How do they do it????????????

I shipped Meadowlark Blue Heron 2's in original heavy duty wooden crates, from Northern California to Vancouver, British Columbia. Customs did open them and in the process damaged a very expensive tweeter. The Audiogon buyer in Vancouver was brushed aside by customs folks and we had to split the cost of the repairs. Customs folks routinely open these boxes and are notoriously careless. I won't ship to Canada again.
Joe

I'm with you Joe, never again will I ship to Canada. Nothing against the Goner's of Canada but I'm not hanging around for strike three.
I do think Shandorne has a point on his drug smelling dogs.

you made a mistake. you shipped ups. 'nuff said. they have the highest damage rate in the industry. they are careless and hate canada as well.

UPS recently lost a flightcase insured for $7,000 that I shipped two-day air from Florida to NYC for eleven days. A lot of time on the phone revealed that they had failed to segregate the package in Florida as a high-value shipment, and also managed to not segregate it in any of the lost-package sections of their depots. In addition, the supervisor I first dealt with failed to initiate the company's standard lost package procedure, which was responsible for some of the delay. The website scanning information showed that the package was in their 43rd Street facility in Manhattan, but they informed me that the scanning information provided to customers, including arrival scans, is sometimes just projections -- their internal scanning information showed that it never left their air hub in Louisville. My notes show that I ended up speaking with six different people, none of whom was properly trained (I got a different story from every one of them) and each of whom was a dim bulb. I had my reasons for using them for this shipment, but will not do so again -- they were terrible at every step of the way and are clearly a garbage operation.

I think this has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with the following:

1. Incomplete information on billing, invoices - that will in a certain way force customs to search inside the box when in doubt, and I doubt US customs are more carefull than the canadian ones....

2. Improper packaging - have you ever seen the boxes for - let's say, the Sonus Faber Grand Piano? How flimsy can you get ? It may come from Italy alright and may be ok for smooth-sailing transport on a ship, but forget routes and mileage in the truck from the man in brown.

3. I know of many broken speakers, yet the damages on amplifiers are much less frequent.

4. Many employees from UPS and others just don't care, and this has nothing to do with canadian or american differences.

5. International shipping is always more hassle.

Last time I checked, Audiogon is still taking money from canadians and enjoying the business, so as far as I am concerned, it is north american in coverage and member origin and the site is set up for this. I do not take it too well that people will encourage others not to do business in Canada both ways. Whenever I paid out to a US seller, I was glad I did, and so was the seller as he gladly cashed the money order. It's a two way street, at least for most of us I think. If one cannot face the facts or take the slightest chances or risks, there's always your friendly snobby Hi-Fi shop nearby, with insane profit margins. And that's on both sides of the border too.

The same shipping problems could occur if you shipped something over a great distance within the US.

think about it...