SO unable to send package to Canada

[Snowy]

I apologise if there is a similar topic out there or if this isn't in the right section or anything. I tried searching and could not find anything concerning this issue but if I missed something, my bad. In fact, I've done a lot of searching all over the internet and can't find any help at all so I am at a loss as to what to do so I've come here for advice.

My SO from England was planning on mailing me a package for my birthday today. The gift consists of some packaged snacks and some PS3 games. From what I understand, he's allowed to mail the snacks but they told him that he's not allowed to send the games to Canada. I've never heard of this being a problem before, and after searching online I see many people talking about mailing and receiving video games in Canada from international sources so I don't understand the issue. Do the games need to be verified or packaged in a certain way? Does anyone here know what you have to do to be able to mail games to Canada or is it just for some reason not possible at all anymore (or has it never been possible, I don't know)? I find it really hard to believe that everyone online who's claimed to have mailed games to Canada internationally has lied when sending them, but maybe I'm wrong. I've done so much searching and I have not seen a single instance of anyone discussing this as an issue so I'm really confused.

We were both really excited for this but now we're just frustrated and not sure what to do. He says he's going to try to call and ask about it, but it's been hard getting the right people to contact about this. I feel bad that he's wasted his money on these games that he can't send now. Our only other hope is that maybe when he comes to visit me next spring he'll be able to pack the games with him (watch it not be allowed either :/ )

[differentcountries]

Could it be some kind of import tax issues? I notice you say games om plural. Perhaps he would be allowed to send them one at a time? I know I can't send my SO just anything I want in the mail because of import/export tax issues.

[Ella85]

I'm from England and have sent games to the US with out any problems but I've never mailed anything more than a xmas card to Canada. I do find it very strange, but then UK is going down the drain with all the crazy politics we have going on at the moment. They make these rules up as they go along half the time. I'd get him to speak to fedex I'm sure they wouldn't have an issue sending it. Royal mail can be a pain.

[Snowy]

Hm, I don't think it's a tax related issue as he didn't mention anything of that sort, only that the games were not allowed to be sent because they are games. In fact, I don't believe it's an issue at all with his side, but rather a restriction on Canada's part? At least that is what he has been told when he wasn't able to send it. I'll see if I can get him to look into Fedex though and hopefully something can be worked out.

Any more insight on this issue is much appreciated. If anyone has had experiences with sending video games specifically to Canada that'd be awesome, but I appreciate all and any help so we can figure out how to solve this. He said he'd look into other mailing services but if this is a problem with Canada's rules then it probably won't work either.

Honestly it just seems weird because people send and receive games internationally all the time with things like eBay and such. Not to mention, no matter how hard I search I have yet to find a single instance of anyone having this problem at all. I'm just really confused as to why this would be a problem when I've never heard about it before :/

[Miasmata]

This sounds so weird and specific, I'm afraid you'll have to talk to someone from the Canadian postal/customs service to know more.

[JaneEmily]

So I looked on Royal Mail's website and they have a section for prohibited/restricted goods: https://www.royalmail.com/canada but they also link to Canada Post's postal guidelines, which seems a lot more informational than the Royal Mail's one: https://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/m...Gnonmail-e.asp

[80anthea]

It could just be Royal Mail being awkward as they can be when they don't want to take responsibility for something being rejected at customs. I had a run in with them when I was trying to send a piece of Jet to Zephii in Australia for her baby's collection. Despite me checking on the Australian post website and knowing it was allowed they weren't sure so wouldn't let me post it through them. In the end I went to a different post office with a self-service machine and did it myself......it got there fine!

[JaneEmily]

It could just be Royal Mail being awkward as they can be when they don't want to take responsibility for something being rejected at customs. I had a run in with them when I was trying to send a piece of Jet to Zephii in Australia for her baby's collection. Despite me checking on the Australian post website and knowing it was allowed they weren't sure so wouldn't let me post it through them. In the end I went to a different post office with a self-service machine and did it myself......it got there fine!

Royal Mail is weird.

I've sent my SO and he has sent me video games through the post (Royal Mail has posted and delivered them without problem too) before.

Snowy as they're for Playstation 3, I recommend you checking the case of it as this is what it says on Playstation's website as this is region lock information which might/might not be why they aren't allowing your SO to send them:

PS3 games ARE NOT region locked and can be played on any PS3 console in any country

HOWEVER, codes that come with a game are locked to the region the game is from, also any add-on content for games (DLC) is also locked to the games region

These are the codes you will find on a game disc and on the bottom of the spine of the game cover

BLES (Europe and Australia / New Zealand)

BLUS (North America, including Canada)

BLAS (Asia)

These are the region numbers, found on the back of the game cover in the bottom right corner

Region 1- USA, Canada

Region 2- UK and European Countries, Japan falls under here apparently

Region 3- Asia

Region 4- Australia, New Zealand

When purchasing a game with a code OTHER than Australia / New Zealand, the code WILL NOT work when redeemed from the Australia / New Zealand Playstation Store

Any Game add-ons (DLC) purchased from the Australia / New Zealand Playstation Store, WILL NOT work with games from a region OTHER than Australia / New Zealand

That might also be why they are being awkward because a lot of postal companies still think video games are region locked so they might be a bit weird over it.

[Shauny]

The issue here is the US and Canada have different laws such as age and displaying what the game contains (ei drugs, violence) than the rest of the world. This is the same with movies too.

[Snowy]

Thank you for the links JaneEmily! This helped a lot. After doing some long and thorough searching through those sites, I've found that any and all games are prohibited from being sent into Canada. No exceptions whatsoever. Of course, they don't give a single explanation as to why, I only know that they're not allowed under any circumstances. It's a shame and I feel bad that my SO wasted his money on games that he can't ever give to me.

Thank you to everyone else who's posted here as well, but it seems like there's nothing we can do about this :C

I can't even begin to express how discouraging something like this is. It's not even anything huge but I feel it's very telling of how much trouble we'll have to go through just to meet or eventually close the distance in the future.

[TotallyLost]

Just post them - no need to be too specific on the contents. Worst thing that will happen is they get seized. I bet they will get through just fine. Put in some music CDs with them. It's not like you are shipping anything really bad. I think it is probably down to restrictive licence laws.

[Dwessie]

The games might be region locked too. PAL regions and North America get different versions of the same games because of how each country handles censorship and a few language differences (Yes, even in English versions. Some words are fine in one country and super offensive in another. They've censored freaking MARIO GAMES because of this, lol)

I've played UK versions of games on emulators. It's rather different and kinda strange in a fun way.

I don't know I guess I'm saying you might not be able to mail them because of videogame regional differences.