Hi folks.

Please forgive me if you see this posted on a few boards, but the
information is important, especially now that there are folks from
other countries than the USA involved - namely Canada, UK, AUS, NZ
etc.

I was recently the recipient of a superb PLB mailed to me from NY.
Even though the mailer was only 90 Mi from me as the crow flies, the
box took almost 2 weeks to get here via USPS and Canada Post. The
reason? An incorrectly filled out customs declaration.

The sender had filled out the corect customs slip for a small parcel
(the little green one). However, instead of marking the PLB as
a "gift" (no monies ever exchange hands), she marked it as "Other"
then wrote in "hobby/gift". She then put in a declared value of $30
USD which exchanges to about $36 CAD, and requires duty to be paid,
plus tax, plus a $5 handling fee. The end result was that what
should have been a $3 parcel ended up costing almost $14.

Some simple rules for mailing to Canada:

Keep the package as streamlined as possible - Canada Post goes by
size and weight. I recently attempted to mail a 7 oz PLB 53 miles
down the road only to find out that it would cost me almost $7
because of the box size. However, I placed the PLB contents in a
padded envelope and it cost $1.16

There is no such thing as Priority Post or Delivery Confirmation to
Canada. In addition, insurance, should you so desire it, is VERY
expensive, and frankly, not worth the money. There IS such an animal
called Global Priority, but my experience is that it's pretty steep -
$7 and up, depending on size/weight etc. and would probably be
better suited if you were sending a bunch of items along (keep the
packaging sinple)

The average rate of the PLBs I have received from the US is anywhere
from $1.06 to $3.10 for regular delivery (about 3-6 days, depending
on distance). Dont be misled by postal folks saying surface mail
takes 4 to 6 weeks (sure it does - if you're say..walking to
Botswana!)

Hope this helps, and clears up some misconceptions/misgivings folks
may have.

If you have any questions at all, please feel free to write me.

Cheers, Pete aka Jiggs

P19 F314 X73 E5 HH30 PLB14