U.S. citizens can import up to $200.00 per day without incurring and customs charges. When a customer purchases more than $200.00 worth of goods I often split it into two shipments that go out 1 day apart and that prevents any problems.
One of my biggest suppliers who also sells on-line tells me that he just splits the shipment into two then enters one at the beginning of his daily UPS order processing and one at the end so they go out the same day but avoid any customs issues.
One of my biggest suppliers who also sells on-line tells me that he just splits the shipment into two then enters one at the beginning of his daily UPS order processing and one at the end so they go out the same day but avoid any customs issues.
Hi all,
The concept of the DSR is I believe, at least I hope it is, well intentioned, in that it is an attempt to make improvements to the eBay Market place. But there there are some very serious flaws in it's design that will cause no end of problems for eBay and the rest of us.
The major flaw for me eBay is in a sense disciplining it's children, us, without telling us why we are being spanked, and yet expect improvement. This is what I mean. Since the DSR is anonymous and the seller does not know the buyer or the item in question, the seller does not know the specific issue that needs to be improved. If I have an particular item that I keep getting a low rating on shipping cost I could then to focus my efforts on improving a specific problem. We are going to be rated/disciplined with only a general Idea of why we suck and no access to the tools or information needed to actually improve.
Now to make matters worse, on the other side of the coin, eBay has given up on disciplining the other half of the school all together by not allowing sellers to give feedback. Only allowing positive feedback is as good as giving none at all. We have all seen the children of parents in the parents eyes the child can do no wrong. Dudley from the Harry Potter series comes to mind first.
So this is great. We now have a market place where 1/2 the people are neurotic, stressed out, paranoid work-a-holics trying to get along with unrestrained bullies. At the very least it should be interesting and never dull.
The second major problem is that the DSR system will be too easy to manipulate because it is anonymous. I will let the real smart people on the boards figure all the ways.
And lastly I would like to voice my disappointment to the eBay management in the way they effectively gave us a 1-2% Fee increase while spouting how nice they were to decrease insertion fees.
I really don't think the management has really thought this through. Or maybe there just not smart enough.
Cheers all-
The concept of the DSR is I believe, at least I hope it is, well intentioned, in that it is an attempt to make improvements to the eBay Market place. But there there are some very serious flaws in it's design that will cause no end of problems for eBay and the rest of us.
The major flaw for me eBay is in a sense disciplining it's children, us, without telling us why we are being spanked, and yet expect improvement. This is what I mean. Since the DSR is anonymous and the seller does not know the buyer or the item in question, the seller does not know the specific issue that needs to be improved. If I have an particular item that I keep getting a low rating on shipping cost I could then to focus my efforts on improving a specific problem. We are going to be rated/disciplined with only a general Idea of why we suck and no access to the tools or information needed to actually improve.
Now to make matters worse, on the other side of the coin, eBay has given up on disciplining the other half of the school all together by not allowing sellers to give feedback. Only allowing positive feedback is as good as giving none at all. We have all seen the children of parents in the parents eyes the child can do no wrong. Dudley from the Harry Potter series comes to mind first.
So this is great. We now have a market place where 1/2 the people are neurotic, stressed out, paranoid work-a-holics trying to get along with unrestrained bullies. At the very least it should be interesting and never dull.
The second major problem is that the DSR system will be too easy to manipulate because it is anonymous. I will let the real smart people on the boards figure all the ways.
And lastly I would like to voice my disappointment to the eBay management in the way they effectively gave us a 1-2% Fee increase while spouting how nice they were to decrease insertion fees.
I really don't think the management has really thought this through. Or maybe there just not smart enough.
Cheers all-
UPS Ground guarantees delivery from southern Ontario to anywhere in the 48 contiguous States within 6 business days. My stuff gets to Michigan overnight and Texas in 6 days.
Yes, under $200 in stated value and the U.S. customer will have zero customs or brokerage fees. They won't even be contacted by customs.
The ONLY drawback is that items under 1kg will cost a little more to ship. If you have volume you can get a substantial discount from UPS but those items under 1kg will still cost between $9.50 and $10.80 depending upon where in the U.S. you are shipping.
However, I see you sell a lot of items that can be put in a UPS pouch so you might want to see if those ship cheaper than the boxes that I ship.
Yes, under $200 in stated value and the U.S. customer will have zero customs or brokerage fees. They won't even be contacted by customs.
The ONLY drawback is that items under 1kg will cost a little more to ship. If you have volume you can get a substantial discount from UPS but those items under 1kg will still cost between $9.50 and $10.80 depending upon where in the U.S. you are shipping.
However, I see you sell a lot of items that can be put in a UPS pouch so you might want to see if those ship cheaper than the boxes that I ship.
