Shipping out of the USA

Fatparrot,
You'd THINK it would be easier. Not so, sayeth the Canadian Govt. It is the onous of the buyer in Canada receiving non-Canadian goods to make good on all this (so I'm told). If I am wrong, someone please enlighten me. The expeditor at BAX is the one who apprised me of this, and that is how it went down. It was no work or hassle on my end, but I felt bad for the buyer.

Bshapperd,
Ship with BAXglobal. For large, heavy items, they are cheaper and safer the UPS. And, they will pick up from a commercial address and deliver to a residence. I used them for the above mentioned shipment of very large and heavy Magnepan speakers. They did arrive safe and sound.

About a year ago,I had occasion to ship something to the British Virgin Islands. The BVI has outrageously expensive and complicated import duties.

The person in the BVI to whom I was shipping had me send it UPS ground to an address in Orlando FL. From there,a company he hired picked up the package,shipped it to West End,Tortola,delt with customs,paid the duty,and delivered it to him---for a fee. The middleman was bonded against shipping damage.

That made(and makes) sense to me. Let the middleman earn his fee.

MMMM...yes NAFTA. Not alot of 'FREE' in NAFTA. I try and avoid shipping UPS out of the states (i live in Canada) as they show up at your door several weeks late with a bill; for duty (a % of your purchase), tax on duty, provincial sales tax on purchase, and federal sales tax on purchase, and they want a check before they hand over the merchandise.

Does anyone know of a carrier who is less expensive than UPS? Sometimes it's best to understate the value of shipment, but this just compromises your insurance amount if the package should be damaged. You can squeek inexpensive items which won't break through customs if: you use post, state the value as less than $50.00, and check the box that says "is this a gift".But of course this method is useless with large expensive items. How do you do it???

Slipknot, just curious why you had to deal with all of the B.S. when shipping an American made product to Canada. I thought that NAFTA removed most of these procedures. Am I wrong?

Depends on what country you plan to ship to. I shipped a pair of Magnepan MGIII speakers to Canada in December. For Canada you have to arrange for a "broker" on the Canadian side to shepherd the shipment through customs, pay tax, duty, and "broker fees". If anything like that is applicable in your case, be sure and agree at the outset, who will be responsible for arranging these services and paying the fees. Also, make sure the shipping company is clear on who will be paying these fees as well. Case in point: in our case the speakers took 3 days from Phila. to Toronto, then languished in customs for almost 2 full weeks while the "broker" moved the paperwork.