eBay

hold-my-chawowah · ‎02-22-2022

I'm in a postiton where I'd like to use a freight forwarder for a package I'd like to buy from the US and have it shipped to me in Canada.

Does anyone have any experiece with these companies and able to recommend one? It's a one time deal but if it works I'd continue using them for a package now and then but I'm not interested in paying for a service which bills by the month.

I've found dozens but don't really understand how they work and why I should trust that my package will actually arrive here in Canada when there is nothing to ensure that it will other than perhaps a good recommendation from another buyer.

Can anyone here recommend a trustworthy company?

recped · ‎02-23-2022

Unless I missed it you still haven't revealed YOUR location........

In any event, here is how Cross Border Pickups work for me.

I buy something from a US seller (they often offer free shipping within the US)

I have it shipped to Cross Border's US address (NY State)

They contact me that they have received a package, if the package has an invoice on the outside of the package they will prepare the shipment based on that info (you have to confirm it's correct).

If the package does not have a invoice they notify me that a package from xxx has arrived, I provide the customs information.

Two days later the package in in Canada awaiting my pick-up (their office is not too far away). If you are distant they can ship the order to you via Canada Post.

The cost is $7 for a small packages, $10 for a larger package, additional amounts for heavy/bulky packages. In addition to the base fee to bring the package across the border you also pay any duty/tax required.

I've used them many times, the service is simple, fast, efficient and since I pick up much cheaper than having a US seller (or forwarder) ship direct.

All these negative comments you read online are just a tiny portion of the overall business they do and much of the complaints come from US sellers who are dealing with scammer buyers, the service provider itself is NOT the thing that causes problems.

Other things that cause issues is sellers who leave out the codes that make it possible for the forwarder to figure out who the shipment is for (some forwarders are better than others in this regard).

Using a forwarder from the US to Canada is rarely cost effective which is why I use a Canadian based company that will bring hundreds or thousands of packages over the border in bulk as opposed to most of the forwarders who simple take single shipments and mail them on to the Canadian buyer. USPS to Canada is NOT cheap so I use Cross Border for many purchases even when the seller WILL ship directly to Canada.

The last thing I had shipped through this system.

Seller offers free shipping in the US, mailing directly to Canada would cost almost $40. I have them send to Cross Border (free), Cross Border brings it to Canada for $10 (includes all fees), I pay them the tax I would be paying anyway and save about $30 on shipping (plus it's faster).

"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.

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intimewithmusic · ‎02-22-2022

General comment:

I recently read a post from a seller who shipped from Canada to a buyer's address in the USA. the seller didn't know it was a FF. The FF rec'd the package and forwarded it to Russia. What I found interesting is just heresy.

The eBay Protection covered the item only until it was rec'd at the US address (the Freight forwarder). The buyer in Russia rec'd the item damaged and contacted the Seller for reimbursement but as the item was delivered to the correct address the Seller was not responsible. The freight forwarder refused to reimburse the purchaser saying the damage was not their fault.

If you do this in reverse you may wish to be sure the FF has insurance to protect you or else purchase your own for the journey to you from the FF.

Sorry, it was a seller's YouTube video not a post. You can view it here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYaNlAbAMuQ&ab_channel=HustleatHomeMom

hold-my-chawowah · ‎02-22-2022

Thank You. I regularly ship to freight forwarders in the US, but as a buyer it's new to me and the process doesn't quite feel secure (yet).

As a seller I'm more than happy to use freight forwarders.

reallynicestamps · ‎02-22-2022

That was my opinion too, but tyler@ebay recently corrected me.

Apparently, while delivery to the forwarder is considered delivery and a Not Received dispute will fail, a Not As Described dispute may require the seller to pay for tracked international return shipping.

So if the forwarder receives the shipment undamaged (no damage to the box) the seller remains responsible to the final customer for Not As Described disputes, and will have to refund with or without return.

Mind you, an undamaged package with damaged contents may mean poor packing on the part of the seller. So there's that.

Possibly more to the point.

There are two complaints about GSP.

The first is time. Travelling to the Kentucky plant and forwarding to the buyer can take time.

If Delivery to the plant is considered Delivery to the buyer, the Money Back Guarantee only runs for 30 days from that date.

