Tracked Packet" in future. It is good to know that US and Canada are not so different in that we both have cheapskates who choose lowest level of service possible when they ship. Yeah, I'm talking to you Parcel Post shippers here in the US...