OT-Mail to Canada

I sent a 3/4 torque wrench back to a vender in Texas with "poor hearing" = stupid. Specifically told her to send it parcel post. Instead a couple of days later she sends a cheerful e-mail telling how she saved me $2.03 in shipping fees by using UPS. Wrench showed up at the door with a brokerage and service fee bill larger than the cost of the tool. It was cheaper to forget about the wrench and get another than pay UPS.

Shipping will not be a whole lot different. Properly labeled parcels are rarely ever opened.

I would stick with good old postal service both sides of the border. What they tell you it's going to cost is what it will cost, no surprise brokerage bills showing up 3 months later.

If sending a parcel north, send it as a gift. Otherwise it gets really expensive for the recipient.

UPS and Fedex cause big trouble with brokerage fees at the border. U.S. Parcel Service seems to sail right through, though.

Hope this helps.

I've had letters take as long as 3 weeks. It's the 911 thing kickin' in.

Also, every package crossing the line has to be opened and inspected, so your return trip is gonna take a spell too.

Allan

Mail between U.S. and Canada has always been kind of "hit and miss." Spent a lot of my summers at my grandfathers cabin in NW Ontario back in the '60's and '70's, and letters or packages between Nebraska and there could take from 4 days to 4 weeks. Once saw the "postmistress" at the middle-of-nowhere post office/general store chuck a mail bag that came in off in a corner. Was still there a week later, hadn't been touched!
Not any faster when we'd mail something from Winnepeg. Just one of those things.

Rockin' Farmer

Any way you slice it, that's excellent service.

Seriously, we deal with a company in Montreal and I'm sure they hold up their shipping until they have enough to get the better rate.

By the way what was all that Free Trade talk about?