[ZTWsquared]

focusracer,May 30 2008, 08:06 PM Wrote:Who delivers the USPS shipments up here? Does it transfer to Canada Post for delivery?

Most sales guy's wouldn't care how you wanted to ship it, it's their shipper who has to call the "courier" and do all the arrangements. When I have guys ordering stuff and they ask how it should be shipped, I turn it back to them. The only company i don't like up here is DHL, D rop it H ide it or L ose it.
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Yes - Canada Post delivers USPS up here. For a lot of US shippers USPS is a real PITA because they don't offer the same payment terms as the courier companies do and a lot of the time the lower volume guys actually have to drive the package to the post office - there are a lot of reasons why shippers in the US won't ship USPS - and they're not likely to change their way of doing business just to accomodate the handful of canucks that might prefer it that way.

There are reasonble alternatives to the courier companies - you have to read the fine print on their webpages to see the hidden costs and fees - and they aren't even necessarily out of hand when you consider the extra steps required to make a commercial entry for customs brokerage.

Here's a summary of the "extra" costs you incur buying in the US vs someone who has an address there:

1) extra shipping - for example check out tirerack.com and calculate the cost of shipping 4 rims to Niagara Falls NY and then Niagara Falls Ontario - the cost to Canada is more than twice that of US shipping. What's worse is companies like drivewire.com etc that offer free shipping in the states, but full shipping to canada.

2) Courier brokerage fee: UPS charges based on value for duty: eg: $500 US value costs you 51.45

3) Bond fee: unless you pay the taxes and duty up front, UPS will charge you 2.7% or a minimum of $6 for the bond fee.

Like I said - there are alternatives that don't involve you driving to Buffalo yourself - PM me if you want to know more.