Canuck Audio Mart

I notice since many years when you ask for shipping quotation from USA to Canada, it's most of the time ridiculous quotation.
Is the USPS is such different than Canada Post in their rates for same destination for example Montreal to Los Angeles / Los Angeles to Montreal ?
Sometimes, I wonder if they think Canada is on another planet....

Not my experience! I use UPS quite often as they have a reciprocal carrier agreement with Canada Post. I have found that sellers tend to Charge more to ship to Canada but not because of USPS. That is why I use 3909 Witmer RD for certain items if shipping becomes exorbitant. T.

A few years back USPS increased their rates a fair bit. I used to buy a lot of stuff of eBay, and I really noticed the difference at the time. I think they adjusted their rates in part to reflect that they don't have brokerage fees like UPS and Fedex, so even their increased rates are usually more economical for non-commercial shippers. I've also found when shipping to the US many Americans are surprised at how little it costs to send items there using Canada Post.

34 lb box from NYstate to me was 27$ for the seller, 80$ for me here, mostly tax, just 17$ post fee.

I must add that seller's take advantage in their quotation too....I just bought something on Ebay and quotation was 47.00$ from California to montreal so I paid but when I received parcel, I notice that the real shipping cost was 13.87$.
What a crook!
I left neutral feedback and mention this.
His answer, he told me the shipping cost before I bid.(47.00$ USD)
Too bad....

What postage did you pay on this end, Denys?

I don't understand ?

What did it cost you to receive the package when you picked it up?

Parcel was deivery to my door prepaid 47.00$

I have never found goods coming to me from the US to very expensive. I just had a bunch of custom Jeep parts sent to me from California to Ottawa yesterday and I only paid $35.00 for the shipping. It was the $200.00 HST and duty that choked me. I think a lot of Ebay sellers and the like pad the quote to cover packaging and make a bit more profit.

USPS has always been quick and efficient for me.


Cheers;

Mike

UPS - I just bought a Receiver off of Audiogon from Mass USA - ok it was 60lbs - Cost $250+agreed $50 towards shipping -
Actual cost of shipping $127 then I got stiffed for Import/Duties of $122 ??? how does that work ?
After 4 attempts by the local courrier (Puralator) twice to the wrong address - i was informed I could pick it up from my local UPS office 120 Kms away
UPS, never never again

How do you mean that you got "stiffed"? You're responsible for duty and tax when importing something. That said, I don't think UPS or Fedex deserve the $40+ in brokerage fees they charge since they make lots of mistakes. I've been charged duty on Canadian and American made products which should have been exempt on more than one occasion because they were too lazy to read the customs declarations.

-- 30 Jul 2010 10:16 --



Shipping from commercial vendors is often very inexpensive because they get very substantial discounts from the shipping companies due to their high volume. The rates Joe Consumer pays when walking into a USPS outlet are very different.

One thing that may be a factor is that USPS has recently changed their shipping options.
They used to have a regular-postage, ground-shipping option which was pretty cheap.
Now they only offer a higher-priced airmail option.

It IS more expensive than it used to be, but it is certainly no more expensive that sending the equivalent package from Canada to the US.

I don't know how this works, maybe pre-paid taxes and junk, but you did OK Denys. read as above, I paid 80$ with tax for an amp.

The goods came from a friend of mine no commercial business at all. He just packaged them up filled out the customs papers and took them to the post office. I also purchased a reel to reel from California not that long ago and the USPS rate was very low considering 55LBS shipment. Once again the local taxes and duty were the hit, not USPS.


Cheers;

Mike