What I personally never understood is why the only packages that were ever lost in shipping were from the US, and why mail and packages from China, Japan and the UK get to Canada faster than from the US, and at a cheaper price too.

Thanks Lou for clarifying that.

eric

In regards to UPS if you go to the UPS store it is a one page document you fill out it could not be or simple or easy !

Really appreciated.

thanks.

Don't Canadians have to pay a fee if the "gift" box is not checked?

I have had items sent and unless its expensive you don't have to pay duty. It varies so I can't give you an exact amount.
Customs really know even if you check it its not a gift.

From personal experience, I've had two packages sent to me from the States during the past year, which I never received. One was from a seller here, who said he was reimburse me, but didn't. The second was from Bruce Kalver, who freely sent me a replacement item.

In August I sent a package to a guy in the States. It was an item worth $700 that I sold on eBay for $200. The guy never received it. So, not only did I have to reimburse him (understandably), but I was also lost the item itself.

Three weeks ago I started sending out packages of dvd's to buyers in Canada and the States. All of those in Canada, and most of those in the States, have now received them. For those who haven't, I will wait until the end of December. If they don't receive them, then I refund their money. To me, that's the only right thing to do.

My point in this little diatribe is that lost packages, and frustrations with our postal system, works both ways. But we have to work with what we have, and hope for the best.

Brian

As far as UPS and Fed Ex documentation this it required by law. Remember the USPS is government owned and they do not have the same documentation needed as does UPS and Fed Ex. There is no way to ship a gaffed deck of cards with UPS or Fex Ex due to the cost. When the item is larger and more expensive then UPS may be the way to go. You usually get what you pay for. IF the item is under one pound then UPS and Fed Ex have a hard time competing but the larger the package the shipping becomes even or even cheaper using UPS. The post office does not like to get out of their vehicle they want the items that will fit in the mailbox!!

You know the insurance from the post office or UPS or FedEx is very cheap !

Insure for loss and damage...and let them pay if it does not arrive...I always insure

Mike

For my eBay package that I shipped to the States, I got $100 insurance on it, figuring I could at least get something back if it got lost. After two months of it not showing up, I went to the post office to deal with the insurance claim. She told me that she couldn't deal with it there, and gave me a number to call. She also warned me, saying that it would take at least several months to get this resolved.

Well, the time that I would have had to spend on the phone, and filling in more paperwork, just wasn't worth it to me, so I never did proceed with the claim. I'd rather lose the money than lose all that time.

Here's another thing that I discovered. When you ship a package from Canada to anywhere in the world, you are given a tracking number. Stupidly, I assumed a tracking number meant you could track where the package is. Boy, was I an idiot for thinking so! For a week, my package seemed to have been held up at the Canadian border, so I called the post office to see why it hadn't crossed the border yet into the States. She said it had. She then informed me that a Canada Post tracking number only tracks the packages while they are still in Canada. Absolutely no tracking is done after the package leaves the country. To get that kind of tracking, I'd have to pay a lot of extra money for one of those expedited parcels. I asked her to please explain why they would bother giving me a tracking number for a package I sent out of the country, if I couldn't track it. She had no answer. Sheesh!

Brian

I live in Canada but have spent numerous years living in Canada and numerous years in the US and over the years I have shipped hundreds of packages each way. Yesterday I recieved a package from Hocus Pocus. It was shipped USPS, took a week, and had no duty etc (total value was only about $35).

I agree with anyone that says USPS is the easiest and best way to ship from the US to Canada. UPS is definitely my least favorite way to have something shipped.

My experience has been that shipping USPS to Canada is really no more difficult that shipping within the US, and it's silly for people to remove that segment of the selling market from who they'd be willing to sell to. I've seen numerous items on auction sites that I'd be willing to bid up higher, only to find that the seller won't ship to Canada, so they end up getting less.

Fortunately I live about 3 miles from the border, and I have a US shipping address, so if it's something I really want I'll just get it shipped there and then deal with the border lineups etc. to go pick it up.

I send things to a couple of customers who live in Canada, but I always ship them to US addresses.

You may think it's silly to cut out a segment of the market. Go right ahead.

We have three choices here, now that DHL has decided to quit the US market. We have FedEx -- unacceptable, UPS -- unacceptable, and USPS, which is acceptable if they don't crush the box you pack the stuff in or they don't lose it.