I wonder if the YouTube seller realized that?

The second is import fees.

GSP charges duty on goods valued over $150Cdn and sales taxes on goods valued over $40 (the new NAFTA since July 2020) plus a fee of ~$5USD.

The Canadian buyer using USPS /Canada Post pays the same import fees with a service fee of $9.95Cdn.

The Canadian buyer using a freight forwarder would be paying the same import fees plus whatever the forwarder's fees are. UPS and FedEx charge $25 or more as fees, so that would be something to watch.

byto253 · ‎02-22-2022

I used https://www.reship.com/ to have a purchase sent to an address in western Canada and it worked very well. There is a one time $5 sign-up fee, and a $5 handling fee per package plus the actual postage cost. They will consolidate smaller packages into one larger one for $2 per package.

They provide a US address in Portland, Oregon and you pay the shipping from there to the Canadian address. The site has an online calculator.

I only used them once in 2020 as the company had suspended international shipments and it was a specialty item. There were no problems, and I got email notification when it arrived at the US address and when it was shipped out.

There are other services out there too, but this is the only one I have experience with.

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-22-2022

@reallynicestamps wrote:
That was my opinion too, but tyler@ebay recently corrected me.
Apparently, while delivery to the forwarder is considered delivery and a Not Received dispute will fail, a Not As Described dispute may require the seller to pay for tracked international return shipping.
So if the forwarder receives the shipment undamaged (no damage to the box) the seller remains responsible to the final customer for Not As Described disputes, and will have to refund with or without return.
----------------

I think that you may have misunderstood. Tyler said that if an item was sent via the gsp and the buyer filed an item not as described claim the seller would have to pay for return shipping from the international location if the nad was deemed to be seller caused as in the seller sending the wrong item or not describing the item correctly.

If the item is sent through a non ebay freight forwarder, the seller is only responsible for return shipping from the location that the item was originally sent to, not from the location that it was forwarded to.

For a non gsp transaction....If it can be proven that an item has been sent to a freight forwarder and then forwarded to another country, the buyer may lose any mbg coverage for a nad that they would normally have. But the proof can't be just that the address sent to is one of a freight forwarder, there has to be some sort of written proof that the buyer then had it forwarded to them. At one time just the fact that the address was a freight forwarder was enough...now it isn't.

pjcdn2005 · ‎02-22-2022

One advantage to that shipping service is that Oregon currently does not have an internet sales tax so any item sent from within the US to Oregon should not have sales tax.

byto253 · ‎02-22-2022

Nice, that is a top tip. I use a package holding service in NY where I picked things up pre-covid and always got hit with th 7% NY state tax. Though half the time the value was low enough the border guys waived me through so I did not have to pay HST.

recped · ‎02-23-2022

I could give a recommendation but not without knowing were you are located.

If you are not anywhere near the border then you probably need a service that will receive the package in the US, carry it across the border and ship it to you via Canada Post.

For that check out Cross Border Pickups in Toronto (Mississauga).

If you are in any of the major centers close to the border there will surely be somebody local providing the service.

You could use a US based service but I'm not sure it would be as economical.

"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.

hold-my-chawowah · ‎02-23-2022

byto253 you say that the company has "suspended international shipments." I don't understand because isn't the purpose of these companies to do international shipments when sellers won't ship out of the US?

I've chosen reship.com because they seem to be the most sophisticated company and I recognize the Portland location as one I've shipped to numerous times without issues.

I'm just a little nervous about having an item shipped there blindly as they haven't requsted a pre-payment of any kind (yet). Do they bill you after they get an item for you and prior to shipping? Seems they could bill you any random amount of $ in that case.

byto253 · ‎02-23-2022

Sorry, that is my bad wording and I was referring to the US company I bought the item from and not to reship. I checked the dates on my emails and I paid by paypal the day before reship sent the parcel. Re-ship can't really bill you before they get the parcel as they need to verify the weight and size of the parcel, and there are options you can choose. I decided to have them gift wrap it for me as it was a present, so that added $5 to the bill. I liked using paypal as the company was not handling credit card info.

hold-my-chawowah · ‎02-23-2022

Thanks for the info.

