Round Birds - Hand Drawn/Painted, Due Oct 4

Hi everyone! I flagged the thread for closure before the messages about delayed returns, so I've reopened it after receiving a couple concerned messages - sorry for any confusion this may have caused! Mail from Canada can be very slow - most of the time to the states it takes 5-14 days, but occasionally it takes much longer, more like 4-6 weeks. A swap friend in the USA has told me she gets returns from Europe faster than from Canada! A four week wait is longer than usual, but well within the parameters of "normal" in my experience. This is so normal to me that it didn't even occur to me that other people might be alarmed by this.

If you want more details, here is some exciting information about Canada's postal system:
I don't have a definitive answer for why mail sometimes takes much longer (as I'm not a postal worker), but my guess as to what's happened: Canada only has 2 international mail sorting centres for the whole country, one in Ontario (where I live), and one in BC (on the other side of the country). I suspect that the mail going to the west half of the USA was taken to the BC processing centre before going through customs, and the returns that have already arrived were processed through the Ontario centre - it sounds like people waiting for returns are all in the west half of the USA. I have no idea how long it would take letters to get to the BC processing centre, but if they went by ground it could take a while - everything in Canada is delivered by trucks, we don't really have a freight rail system. It would definitely take significantly longer than the same distance would in the USA. It's also possible returns were held up at customs, which also tends to cause very unpredictable delays, even for lettermail - sometimes things just sit in customs for a week, and there doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason for what gets held up.

Bear in mind that even though Canada is in North America, it's really not the USA, and this is an international swap. Our postal system is generally much slower, as Canada has a low population, not a lot of infrastructure in some places, and large distances to cover. The mail delivery times you're used to with USA swaps are not accurate here. Your returns will still arrive safely, even if it takes them longer to get there!
 
Thanks so much for taking the time to post this information, all my experience with Canada mail has been pretty good, from what I’m reading here. I think the most it has taken is about 11 or 12 days, I was never concerned. So it is helpful to know how and why it could possibly take even longer.
 
Thanks for the information. I didn't realize the cards were swapped out already and were sent out :) good to know! I'll post on forum when they arrive, thanks again for hosting!
 
Yup, cards were all sent out on Oct 10th. Hopefully they'll arrive soon, let me know :)
 
Zilliah, if I didn’t get your round peacock (I think it looks like a baby), maybe you could make one for me in a private trade.....wink wink (I’m usually not so bold!)
 
Haha! I can't actually remember who I swapped my cards out to, but let's wait until your returns arrive ;)
 
Hahaha, my cards arrived in today's mail! Thanks to miss, Terri F, and hem18 for the lovely round birds! Many thanks to zilliah for hosting! :)
 
I got home today from a few days in the mountains (so stunning in autumn!) to find my returns waiting for me! You Rocks! going out to TerriF, CiCiCreates, and our host herself, zilliah!
 
Glad to hear cards are finally arriving safely! Is anyone else still waiting for their returns?
 
Ok, I'll keep the thread open until you report in :) CiCiCreates (also in Arizona) left me an iTrader yesterday so hopefully yours will arrive this week!

If anyone else is still waiting for returns, please let me know :)
 
Yes, I did leave iTrader and reps, but neglected to post here on the thread. I believe my returns arrived yesterday or possibly the day before.
 
Wonderful! Sounds like no one else is still waiting, so I'm going to go ahead and close the thread now :)
 
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