Shipping between US and Canada - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

19 Nov 2005

"vrs" <vrs at msn.com> wrote:

...
   Anyone with
expereince shipping USA to Canada?

 I'm talking small stuff, some eproms or manuals maybe a board.
 around the USA I'd just pack a box and off to the post office. 
 That should work, but mail to Canada is notoriously slow and subject 
 to random failures.

 Most of the stuff I've had shipped from Canada was done with UPS, 
 since they seem to have a presence on both sides of the border.
 (I don't know if it is called UPS there, though.)  Then you get 
 delivery dates and tracking and such, for a few extra $.

 If you do more than $500 in a year (I think it is), you also turn 
 into an importer-exporter, and your packages get zapped with duties.
 (That happened to me one year that I was buying stuff on ePay from 
 Canada.)  (That's really weird because it is a subsidiary of UPS that 
 attempts to collect from you, rather than some government agency.)

 For larger stuff, I'd go with FedEx (but stay away from the helpful 
 little stores with their extra fees, and look for the regional center).

 HTH,

     Vince 
Vince -
  Mailing inside Canada via Canada Post is notoriously slow
and subject to random failures.  When I lived in British Columbia,
regular mail to/from the "rest" of Canada (notably provinces like
Quebec, Ontario) took weeks and randomly disappeared quite often
too.  And this doesn't count the weeks-long postal workers' strikes.

  Best situation if the recipient is near the border is to
ship to a mailboxes-type place on the US side of the border. Most
require the recipient to be a regular monthly mailbox renter but
some are more flexible.

Tim.