Selling to Canadians

I've had similar poor experiences shipping to Canada as others here have claimed. First, it can be done, but you MUST use USPS to avoid the back charges of non-customs paying Canadian folks like Upgrade1394 had to deal with. I was also burnt using Fed Ex. USPS will not deliver if the customs are not paid.

I have also had USPS officials tell me that shipping to Canada is tougher than shipping anywhere else in the world....thanks to 9/11. I've shipped all over the world, Japan, Switzerland, Italy, Hong Kong, etc. When filling out the customs declaration form for shipping to Canada, be very, very clear about what you are shipping and the value. Do NOT underdeclare the value for customs, declare EXACTLY for what you are insuring it for, and it should turn out OK.

Cheers,
John

Thanks everyone for all of your insight. Here's something that's very strange. My wife called the USPS customer service department today and was told by a woman who spoke with a heavy accent that the insurance limit is -- get this -- $675. So that makes this service pretty useless unless the buyer agrees to assume all risks. So this seems to be a nightmare indeed.

If the item is mfg'd in North America the buyer won't have to pay duties anyway.

Actually, only if it's originaly manufactured in Canada(Bryston, Classe, YBA, etc) would a Canadian buyer not have to pay duty on it.

I don't know what the weight restriction is for USPS, but I've had a 40lb cd player(50lbs total) shipped up here thru USPS with no trouble whatsoever.

Incidently, if you do(as an American seller) have duties charges redirected back to you, be sure to inform the buyer before assuming they're trying to avoid paying them.
I had an amp shipped from a reputable seller in ohio and thought I had covered all costs when it arrived.
However, it was only when I contacted the buyer months later did he inform me of the charges.
I was stunned!
Naturaly I reimbursed him(and purchased the second amp).

9rw: what relevance does the "woman who spoke with a heavy accent" have here?

When customs is involved you never know what's going to happen.

I still don't understand this phenomenon. Twice I purchase gear from Canada and received it only to get a bill from UPS for about $20-$30 a month later for shipping charges even though I had paid shipping to the seller and UPS delivered it w/o notifying me there would be extra charges. Calling them yielded no results. I just decided not to pay and after a while the bills stopped coming. Who knows if it ever showed up on my credit report.