I'm going on the assumption that the failure to include UPS in that announcement was either an oversight or, as you guessed, they are trying to push the other two due to agreements.
PayPal has ALWAYS accepted UPS signatures in the past and I really can't see them saying they are invalid all of a sudden. It's something that they just can't back up.
Then again...it is ebay/PayPal so time will tell. 😉
PayPal has ALWAYS accepted UPS signatures in the past and I really can't see them saying they are invalid all of a sudden. It's something that they just can't back up.
Then again...it is ebay/PayPal so time will tell. 😉
how does UPS cost compare to Canada Post and transit times?
Can't really comment on the charges aspect and in any event your volume and the discount level must be taken into account to make a fair comparison (discounts of 10 - 60% are available from UPS).
On the delivery time aspects, when they deliver they are usually quite good but they are not beyond "losing" packages for a few weeks. So far I've never had one totally disappear
but I've had a few take a very long strange trip on the way to their destination.
Example
Package shipped Toronto to Buffalo, after 2 weeks somebody in the Montreal UPS depot thought it might be nice to send the package back to me! A week later I got a call from UPS letting me know that in spite of their best efforts they could not trace the package!
Don't let me put you off however, if the pricing works for you UPS is a perfectly good alternative to Canada Post. DHL is another to investigate, there are a lot of US based sellers who use them.
Oh yeah, one other thing, check for residential/rural delivery surcharges with any of the "courier" types.
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.
Can't really comment on the charges aspect and in any event your volume and the discount level must be taken into account to make a fair comparison (discounts of 10 - 60% are available from UPS).
On the delivery time aspects, when they deliver they are usually quite good but they are not beyond "losing" packages for a few weeks. So far I've never had one totally disappear
but I've had a few take a very long strange trip on the way to their destination.
Example
Package shipped Toronto to Buffalo, after 2 weeks somebody in the Montreal UPS depot thought it might be nice to send the package back to me! A week later I got a call from UPS letting me know that in spite of their best efforts they could not trace the package!
Don't let me put you off however, if the pricing works for you UPS is a perfectly good alternative to Canada Post. DHL is another to investigate, there are a lot of US based sellers who use them.
Oh yeah, one other thing, check for residential/rural delivery surcharges with any of the "courier" types.
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.
I ship 100's of boxes a week via UPS and I don't ever recall one going missing for weeks when shipped to the U.S. They may get delayed a day or two due to weather or human error at the sorting plant but never weeks.
In Canada however, I advocate using Canada Post for anything outside a major city. All of the courier companies, including UPS, use independent contractors for rural areas and small towns. They can be notoriously unreliable.
UPS also has a little system called Quantum View. If you enroll (it's free), they will send you an e-mail EVERY TIME one of your packages is unusually delayed. The great thing about this is that, unless it is an extreme weather occurrence (aka Act of God), you can call up and get your entire shipping charge refunded in full due to their missing their guaranteed delivery date, even if it's only a day.
In Canada however, I advocate using Canada Post for anything outside a major city. All of the courier companies, including UPS, use independent contractors for rural areas and small towns. They can be notoriously unreliable.
UPS also has a little system called Quantum View. If you enroll (it's free), they will send you an e-mail EVERY TIME one of your packages is unusually delayed. The great thing about this is that, unless it is an extreme weather occurrence (aka Act of God), you can call up and get your entire shipping charge refunded in full due to their missing their guaranteed delivery date, even if it's only a day.
Monique
I generally agree, 98% of my UPS shipments have been handled well, just wanted to convey that none are perfect.
Quantum View is good but have you noticed that "exceptions" are not always reported as they used to be. Up until recently I would get the occasional exception report when there was a delay, recently they don't seem to be tracking exceptions in the same way so it's not generating a notice as it did in the past. They are now referring to these these "glitches" as "rescheduled".
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.
I generally agree, 98% of my UPS shipments have been handled well, just wanted to convey that none are perfect.
Quantum View is good but have you noticed that "exceptions" are not always reported as they used to be. Up until recently I would get the occasional exception report when there was a delay, recently they don't seem to be tracking exceptions in the same way so it's not generating a notice as it did in the past. They are now referring to these these "glitches" as "rescheduled".
"What else could I do? I had no trade so I became a peddler" - Lazarus Greenberg 1915
- answering Trolls is voluntary, my policy is not to participate.
You are right, no one is perfect, but I've only ever had serious problems with UPS to rural Canada.
They are now referring to these these "glitches" as "rescheduled".
Yes, but even if they are "rescheduled" you can get a full credit on your bill if they miss the delivery guarantee.
They are now referring to these these "glitches" as "rescheduled".
Yes, but even if they are "rescheduled" you can get a full credit on your bill if they miss the delivery guarantee.
