My Canadian friend told me a joke a while ago: Canadian postage is more expensive because 30% of the cost is for storage!
Several years ago, I discovered it was cheaper for me to buy a camcorder from the states than here in the UK - around 80% cheaper in fact, and that included the cost of shipping. Taking import duties etc into account would still give me savings.
The seller gave me a link to US postal service tracking & I watched eagerly as the parcel went in and out of various depots across the US.
1 week later, the parcel arrived in UK port & logged out of US jurisdiction into UK post (Royal Fail) - where it disappeared!
I fired a couple of emails to Royal Fail, giving them a screenshot of the efficient US postal service.
2 weeks later - they couldn't tell me where it was so I put in a claim for a new cam.
The parcel turned up - on the boat back to the US, complete with US tracking!
It seems that Royal Fail picked up the parcel from the port & dropped it in a depot 20 miles from me.
They claim to have tried to deliver twice - on both occasions I was home - and on the second occasion, I actually had CCTV footage from the whole day which showed there was no delivery!
I put in compo for the price of having the cam re-delivered.
I got a book of stamps - worth a couple of quid so I hit them with a claim through small claims court - and won.
Meanwhile, I watched as the cam hit US port & multiple depots across the US and bounced back to me. For some strange reason, nobody could intercept the parcel & send it back to me, it had to go back to the sender!
This time, it took 10 days for the parcel to get from UK port to the seller & back to UK port - then another 7 days to get to my house.
I was amazed that they could actually know where to deliver it since the box was covered in stickers from Royal Fail. They had put their own tracking number on it - twice yet completely failed to make any reference to these numbers on their website (in relation to the US number).