Do we have an experience to tell you! Last June we shipped our Camino gear home to Canada. Spanish post office was very accommodating. Our gear, 36 pounds total, fit nicely into their largest shipping box. Total cost, including box, to have it shipped by air to Ontario was 140 Euros. Then the fun began
The package arrived via Canada Post at my son's home address in approx 8 days, however he was not home that day to receive it. Next day the Delivery slip was presented to the local Canada Post outlet for pickup. Long story short, the delivery person mis-scanned our parcel as undeliverable and it was coded "Return To Sender". The box was returned to Spain via ship to the temporary address we were using in Spain. We had alerted our host and fortunately she accepted our box and paid the 45Euro fee - i.e. the cost of shipping it by boat back to Spain. She then reloaded our gear into a new box and reshipped it via air back to Canada. Another 140 Euro fee. We finally received it in October - 18 weeks and 3 Trans Atlantic crossings after initially sending it home in June.
Lessons:
When shipping home, insist on using a Canadian address as 'Return'. The Spanish clerk had advised me they needed a Spanish return address. I learned that was incorrect, a Canadian address would have been OK, as long as not the same as the Recipient address. ( i.e. insert a friend or relative's address)
The shipping document does have a box "Do Not Return To Sender" which I checked off. That should have resulted in our box sitting in Canada Post's unclaimed (but easy to locate) mail department for 6 months. Unfortunately the local outlet didn't notice I had checked that box!
I had been told in Spain that insurance was not available since it was an overseas parcel. Again, push this as I was since told that was incorrect
Unless you are in a hurry, via ship is much cheaper. (40E vs 140E) The actual time for the parcel to ship back to Spain was about 3 weeks. The unknown is how long it sits in the shipping warehouse. In our case, turns out our box sat in a Toronto terminal for several weeks until they had a full container.
Be very persistent when following up with Canada Post. The front line customer service people know very little. We learned the hard way that, although they readily assign you a followup file number, if the agent feels he has resolved your issue, he can delete the file. Our first agent believed that "sorry, your parcel is gone, nothing we can do" was a resolution.
Once we forced our way up the ladder however, we did find a very sympathetic manager who was quick to acknowledge Canada Post's errors. He was invaluable in helping us keep track of our gear's unplanned second pilgrimage.
Positives from this experience
We had a wonderful parcel opening party in October.
We received full refund from Canada Post for extra costs incurred.
Initially, we took this turn of events as the Camino God's message that we never take on an adventure such as the Camino again.
When the parcel finally arrived, we began hearing the real message that perhaps another Pilgrimage is in order?
Buen Camino
