Does Canadian Customs accept packages from Thailand?

[ManInCanada]

With at least 1 confirmed case of Wuhan coronavirus infection in Thailand, is Thailand now a high risk country? I'm expecting a package from Thailand, which is still in transit, but hasn't come yet. Is it possible for Canadian Customs to destroy all incoming packages from high risk countries?

 

Did you send any packages abroad, especially Canada, which made it to the recipient after the virus outbreak? Or did they get destroyed or returned?

Edited January 24, 2020 by ManInCanada
corrected virus name

[CharlieH]

Received no problem. 

You seem t be more than a little concerned about this package? its typical Canadapost service. It will get there, the key word is "eventually".

[neeray]

Can the parcel cough?

As a Canadian, I'm not aware that the incoming delivery of solid goods are affected by the virus.

 

Always open to learn though !

[Kerryd]

Much ado about nothing.

 

Canada Post doesn't destroy parcels for no reason. There'd be headlines across the country if they started doing that. Besides, it would be Customs that would be impounding the mail any ways.
Thailand isn't a high risk country for that virus either. If I recall, the one "suspected" case (Brit tourist wasn't it ?) turned out to be just a normal flu.

When sending parcels through the mail, it pays to register them. That way a signature is required on the receiving end and you can (usually) track the shipment along the way. Better chance of your parcel making it (in one piece) too.

 

If Customs x-rays your parcel and sees contraband (like cartons of undeclared cigarettes) they could impound it. Normally they would then send the shipper and the receiver a notice that they have to pay the regular import taxes in order for the parcel to continue to it's destination.

Note that they will try to scam the duties from both parties ! We saw that happen when we were in Kabul and some guys tried shipping entire cases of cigarettes home. (50 cartons in a case.)
My buddy was freaking out when he got the letter telling him that his parcel was impounded. The person he was sending it to (to hold for him) also got a letter. My buddy thought if he didn't pay he'd get arrested when he returned to Canada but I pointed out that the letter said if the duties weren't paid (within 6 months I think it was) the contents would be sent for disposal. No mention of arrest or other penalties.
Buddy didn't pay the duties but no big deal. The case only cost him about $20 Cdn at the time !)

Couple other guys also got caught at the same time and then a few more shortly after as Customs started to x-ray more of the mail being sent from Kabul (through the military).

Keep in mind that Canada Post, ever since they unionized, are one of the slowest mail delivery outfits in the world. And that's when they aren't on a (union organized) "work slowdown" or "work to rule" campaign or having "rotating strikes" (etc etc).

I had packages go from California to Kandahar (through the US mail and military) in 8 days.

I've had normal mail (letters) take 3 weeks to get from Kamloops, BC to Trenton, Ont, then another week+ to get to Kandahar using Canada Post and the Canadian military.
When I was living in Vancouver, it took Canada Post 8 DAYS to get a letter from just north of Kamloops to Vancouver !

Canada would start quarantining people arriving from China long before they started worrying about packages in the mail. 

[SoonOh]

Never had any problems. Last shipment took 12 days to Vancouver, 14 days to Calgary and 16 days to Edmonton. Everything arrived intact. 

[ManInCanada]

7 hours ago, CharlieH said:

Received no problem. 

You seem t be more than a little concerned about this package? its typical Canadapost service. It will get there, the key word is "eventually".

 

I know this is my second topic related to the same matter. That's the reason I registered on this forum, because I googled Thailand+Canada Post+Tracking and found a few threads on this forum dating all the way back to early 2010s. I just never had anything from Thailand in the past. The seller I bought from surprisingly never sent anything to Canada either, so he was unable to give me any estimate on transit times.

 

I bought a lot both on ebay and aliexpress from Asia, specifically from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, but never from Thailand. Most of packages sent by mail from China take 3-4 weeks, the longest took 6 months, the quickest was 1 week, but that was more of an exception.

 

The reason I created this thread is not because of Canada Post, but our customs. I know our customs can seize, destroy or send anything back they find dangerous or prohibitive or if an item has been in contact with something dangerous, contagious, radioactive or otherwise prohibited to import. I know virus only spread from live host to host, but customs officials are not doctors or scientists, if they find a dead bug (or a live bug, lol) inside a package, the entire contents are destroyed. (I'm exacerbating a bit, but the logic they go by is similar.)

 

My item is not illegal or dangerous by nature, it's an electronic item, it's not a contraband, it is legally available to consumers in Canada, and it doesn't require any license or permits to purchase, own or use. I just found a good deal on ebay and bought it, it's just a relatively expensive item (about $1200 USD), and with a lack of tracking information and now the news about the virus are cause for a concern and I start to look like I'm panicking a little maybe... I know ebay and paypal has buyer protections and everything, but I will resort to such extreme measures as a last resort.

 

(I'm also expecting 6 packages from China since the outbreak started, but those are relatively inexpensive items ($6-$10 items), and if I don't receive those I won't be concerned much.)

 

Ok, I'll try to chill, and stop worrying. ????

 

 

1 hour ago, SoonOh said:

Never had any problems. Last shipment took 12 days to Vancouver, 14 days to Calgary and 16 days to Edmonton. Everything arrived intact. 

Thanks.

 

 

3 hours ago, Kerryd said:

Much ado about nothing.

 

Canada Post doesn't destroy parcels for no reason. There'd be headlines across the country if they started doing that. Besides, it would be Customs that would be impounding the mail any ways.
Thailand isn't a high risk country for that virus either. If I recall, the one "suspected" case (Brit tourist wasn't it ?) turned out to be just a normal flu.

