Point Roberts Shell Center

Like many Canadian residents, I order things off of US websites like Amazon and get them shipped here to PR Shell Center. I like the service here because they are open on Sundays and are less busy than the other letter carriers.
Here’s my story — a family member of mine ordered some clothing online and did not go and pick it up. I was informed a few times by these guys that it was incurring storage fees per month, but since I was out of the country at the time they told me they would waive the fees since it was first time leaving something for more than a month.
Long story short, a year passes and my family member remembers about her parcel and asks me when I planned on making a trip down. I didn’t even realize it at the time, so I called them and they still have it (after giving my family member shit for not going to get their stuff from my mailbox for a year). I also had a personal parcel to pickup so I was forced to go down there after a year of not going.
When I went down a few days after I made this phone call, I realized that since a year had passed, the system they have in place flagged the parcel as being donate-​able, because i received an email about it. I hadn’t checked my emails in a few days so saw it a little late.
I get down to PR and the parcel is no longer in their shipping area. I guess the person i had spoken to a few days earlier didn’t add a note to my account about my late storage, so the parcel I had for my family member was sent away to another site for disposal or donation. At this point I called my family member and asked for a description of the clothing that was purchased. I provided the description to one of the male employees working there and they immediately start making some calls, checking the back, the computer system and started discussing it with the 3 other employees working there.
This was also on a Saturday, so they were busy.
Turns out the garment was sent to a donation area about a mile away. One of the female employees knew where it was. They asked me if I wanted to go with them to go and collect it but I was pre-​occupied with arguing with my lazy family member that I didn’t. I saw them drive off and felt bad afterwards.
They came back with the garment and didn’t charge me for the storage. I also tried to pay them $ 10 for gas and service but they wouldn’t accept it. This was a really nice gesture and I felt so bad afterwards. I told them that if it were me, I would not have gone out of my way to do something like this because it was the fault of my family member who was too lazy to go out and get their package and instead waited a year for it to collect dust in my mailbox under my name before even saying anything to me about it.
I just want to say a huge thank you to the staff at PR for this level of service. I’m not letting this family member of mine use my mailbox again. I said that I would write a review about this ordeal because it was one that I felt grateful for and appreciated it.
Thank you PR shell shipping center staff! You two know who you are.

This review is only for the parcel section, oh and the overpriced fresh pastries.
I’ve tried a couple other parcel services but this is by far the slowest service which is mostly in part due to the storage space being situated behind the building, small staffing, paperwork sign offs and staff miscommunications. They’ll need to speedy it uppy if their business grows. Oh another point taken off for porta-​potties, but they do have an outdoor sink with running water and soap =)
Service is always friendly and the interior is half decent for a sit down cup of coffee.

Great price for parcel receiving, they aren’t as speedy as the folks at tsb but they don’t need to be. Open on Sunday is a huge plus for those who work monday to Friday and don’t want to sit in Saturday border traffic. The full service convenience store /​coffee bar/​gas station kinda makes this a one stop shop.

I used to be a frequent to The Letter Carrier, but since their hike up in prices, I decided to give other shipping centers a try. What drew me here is the cheap prices for small pkgs ($ 2.50) but more importantly that they’re open on the weekends and till 6pm everyday. Something else that is great about this place is that there is never a line up either. Unlike the The Letter Carrier it may take up to 20 minutes before you get your package, you’re done and in your car in a matter of 5 minutes.
I was working on Saturday and was not off work till 5pm, I decided to give them a call and have them pull my pkg and have it ready at the front counter. The lady who answered the phone was very cheerful and very happy to help me. I got off work and was worried that I wouldn’t make it down in time due to traffic and border wait times, however they assured me that I would get my pkg today.
I personally don’t fill up from Shell, so if you’re looking for cheap gas, I would recommend other stations if you’re looking for a top off.
(+) Cheap rates on small pkgs
(+) Open 7 Days a week
(+) Open until 6pm every night
(+) Friendly staff
(-) Expensive gas? (I’m really nit picking here)

Shell is fast becoming my go-​to place for picking up parcels. Yes, there is gas here too, but it’s expensive. Go to Can-​Am next door. (I see Simon K. has beat me to saying this). This review is about the shipping desk inside the gas station.
Parking is plentiful in front of the building.
How does it compare to the competition?
Good:
— friendly, helpful, and courteous staff. Special mention.
— Open until 1800 (matches or beats all of the competition)
— Parcels are held for 30 days before racking up additional fees (more than the competition). Another special mention.
— Open 7 days a week! (none of the competition are open on Sundays) Yet another special mention.
— No charge for disposal of small boxes. The site mentions they are supposed to charge $ 1 – 4, but I have yet to be dinged. Speaks volumes about how great the staff are.
— Nice big warehouse — they can pretty much process anything you buy. Tires included.
— Cheap for really small packages — only $ 2.50!
Bad:
— Can’t be late after closing down. The lady I talked to said the tills shut automatically. Get here at 1801? Sorry, come back tomorrow. Other places you can call and have them wait an extra 5 minutes or whatever.
— They can be more expensive than the competition for some of the bigger packages, so do your homework if you’re ordering something like a table.
Compared to the competition (TSB, TLC, P2P), this place beats out everyone else in almost every single category (other than the big package deal) I can think of. You can thank me later.

As with all my other reviews of Point Roberts, there is really only two things that us (yes… I’m seperating this) Canadians come down here for, parcels and gas, really, for us, there is nothing else here. With both those things there at least are options, the ratio I think is probably 1:1 with the post office joints and gas stations, and if you just crossed the border, this is the second gas station you will get to.
You can go for the cheaper gas solution next door (the Can-​Am) or you can come to Shell. We all have our allegiance’s, and even toward gas, cause even though we don’t consume it (well I don’t… but you people may like to sniff this stuff up like cocaine!) we believe our cars like what we decide to put in it, and I feel Shell gives me some more horsepower than other gas.
The place is open 24 hrs, well the pumps are, the store would be closed if you came during nightfall, but as long as you have some plastic on you, not a problem. The prices are in litres (for all of you who don’t understand what a gallon is!) and you’ll know what you paid for considering this maybe the only thing you do down here and you can chuckle inside how much you saved while driving home.