Yep, saddly, I’ve been waiting for a Rudall 6 keys flute from Mr Cronnolly for almost two months and the conclusion is … well … lost in the mail…
It never got home! Mr Cronnolly expects to get flute back from the mail sometime. He said it happened quite a lot before and he will register the next shipping.
Cause, yes, he kindly said he would make another flute shortly.
Did this story happened to any of you before?
Leo
Leo,
That is a NIGHTMARE! I’ve got a flute on order that I’m hanging on the edge of my seat for. If it got lost in the mail, I might self destruct!
Oh, Leo, I’m sorry. That’s bloody awful. Oh well, maybe the karmic flute gods will smile even more on this next one and it will all be for the best in the end. Meanwhile, yeah, go ahead and kick the wall. 
how about, we pick a time, and we all punch the wall together? that should fix things up.
I feel for you man, I know the excitement and anticipation, I think that should be a life sentence for guilty delivery person,
hey, maybe we should all go postal?
That’s what I tought Eilam … open a post office … private… 
I’ll think about it…
Leo
early last july i bought a homemade bamboo flute off a guy in missouri (i’m in illinois, the two states share a border) on ebay. i paid him through paypal same day, he sent it out next day… it took 6 or 7 weeks to get to me. he’d actually refunded my payment since we both figured it was lost… when it showed up late last august (sure enough sporting the postmark from the day after the auction) i repaid him…
so ye never know, it could still be making its way to you.
I bought in January an Olwell Pratten. It was broken by postal service.
It was fully insured, but … Argh!
My experience is that sending mail to Canada takes a long time. Year ago, I sent a flute to Canada, it took long time (not sure how many days) to get to the person. Recently, I put money in the envelope (registered mail) and that took 15 days to get to the person in Canada.
Hopefully, this is just the mail delay.
Also, right now there’s apparently a 5-6 week backlog of parcels waiting to clear Canadian customs and enter the country. So the flute might not be lost for good.
Don’t send anything regular mail between the US and Canada. Send by registered or priority post (costs an extra buck or so) and delivery is usually less than a week.
djm
OUCH, that really hurts. Even insurance can’t pay for another 7 years anticipating one of those!
The customs delay sounds promising in this case, it could very well be there.
We sent a parcel from Montreal to Brittany (western France) last year in early December, and it went via Vancouver to clear customs. The parcel didn’t actually arrive in France until the following May.
So don’t give up hope yet!
Thanks Eric for the link…it gives me back some hope…
There’s still a flute somewhere out there flying to me!
During the past year I have been informed by some of my customers in rural Canada that they were charged a fairly sizable delivery surcharge, which they were not expecting. At first I thought it was just with UPS, so I recommended using USPS air parcel post. But the last parcel sent to northern Canada by USPS air parcel post also required a delivery surcharge. I would like to understand how to calculate this charge ahead of time.
I’m not an expert but here’s my experience:
Pretty much any parcels coming into the country have Canadian GST tax due and payable on receipt. There may also be duty depending on the type and/or value of the item. In addition to these, UPS bills the receiver an extra $35 or so for customs brokerage fees. (They sometimes don’t even invoice you, instead sending you to collections once it’s gone over a certain time period.) The postal system is currently having crazy backlogs and delays, but they don’t charge exorbitant brokerage fees to the receiver. There shouldn’t be any surcharges for rural areas if a parcel comes by Canada Post; courier companies often have big surcharges for rural and/or residential delivery.
It’s gotten to the point now where i flatly refuse to deal with any company in the US (or eBay sellers) who insist on using only UPS for shipments to Canada.
Be seeing you,
eric.
My experience has been similar to Eric’s. Avoid UPS whenever possible.
You shouldn’t have to pay duty on a flute or other musical instrument for your personal use; the fees that Doug describes are most likely the federal and provincial sales taxes. Here in Canada these taxes are quite heftty…GST is 7 percent and the provincial taxes vary; in Quebec the QST is an additional 7.5 percent and is calculated on the price of the item PLUS the GST, so in effect you’re paying tax on a tax.
I can understand why taxes are so high here (Canada has a tenth of the US population and thus a smaller tax base from which to attempt to provide social services, maintain the roads etc., plus we have our public health care system to pay for), but the biggest surprise for me when I moved here from the States was watching my income tax rate double. More than half (52%) of my annual income goes to pay federal and Quebec income taxes. Even accounting for what I paid for health insurance in the States, it’s still a big adjustment.
Sorry for the off-topic rant
I am in the same boat…I am now having visions of my lovely flute being spirted away on the wong truck to some horrible fate… and me calling every post office from WA state to Maine trying to hunt it down. I feel my blood presure rising now… 
You’ve got roads? Wish California had roads.
Kevin Krell
Haha! Nutty place isn’t it?
Mail makes me so nervous…
DHL has a good track record with international stuff (at least into/out of the US), and I had good luck with FedEx when I lived in Canada. UPS stinks for border crossings.
It’s not uncommon for businesses on either side of the US/Canada border to drive packages across the border for domestic shipment on either side.
And as Brad mentioned, you don’t really have a duty per se on flutes imported, but depending on the phase of the moon and the mood of the customs agent, you might very well get charged GST/PST on it. And (unfortunately) you must declare the value of the flute fully on the customs documentation to insure it fully.
NAFTA SHMAFTA.
Stuart