Shipping between US and Canada

[Tim Shoppa]

"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.