OT: Shipping from Canada to US by UPS

Sorry I can't answer your question directly. I've had good speed and price with postal service, B.C to California.

I no longer use or recommend UPS for any shipping, especially over the border.

FedEx Express it and it'll get there ASAP.

Lost 1 too many packages from UPS. Too many bad experiences.

I hope somebody from UPS takes note (who cares!)

A company I work to sells tools and we ship them to the US regularly. I cannot recall an instance when we have lost a shipment.

However, UPS has a special place in many people's heart (the black part).

Anyway, here's the answer we give: You may be subject to brokerage and duty. On smaller orders (like $100 Cnd.) there is an excellent chance they won't charge you, but that's not a fact. You will be charged state taxes as far as I know. It's pretty much impossible to tell until the UPS guy shows up at your door.

You didn't say what kind of good this was. Once I bid for a vacuum pump on eBay and won. I paid about $100 for it, but the pump was worth about $700 new and the guy put the value as $700 (probably for insurance). I got taxed, etc. for $700. I was young and foolish at the time and ate it. Boo. I think that would have happened if it was FedEx or anyone else...

HTH.

Regards,

Robin

I use US mail all the time for this. They will take up to 60 kilos I think and quite reasonable. I get UPS all the time too from CA , but they are not my favorite.

-- Steve Worcester

Better Woodturning through Technology (And a hell of alotta practice)

Hey Robin,

Interesting point. Duty is based on "Fair Market Value", and if the $700 were that, then even though you only paid 100 bucks, the duty would have been on the 700. Of course, the CCRA Officer would have to have known the value.

Of course, now-a-days, there is very little that has duty applied, so it's kind of moot. A few years back it did cost Amway some millions of dollars though!!

But the PST and GST are just due on the "Selling Price" as far as I know.

Interesting.

Take care.

Brian Laws>

Though not immediately relevant, here are some tips learned re USPS shipments both in country and out.

1.Sending parcel post saves money at the expense of time. However, if any parcel post shipment is returned to sender for any reason, the sender pays the return postage whereas first-class shipments comeback without the additional postal fees. I learned this when the postage sticker for parcel-post shipping fell off the box in transit and it was returned along with a pretty funny official label that said "Postage was affixed".

1. If you do not want to insure an item for high value due to potential customs duties for your recipient, send the parcel registered first class. You can't insure for more than somewhere around on registered but the chance it will get lost is exceptionally small.

Ergo, you can skip the miniscule insurance and high value declaration.

Regards,

Edward Hennessey

Yeah, watch out for Customs. I got a sample CD from a software company, and it was listed as worth $10 or something. Customs declared a duty of $0.01, and UPS charged me a $5.00 fee for Customs brokerage, or something! Yeesh!

Jon

You got off easy. The B*****ds charged my son $35.00 on a "manufacturers sample - no commercial value" and since he wasn't home, Mother paid it. I got revenge though, they delivered a COD for $70.00, for which I paid cash. On closer examination, I found that the parcel was from one of our suppliers, but not for us. When I contacted UPS, they said they would pick it up within the hour and issue me a credit for the charges. When I stated that I had paid cash and expected cash to be returned the guy got quite upset so I offered to deliver the parcel in person and collect my money from the addressee. This got him even more excited but after I hung up on him three times, he figured out a way to return my cash. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

And if you use the U.S. Post Office's "Global Express" to ship into Canada... they hand the package off to another courier for delivery inside Canada, and the courier adds the same ridiculous customs brokerage fees as UPS does... and the customer calls up screaming and rejects the package and... oh, never mind. >:-( David

Yes, they are two different services:

David

The key to shipping UPS will be the value of the product.

The cheapest way to go about this with UPS is to send the package GROUND service from alberta to you in calif.

I am trying to find where I wrote the exact numbers, but US customs and Canada customs have different cut-off points for when something can be sent free of any brokerage and duty charges. If I find the exact numbers I will post them, but it is quite a difference. Going from the US into Canada I believe the value is anything under 10 dollars US is free of charges for brokering the package. But going from Canada into the US the value is around 100 dollars US!

So what I am saying is if the value is under 100 dollars (or you can get the seller to write it up the commercial invoice to be under 100 dollars) then the freight will be very reasonable.

BUT I will second the vote for using the mail service... just giving you what i have learned on UPS, as the original poster requested. HTH, Ryan

We ship to Canada occasionally and we always do a NAFTA declaration. Should be *no* duties or taxes.

David

Where they get you is the brokerage fee. Yes a NAFTA is the declaration you need to ensure no duties are charged, but if shipping from US to Canada, there will ALWAYS be GST on the value of the goods being shipped and then they charge a brokerage fee just to do the paperwork. I have had things shipped via UPS from US to canada WITH the NAFTA paperwork, and they still charged me 6% duty. I called and complained indicating the goods were clearly marked with the NAFTA and therefore duty free, and they credited the duty that was erroneously charged (on several different occasions I might add). Again, going off memory here, but if the value of the goods is under

10 dollars going from US to canada, or under $100 US going from Canada to US, there should be NO charges for brokerage, or duties, or taxes. Ryan

When importing into Canada you might want to consider doing your own brokerage it's really not hard once you get the hang of it. American buyers importing from Canada might find it a real money saver to.

No, USPS Global Express is delivered by Canada Post. Just got one today. BUT - and this is a big one, MAKE SURE THE VALUE IS DECLARED. Otherwise Canada Customs estimates the value. I had a new carb, which I bought for $15 US, shipped global express (cost 12.70 US for shipping) and the supplier did not put on a value - so RevCan charged me tax on $50.00. So, $15US carb cost me $15US plus $12.70 US, plus$3.50 Can GST, and $4 PST, as well as 5% brokerage/collection fee

- total of about $35 US? More than double the price.

===================================== Others agree with you, Ryan, so it appears your memory is good. This seems to be the crucial piece of information for me. In my case, the "goods" is a rusty old truck part valued at $55, so I should be fine.

Thanks, everybody, for the advice and information.

Joe

Hey Joe,

Whoaa.... a "truck". That's a whole other thing than "something". I for one assumed you may have been considering buying a piece of machinery, but not a vehicle. Vehicles have their own rules, on both sides of the border, none of which I can tell you. But my son in California bought my wife's car here in Ontario a few years back, and there were a number of hoops to jump through because it was a vehicle. I do recall that there was a $275 (Canadian) brokerage fee, letters required from General Motors about vehicle emissions and safety, and a few other things, and that was only on THIS side of the border. That was on a 1999 Sunbird, and just under two years ago now, and he is still having a screw around with the DOT in California to get all the proper paperwork for registration done.

If this is in any way a "historic" vehicle, or pre-dates standard manufacturers emission packages on the drive train, I'd be sure to speak with your State DOT. And if it is historic or classic, maybe there is a better newsgroup (I don't know who) to get in a discussion with. Somebody who has done exactly what you are considering.

Good luck,

Brian Laws>>