Shipping from Canada to USA

[Hammerhead]

Does anyone have experience shipping from Canada to the US? I've shipped many times within Canada, but US shipping, customs, duties, etc. is a new wrinkle for me.

[Steph]

It's a mess actually !

Most of my eprom programming business goes to the States, and the hoops I now have to jump through to ship a $10 chip is insane.

Anything that is not lettermail (ie. any package) must have a custom declaration form completed,
and all applicable tariffs and duties, PAID in advance.

Shipping anything via courier (Fedex,UPS) is a crapshoot because even if you pre-pay the fees
(which you would have to pass on to your customer), the courier may charge extra fees to the customer at drop off.
The customer can refuse to pay, and the package gets sent back you, and you have to pay for the return shipping,
and any accrued processing fees.

The only thing that "sort of" work is Canada Post.
They have partnered with an on-line brokerage firm called www.ZONOS.com
(* see below ! )

You provide the item details (usually by taking a picture), and an AI program attempts to figure out what it is,
where it was made, and how much it's worth. It's kinda cool, but wildly un-predictable.

You can edit the results after the AI provides it's assessment.
(Note : Any item manufactured in the US, is not subject to any tariffs ... hint, hint ...)

It then calculates any tariffs owing.
Once you pay the tariffs, it will provide you with a 12 digit validation code.

Once you have the validation code, you can go onto the Canada Post website,
complete an on-line shipping label, and the program will ask you for your ZONOS code.

It will validate it, and allow you to print the shipping label.

Once done, you AND the recipient should have no more fees to pay,
and you can ship with the peace of mind that you won't get dinged for extra costs.

(*) To use ZONOS, use the phone App ; DO NOT create an account on-line.

The phone app only needs an e-mail address, but the on-line account needs all your
personal and banking info.

If you need to pay any tariffs, you can use a low-value credit card.

It's an ugly process and adds about 10 minutes to prepare a package for shipping.

Thank-you Trump.... sigh

Steph

[Mrhide]

I say don't do it for another 3 years ...