When sending parcels through the mail, it pays to register them. That way a signature is required on the receiving end and you can (usually) track the shipment along the way. Better chance of your parcel making it (in one piece) too.

 

If Customs x-rays your parcel and sees contraband (like cartons of undeclared cigarettes) they could impound it. Normally they would then send the shipper and the receiver a notice that they have to pay the regular import taxes in order for the parcel to continue to it's destination.

Note that they will try to scam the duties from both parties ! We saw that happen when we were in Kabul and some guys tried shipping entire cases of cigarettes home. (50 cartons in a case.)
My buddy was freaking out when he got the letter telling him that his parcel was impounded. The person he was sending it to (to hold for him) also got a letter. My buddy thought if he didn't pay he'd get arrested when he returned to Canada but I pointed out that the letter said if the duties weren't paid (within 6 months I think it was) the contents would be sent for disposal. No mention of arrest or other penalties.
Buddy didn't pay the duties but no big deal. The case only cost him about $20 Cdn at the time !)

Couple other guys also got caught at the same time and then a few more shortly after as Customs started to x-ray more of the mail being sent from Kabul (through the military).

Keep in mind that Canada Post, ever since they unionized, are one of the slowest mail delivery outfits in the world. And that's when they aren't on a (union organized) "work slowdown" or "work to rule" campaign or having "rotating strikes" (etc etc).

I had packages go from California to Kandahar (through the US mail and military) in 8 days.

I've had normal mail (letters) take 3 weeks to get from Kamloops, BC to Trenton, Ont, then another week+ to get to Kandahar using Canada Post and the Canadian military.
When I was living in Vancouver, it took Canada Post 8 DAYS to get a letter from just north of Kamloops to Vancouver !

Canada would start quarantining people arriving from China long before they started worrying about packages in the mail. 

Afghanistan is considered a high risk country, almost every packages from there are inspected for drugs. Same goes for Colombia.

[Tayaout]

Every packages I sent to Canada or Europe has been opened by custom but eventually arrived to destination. 

[Skyking]

Double risk here -

There is no oversight of CBSA, the Canadian Customs authority. They are out of control. 

Canada Post, sometimes on strike or go slow, provides mediocre delivery service.

[Kerryd]

13 hours ago, ManInCanada said:

Ok, I'll try to chill, and stop worrying. ????

Thanks.

Afghanistan is considered a high risk country, almost every packages from there are inspected for drugs. Same goes for Colombia.

Uh no.
Our mail was shipped by the military to Trenton and then handed over to Canada Customs and when they were done it went to Canada Post.

Customs apparently only x-rayed 10% of the mail, despite the limited quantity (a few large bags a week maybe).
However, after catching one or two parcels containing contraband (cigarettes) they started scanning more parcels that were similar in size, but never went to 100% scanning.
(Or a lot more people would have been caught as some were shipping just a few cartons of smokes at a time in boxes mixed with other items.)

Besides, regular mail rarely goes direct from one country to another. It gets collected, sent to a destination, resorted, sent on to the next destination, resorted and so on. For example, mail going to Romania. Canada Post wouldn't get enough to warrant it's own "bag" and flight. It would be put in bags with other mail destined for Europe where a regional sorting office would resort the mail and forward it on. In this case it is likely that the mail would go from Canada to Germany to Romania. (Germany apparently has nearly 100 "sorting offices" around the country.)
However, depending on how it's sorted in Canada, it could end up going to a sorting office in England, then to Germany, then to Romania.

The mail bags themselves are usually sent as cargo on whichever airline(s) Canada Post deals with, depending on volume and route/schedule. 

Regular mail from Afghanistan wouldn't go directly to Canada. Most likely it would go from Afghanistan to Dubai (or Bahrain), get sorted,  sent from there to a destination in Europe, get resorted and then on to Canada. It would probably arrive in Canada (Toronto or Montreal if coming from Europe) mixed in with mail from other countries in the Middle East and Europe.

Mail from Thailand probably goes to a sorting office in Taiwan or Singapore and then on to Canada where it would be resorted and sent to the appropriate province (or another sorting centre).
I had a letter from Revenue Canada that took almost 3 months to arrive in Thailand. It had gone to Taiwan for some reason, probably because of an error at one of those sorting centres, then eventually it got resorted and finally arrived months after it had been sent.
It could be the main SE Asia sorting office is in Hong Kong, or Singapore/Japan/Korea (or all of them) so the letter went from Canada to (Seoul for example) then to Taiwan, back to Seoul (or a different sorting centre) and eventually on to Thailand.

So your package could go from Bangkok to Taipei (or wherever) to Vancouver to Toronto to PEI (or wherever you are). 

Also, they use thermal scanners at some airports to check passengers to see if they have elevated temperatures (flu like symptoms) which may be an indication of coronavirus infection.

Wouldn't work on the mail. The virus is primarily transmitted through infected droplets coughed or sneezed into the air and then inhaled by others (or through intimate contact). In some cases, touching a surface (table, door handle, etc) that has infected droplets on it and then (soon after) touching your eyes, nose or mouth could result in getting infected as well.

Contaminated droplets on something like an envelope or parcel would be quickly absorbed by the material and I don't think the virus can live outside of a host for very long (same as the AIDS virus which can survive for just a few hours outside of a host and if the AIDS contaminated fluid dries up, there is zero chance of anyone getting infected from touching the area). 

If it's been more than 3 weeks since the parcel was mailed, I'd contact the sender and ask them if they sent it registered and if they have a tracking number.

[gamesgplayemail]

Wait around 2 months...