In the meantime I've checked sitejabber for reviews of reship and they are just gawdawful. I'm very suspicious of hidden fees and "lost" packages as buyer protection is zero so good reviews are everything.

Here is a general guide for what's available: https://hardbacon.ca/en/budget/the-25-best-package-forwarding-services-from-us-to-canada/

Since the Global Shipping Program I've purchased numerous items via that program but my eBay over the border purchases are about 10% of what they used to be before the GSP.

Also, some sellers won't use the GSP and it's also only good for eBay so I'm searching for a better system as I've never been a fan of the GSP.

So far MyUs is looking good but I'm still checking them out.

byto253 · ‎02-23-2022

I use MyUSaddress as a US holding spot for in person pick as they only charge $5 to hold it for a full year. But the site you linked to is incorrect, you cannot get it delivered to you for $29US. $29 gets it to their Prescott, Ont. warehouse and you then either pick it up in person for no extra cost, or pay the cost to ship it from Prescott to your location. This is from the MyUS site about the Push It North service:

Here’s how it works:

Shop online and ship to your FREE US address located in Ogdensburg, NY, USA
Once notified that your package has arrived in Ogdensburg, NY, log into your account and click to Push It North
We clear and transport your package to our Prescott, Ontario, Canada warehouse for processing within 3 business days
Depending on your Push It North instructions, your goods can either be picked up in Prescott or forwarded directly to your front door using the most affordable carrier option available

The review site also implies that MyUS does package consolidation, but what the site says is "You can save on shipping fees by having multiple packages shipped at once from the same retailer!", not that they consolidate for you. I did ask about that when there in person and they said if there were small items to call them about putting them together - it is not a main line service they explicitly offer. I think whoever writes for that site may have glanced over it a bit to quickly and did not comprehend it correctly.

I totally recommend MyUS to anyone looking for a packing holding service, they are good folks and run a solid operation - everything that comes in gets a barcode sticker and number and is put into their system. I had items there for almost 2 years becase of Covid and they only charged me the 1 year fee. As a forwarding service though, it adds up with the $29 + Canadian shipping cost.

Good luck and let us know how it goes with whoever you choose.

hold-my-chawowah · ‎02-23-2022

Thanks for the information. This is proving harder than I thought it would. I want the item delivered to my door.

I've been trying to figure out how the process works. The seller ships to the US depot and since it's an item shipped within the US there is no cutom's delcaration.

When they ship to Canada they would be required to fill out the custom's forms but since they don't know what's in the package they would have no way of doing that.

It sounds like maybe all these services might just forward to another depot in Canada and that's of no use to me. Yikes!

hold-my-chawowah · ‎02-23-2022

Also.... wouldn't the seller also be required to collect US taxes to the destination State?

marnotom! · ‎02-23-2022

@hold-my-chawowah wrote:

Also.... wouldn't the seller also be required to collect US taxes to the destination State?

It depends on the seller's "nexus." My understanding is that if they're not using a "marketplace facilitator" such as eBay and they have no market presence in the destination state, they don't have to charge and collect tax. It's a little complicated. This may or may not help:

https://www.salestaxinstitute.com/sales_tax_faqs/what_is_nexus

byto253 · ‎02-23-2022

Any re-shipper will require a disclosure of the package contents in order to complete the customs form or manifest. I took a look at my re-ship account info and I did fill in a Package Contents/Declaration and that is all I had to deal with, the service took care of paperwork.

If tax is applicable, that is up to the vendor to collect, not the receiving service. @pjcdn2005 posted that Oregon does not require tax collection so the vendor did not charge it.

If it helps, here is my invoice.

One-time Setup Fee	$ 5.00
Receiving (#deleted for forum post)	$ 5.00
Gift wrapping (#deleted for forum post)	$ 5.00
Shipping	$ 23.65
Insurance	$ 1.24

Invoice Total	$ 39.89 USD

The 1 time set-up fee is a bit of a pain but at least it was free shipping from the vendor to re-ship. Re-ship also took a picture of the package when it arrived, and that is actually still available a year and a half later.

Anyway, not making a recommendation, just passing on info from my experience.

recped · ‎02-23-2022