I pack very carefully. The only damaged shipments I have ever received came viea USPS.

And here's the kicker -- try to collect on postal/FedEx/or USPS insurance. That's a laugh. If you have a retail product, you may be able to collect. But collecting insurance on a collectible item -- NO WAY!

I'll ship to Europe in a heartbeat. I have done it many times and still do it. But until Canada's customs brokers and shippers straighten out their delivery system, I won't ship anything there.

The simple truth is that Canada is a potential market of 30+ million people that U.S. sellers can easily tap into.

Dealers like Penguin, Hermetic Press, MJM Magic, and quite a few others offer FREE shipping to Canada, and as a result have many Canadians as a large part of their customer base, most of those Canadians being that very difficult to generate buyer in magic retailing, the "repeat customer".

I can buy items from MJM and Penguin magic and have them show up in my mailbox for far less money than I can when I order from Canadian magic stores, none of whom offer free shipping.

It's easy to sell both ways across the border, and folks who refuse to do it plain old just don't want to, as there's simple and effective tools to streamline the process going both directions.

Further simple truth is that Canada and the U.S. are the largest trading partners in the world, with billions of dollars of merchandise going both ways across the border 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Sending something across the border is hardly an "international" shipment in the same sense as shipping elsewhere in the world, and in fact with the appropriate tracking, insurance, and 15 seconds to fill out the USPS or Canada Post customs sticker, no different from shipping inter-provincially, or interstate.

I agree with Silverking. I've had many deliveries from the US with no problems... Same shipping TO the US, except for one package that didn't arrive [Canada Post paid out insurance no problem].

I would make a special section for canadian selling and trading.

For me to ship to a U.S. customer all I do is print the shipping label and postage then tape it to the package. My postman picks it up. To ship to Canada I have to fill in the paperwork, drive to the main Post Office in the next town during their open hours and mail the package. Getting there during the open hours is tricky.

Driving to the UPS store is almost a one hour round trip and that is just the driving.

So it isn't that I don't want to sell to foreign buyers. It is just to time consuming on this end.

Try explaining this to USPS, UPS or FedEx. If there were no difference, we would not need customs forms. NAFTA = Not A Fair Trade Agreement.

If you had been stung as many times as I have by customs problems going to Canada, your opinion would be different, I'm sure.

Here's a question for all of you who have disagreed with me so far. Have any of you had to explain to UPS or FedEx why a magic prop or musical instrument with an insured value of $1500 is worth that much money? In order to do this, assuming that I'm the shipper, I have to file a report that has invoicing, etc. to back it up. It doesn't matter how much YOU paid for it. It matters how much I can prove that it's worth.

One more time! Just a reminder, I've over 20 years experience as a logistics manager, I've shipped thousands of orders to countries all around the world, thousands to Canada alone, not one has ever been lost. So prepare to argue because I know this will bounce off some skulls. Mike made the best point, in Canada ground shipments require clearance fees which are already included in the express air rates so you may find express air is cheaper over all. Here is some information that may help, again I realize some of you have sent tens of shipments to Canada and thus are experts far exceeding my 20 plus years of doing it, I differ to your brilliance.

1. If you are insuring a shipment for $100 and are proud of yourself because it only cost $9 or whatever it is you should know that your shipment is automatically insured for $100 from the get, this is carriage. They will gladly take your money but if they cannot find a shipment or damage it they will pay up pretty quickly, UPS is really quick at paying.

