Canadians: Postal strangeness with K-40 prepaid mailers

[reflex]

In Canada, the Kodachrome 40 prepaid mailer is too thick to mail as an oversized letter. The only option is to send it as a parcel. It came as no surprise when a post office clerk quoted a total of $9.36 to send an envelope containing a couple of carts to Toronto for processing.

Gulp.

I smiled nicely and asked how much it would cost to ship the same package to Switzerland. She paused for a moment to see if I was serious. I smiled again.

"Six ninety-five by air mail."

My smile turned into a bemused grin.

"Great," I said, "Have you got a sticker I can put over the address?"

She scrutinized the customs label carefully, to see what I was willing to send to a seemingly random country.

Seems incredible, but its less expensive to send my film directly to the lab in Switzerland.

What do other Canadians do with their K-40 mailers?

James

[Santo]

More than you deserve:

viewtopic.php?t=3141&highlight=drug+mart

[reflex]

Thanks, Santo.

[super8man]

Us Canadians have to stick together...awesome!

[Rick Palidwor]

In Canada, the Kodachrome 40 prepaid mailer is too thick to mail as an oversized letter. The only option is to send it as a parcel. It came as no surprise when a post office clerk quoted a total of $9.36 to send an envelope containing a couple of carts to Toronto for processing.
James

I am curious where you were planning to send them in Toronto, as there is no one here I am aware of who would touch it. I always take Kodachrome to Shopper's Drug Mart and they have never had any questions and nothing has ever gone missing. I have also never used any envelopes as the cart label indicates if processing is paid or not - I just hand them the cart and they seem to know what to do with it. Usually takes about 3 weeks. My understanding is that it goes to Switzerland.

Rick

[reflex]

I am curious where you were planning to send them in Toronto, as there is no one here I am aware of who would touch it. I always take Kodachrome to Shopper's Drug Mart and they have never had any questions and nothing has ever gone missing. I have also never used any envelopes as the cart label indicates if processing is paid or not - I just hand them the cart and they seem to know what to do with it. Usually takes about 3 weeks. My understanding is that it goes to Switzerland.

The Canadian address on the K-40 mailers is still Box 1400, Stn. W, Toronto - I last used it a few months ago, and the film came back mailed from the USA.

In the past, no-one at my local post office checked the width of the envelopes so it cost a bit over a buck.

From now on, I'll use my local Shopper's.

James

[Rick Palidwor]

The Canadian address on the K-40 mailers is still Box 1400, Stn. W, Toronto - I last used it a few months ago, and the film came back mailed from the USA.
James

How old are those envelopes? Is that freshly bought film?

Rick

[reflex]

How old are those envelopes? Is that freshly bought film?

Truthfully? It was lurking in my freezer for at least two years before being "discovered" last week. :oops:

I ordered a new batch from Kodak last Thursday -- I'm interested to see if there are any address changes on them. Doesn't really matter now, since I'll be training my local Shoppers photo staff to handle K-40.

James

[Jean Poirier]

In Quebec city, I leave the K40 to my local photo dealer. It is sent for processing by Kodak and come back to the shop in usually less than three weeks. Jean.

[woods01]

I havn't experimented with this yet but apparently that slot test they do plays
it on the safe side. But for many things if you stick it in an enevelope and
just put stamps on it for the correct weight your letter will be sent because
they don't do that slot test in the distribution center. These are the
rates for letter mail:

0-30g: $0.50 (one stamp)
31-50g:
$0.85 (one US-value stamp)
51-100g: $1.00 (two stamps)
101g-200g: $1.70 (two US-value stamps)
201-500g: $2.45

So as long as you have enough postage for the correct weight you will be
fine (and if not it will be returned to your address for insuficent postage)

[Justin Lovell]

shopper's drug mart's film gets picked up and taken to QUALEX. Qualex outsources to someone else, but i don't know who.

I talked to the kodak super 8 technical dude @ kodak toronto and he said that QUALEX is not supposed to have a kodachrome processing unit.. infact the film should ONLY be going to switzerland.

... no one knows anything...


jusetan

[Dre]

I am curious where you were planning to send them in Toronto, as there is no one here I am aware of who would touch it. I always take Kodachrome to Shopper's Drug Mart and they have never had any questions and nothing has ever gone missing. I have also never used any envelopes as the cart label indicates if processing is paid or not - I just hand them the cart and they seem to know what to do with it. Usually takes about 3 weeks. My understanding is that it goes to Switzerland.

The Canadian address on the K-40 mailers is still Box 1400, Stn. W, Toronto - I last used it a few months ago, and the film came back mailed from the USA.

In the past, no-one at my local post office checked the width of the envelopes so it cost a bit over a buck.

From now on, I'll use my local Shopper's.

James

That’s strange, I tried the Toronto address about 6 years ago. My film was returned back to me undeveloped. As far as I know the only address that works on the mailers is Switzerland. So I only send my film to the Switzerland address on the mailer. It costs me about $6 to ship it airmail and I get it back in exactly two weeks.

[reflex]

That’s strange, I tried the Toronto address about 6 years ago. My film was returned back to me undeveloped. As far as I know the only address that works on the mailers is Switzerland. So I only send my film to the Switzerland address on the mailer. It costs me about $6 to ship it airmail and I get it back in exactly two weeks.

Duane Sahadat at Kodak told me this morning that the Toronto "Box 1400" address is still valid - he commented that he'd recently used it. I'm happy to hear that the Entertainment Imaging guys are using their own products!

I also discovered that Qualex is a happy little division of Eastman Kodak -- it most likely saves the organization money to be able to ship K40 around in their courier bags rather than having to pay return postage.

[Justin Lovell]

hey cool,

yeah i just met duane a couple days ago at the CSC awards.. nice enough guy. good that he could be of some help.
They're shutting down the Kodak plant in toronto in June I believe.. I dunno hwere they're moving to, but it'll probably just be some little office building/warehouse.

speaking of which, i ran out of film on my shoot in vancouver and had to get some more k40.. we got the last 12 rolls in the kodak office in vancouver..
Tiny little kodak office you got here in vancouver...


jusetan

[woods01]

In the past year by using the LD method I have gotten them both back in the
black plastic reels that come from Swizterland and on white reels in a
white box which originate from Dawynes.