post office struggles

[gusl]

Yesterday, post office guys told me that they can ship boxes as long as the total length of the 3 sides doesn't exceed 2m. Today, after a lot of scissor work and scotch tape, I made a nice arcade-game-shaped (chimney-shaped) box for my guitar and banjo, measuring 98cm x 48cm x 45cm, i.e. 1.91m, and weighing ~17kg with instruments, books and CDs.

Getting there, they only had the overnight option, which would have cost ~$450. The other normal options, which would have cost $150 and $100 respectively, were not available supposedly because the two smaller sides exceeded 40cm x 40cm.

G- that is not the rules that I understood yesterday.
clerk - the system isn't accepting it.
G- can I read the rules somewhere?
clerk - it can't be over 2 meters.
G - it isn't over two meters. You just measured it.

[clerk grabs calculator... sees that I am right]

clerk - if it's like 40cm x 40cm, then we can accept it.

G - can I see this written down somewhere?

[clerk gets me the brochure]

G - I don't see anything about dimensions.
clerk - you can call customer service.

[I call customer service, but nobody answers.]

G- Well, what if I get it down to 50cm x 30cm?
clerk - That would work too.

Getting home I call Canada Post customer service again. This time they answer and tell me that length + girth cannot exceed 274cm (a very different rule), where "girth" is defined as: 2*(length+width)... So this means 3*length + 2*width < 274. Height does not go into the formula. (length >= width >= height)

If this is violated, the only option available is "priority worldwide", which costs $450.

Ideas:
* tape the instruments together and build a box around it. This is unlikely to work, since the length would need to be less than 274/3 = 91cm, and I needed to use 98cm.
* check it in as extra luggage at the airport: in my experience this has always been that it costs exactly $100; but maybe that's because I never shipped something of this length before.

---

UPDATE: I just called Continental Airlines.

I can have two pieces of checked in luggage up to 50 pounds each, up to 62 linear inches (i.e. the sum of the 3 dimensions), which means 158 "linear cm". My box is 191 "linear cm".


All prices in USD:

Checked-in luggage (up to 50lbs, 62 linear inches):
* First is $25
* Second is $35
* Third is $100

* Oversize charge:
between 63 and 115 linear inches: $100 "oversized luggage" charge

* Overweight charge:
won't apply to me


Now, there is also the added cost of having to use a taxi (or borrowing a trolley that I can't return).

Comments

[nibot.livejournal.com]

http://www.ups.com/

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

do you have any reason to believe this will be under $200?

[porphyre.livejournal.com]

Baroque!

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

huh?

[porphyre.livejournal.com]

The situation.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

yes, it's a baroquen system.

[robbat2.livejournal.com]

If you don't need it there fast, look at Greyhound's package shipping options.
DHL has cheaper/slower options than UPS/FedEx as well.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

it looks like Greyhound only ships within Canada (and the US), not across the border.

[hermesbrain.livejournal.com]

If you're quite price sensitive and not terribly time sensitive, is there a bus you could take just over the border? I would think that the US Domestic cost with fedex ground or UPS would be < $100, a bus would probably be < $100 round trip -- the drawback here is the significant time commitment. (Two hours of driving + who knows how long wasted for customs and irregular bus schedules)