2. The information required by Canadian customs on an invoice, and it can be a single page (Postal Service is different, I am not an expert at the postal service), must show the following:
-The shipping address AND PHONE NUMBER of the person receiving the shipment
-A description of the product. Note a book or instructional DVD can be stated as "educational material: book". Do not waste anyones time saying it is a "Hippity hop rabbit" or "Ghost invisable deck", use the most common terms possible because the guys looking at the docs are not magicians and you don't want them trying to figure out what you are sending. If you are sending cups for cups and balls just say they are "cups, copper" you don't have to say they are "Fox Magic Hand Made Cups" or any of that nonsense.
-Quanity and units such as "1 each". If a set of cups in the description put "1 set equals 3 cups" then the quantity can be 1 set.
-Value in US dollars, do not include cents, meaning put $50.00 not $50.12. Value can be sale, market, or replacement value. Most sellers use sale price because they don't want the guy paying $500 for a set of cups to know the replacement cost is $125.
-If it is a gift put the following statement "Unsolicited gift" in the body of the invoice.
---->DO NOT FORGET THE PHONE NUMBER, CANADIAN CUSTOMS LOVES THE PHONE NUMBER AND NOT PUTTING ONE CAN OFTEN CAUSE DELAYS
-on the Fedex form or UPS form (yes Virginia, there is a difference between a domestic and international shipping form) there is a place for 'declared value' and another for "Value for Carriage". If you put a value for carriage you will be charged extra, put the term 'max free' in that spot do NOT put the value, the value goes in the declared value.

That about covers it. Keep in mind Canada has tough customs and if you give them what they want and respect them as a country seperate from the US (a lot of people send things to Canada with no paperwork at all and wonder why it is a problem) and give them that consignee phone number and you should not have a problem at all. One last suggestion is if you are in a club it may be worth your while to have all of you order from, say, elmagicshop.com, as one big order and then split the shipping etc cost. It is much cheaper that way no matter how they ship. Considering the huge amount of material crossing the border they do a very good job and you should help them do it.

Good luck children, now prepare to hear from some 12 year old who received one box from the US to say he did none of that.

I bought a Wiz Kote here on the Café from Canada, and the UPS guy made me pay him a "customs" fee
of about another $40.00 over what I paid. The label was on the box amount due for customs, and I had to give him a check to get my package.

Now I make sure to use USPS, they do not do that.

I always note in my selling I will ship anywhere, to inquire, although I got burnt on the magic auction by a guy from Japan who decided he did not want the item I sold him, and they hold the money until the buyer is happy, so I never got my money, I got the item back, but I lost $60 in shipping.

Insurance with UPS is a downright joke. I got something crushed in 1000 pieces about 8 years ago, went through all the procedures, and still they would never pay the claim. But they will take your money as fast as you can hand it to them.

And the overnight or next day guarantee is a scam. I called for apple balloons for an Apple computer trade show, I ordered from T. Myers. COD and overnight.
This was Monday, the show was Sat., the show came and went.
The following Monday they showed up with the package, I told them the story and refused the package. They tried delivery 2 more times, I told them the same story. The next time I talked to T. Myers, they asked what this was all about, they lost money on the deal. I told them. Now you cannot do COD's with them.
Don't thank me, thank UPS! This is not the first time this happened to me.
My now girlfriend drove for UPS for 15 years, over 10 years ago.
She has many stories of how they step on the packages to get the ones stacked up high, they hate it when you write "handle with care" on them, they drop kick them, they even threw some in the river, it was Christmas eve and they still had a half a truck load and they were running overtime, so into the river the rest of the packages went!, they were ready to go home! (True story)!!

The UPS tried to collect the fee because as I noted that is the addition you pay when using ground, bummer but you have to pay customs clearance, some companies would have charged you $120 or more, $40 is cheap. The policy with CODs is they make three attempts prior to returning the package then the shipper gets the opportunity have the goods returned or abandoned. Lastly the 'overnight' service with UPS is not guaranteed, that was Fedex and it had restrictions. The most common cause of a 'UPS Red' shipment being delivered as a ground shipment is the shipper forgets to properly label the box. If they do not put a red label on the carton it is going to go surface regardless of what is paid. Since you didn't accept the box you wouldn't know if it was properly labeled or not. If you have the tracking number tell me what the 10th digit is and I'll tell you the service level. Nothing you said is unusual or out of line... I've never had a problem with a claim against UPS, then again I wasn't a regular person but had a key account with them so we got treated nicer. Feel free to be angry with UPS and others though, you can join the people who ship plants and get upset the dirt spills out.

Oh, if an individual driver dumped material that is on him/her not the company. I had a clerk use DHL to a residential area in rural Oregon (DHL was not good to residential) for a piece of equipment valued at $120,000 (semiconductor test equipment). The driver, a contract guy, couldn't find the address or wanted to go home so he did as it turned out he often did, he just left it at a random house. It was never recovered and we had freight insurance but never filed a claim as it wasn't worth our while, we had a million dollar deductable.