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MG MGA - Shipping cost

I recently purchased 250 blank business cards from the US for our car club. The cost was US$6.00 plus $17.00 shipping. They arrived in Canada by UPS with an additional UPS brokerage fee (read: rip off fee) of Canadian $25.00. A $6.00 item cost me $48.00.

I wondered why the cards were not shipped by US Postal Service? I heard that USPS no longer ships to Canada. Is this true? If so it has a bearing on my ability to order MGA parts from US suppliers.

Canadian Postal Service ships to the US no problem!

Anyone know what this is all about?
H Speer

NEVER USE UPS FOR INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING!!!!!

The US post website certainly lists costs to Canada. It sound like the package might even go as First Class Mail for $4.75.

UPS usual trick is to charge HST even on items that are under the $20 limit so that they can collect a $10 tax collection fee in addition to the brokerage fee.

Many shippers in the US do not know about the practises of UPS and assume they are the same as in the US, where it apparently is a very good service.

Scarborough Faire are certainly aware of UPS and now only ship by US Post. The first time I got burned by UPS was on a shipment from SF. When I called Cecelia she said she had the UPS representative in her office at that very time because of the complaints she was getting. (I expect that will bring on a few of the usual rants). I have had only the best of experiences with them. Incidently, SF mark their packages to Canada as being for a vintage vehicle, which, while it is intended only to give relief from import duties (of which their are none due to NAFTA) usually results in no HST either. I got some panels from SF earlier this Fall (about $300)and they came HST free.
John DeWolf

Can someone explain the different terms?
US Post
USPS
UPS

I receive items in Australia by the US Postal Service, which I assume is USPS. They have always given a good service with online tracking available.

Mick
M F Anderson

US Post and USPS is the same thing. The United States Postal Service. This is the national postal service for the United States. UPS is United Parcle Service. This is a private service ( aka Big Brown). When shipping over seas, (ie. out of the US) you can not trace the shippment with USPS. You can with UPS. The reason shippments can not be trace with USPS is that when the item reaches another country, its "postal service" like the Royal Mail takes over and there is no provision for tracking. The USPS has no authority or structure to transact business in another juridiction. When I ship to another country and I need to track I either use UPS or Fed Ex. It's more expensive but you can track.

Hope this helps.

Garland
GD Glenn

I have certainly had US Post to Canada with tracking.

It is an extra cost, but nowhere near UPS charges.
John DeWolf

I forgot about this
http://reviews.ebay.com/UPS-LAWSUIT-IN-CANADA_W0QQugidZ10000000002180422?ssPageName=BUYGD:CAT:-1:LISTINGS:2
John DeWolf

Whenever shipping internationally, unless there is some tremendous incentive for doing otherwise, always use your government's postal service. The reason is international customs laws. Treaties stipulate that national postal systems "eat the cost" of customs clearance reciprocally as a courtesy to their peers. Private shippers, however, must pay the posted fees for customs clearance, and that almost always exceeds the savings in the shipping cost by an order of magnitude.
David Breneman

Mick in Sydney..for your information, and other Aussies importing parts for our cars, we have now come into a BIG BROTHER situation. For years, I have brought parts in, generally from the UK via Parcelforce (the UK Govt postal company), and these have been processed in Australia by the Customs section of Australia Post, and generally these parts have been allowed in without GST, and only paying GST if over the A$1000 mark...if there was any problem, you just contacted Australia Post by phone, and they were great. NOW, Mr Kevin 07 has closed down the AP Customs section, and it is now handled by Customs themselves..they cannot be contacted whatsoever, except by fax or email, and to obtain the goods there are about 6 forms to fill out, and payment must be made before the items are sent to the local Post Office, taking about 8 days!..talk about going backwards.
Mick, if you have an option, always use DHL or Fedex..they are a little dearer, but faster, and generally clear the goods themselves, without cost I have found.
Gary Lock

Anyone in the UK contemplating buying stuff from Anglo Parts (Belgium) should think twice as they use UPS. I recently paid 30 euros for UPS shipping which added 70% to the item cost. I could have sent the 300gm parcel back to them fully insured and tracked by Royal Mail for a quarter of the cost. mike
m.j. moore

UPS is also known, by us, as OOPS! They work great in the US. Not so good once they cross a border. Extra fees (I think they add your grand mother's age sometimes) can be a horrible surprise.
USPS works fine to Canada. It is a shipper's decision how it goes, so when ordering you, the customer, should specify who you want as the carrier.
For large/heavy and/or expensive parts, FedEx is better internationally. DHL/Loomis are a "fly by night" (literally and metaphorically) organisation and is probably in its death throes.
Peter.
P. Tilbury

Mike, your comment about Anglo Parts..I have refused to deal with them, as about two years ago I bought substancial parts from them, and they refused to take the VAT off..they insisted on the VAT, because I wanted the parts sent by Belgium Post, and they said that this way they couldn't verify that the parts had been sent outside the EEC!..what a lot of rot! I even took the case to the Belgium VAT authorities, who said I was in the right, but Anglo ignored them.
Gary Lock

This thread was discussed between 27/11/2008 and 29/11/2008

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