Ken Davey wrote:
Rant mode
Do these assholes have some sort of a lock on internet material suppliers in
the USA?
Shipping to Canada is so expensive with this outfit that I automatically
cancel an order if that is the only shipping option offered.
Aside from the fact that many US distributors seem to deliberately ignore
the Canadian market those that do ship to Canada seem to be in love/bed with
UPS.
Get with it guys. We have money too but we are not going to be stupid with
it.
UPS is easy to deal with, and has been very smart in hooking their
software systems up to internet vendor's systems, so the generation
of shipping paperwork is automated. All the on-line distributors,
whether electronics (Digi-Key), machine tool (MSC), MRO (McMaster-Carr)
etc. use this facility, as well as many of the big eBay sellers.
(Of course, Fed-Ex has the same stuff, now, but I think UPS was there
first.)

But, for my little business, totally NOT-automated, USPS looks pretty
good to me. I save on shipping charges, delivery only takes a day or
so longer, and I have much less damage, at least within the US. But,
sending stuff via post to Canada, I have had WORSE damage than even
UPS can inflict. I think I have had 75% of my shipments to Canada
damaged! And I mean serious damage, like half the items missing, or
circuit boards crushed! That is apalling! I believe in 15 years
of operation, I have only had a couple of USPS packages damaged within
the US.

With UPS, I have learned how to pack small items to be shipped with a
low probability of damage, but heavy stuff, like logic analyzers and
rotary tables get smashed every time. If I had to guarantee this kind
of stuff would not be damaged, I'd end up sending a 6" rotary table
in a 10 FOOT box filled with foam blocks holding a small box inside.
I just can't understand why they do this! Obviously, they just open the
doors of the semis and push the entire contents out onto the pavement
4 feet below! I mean, it isn't an occasional package that gets damaged,
it is EVERY SINGLE ONE that has a heavy object inside.

When I send any goods over 1 Lb to Canada, I have to fill out the
customs declaration, and the customer gets a bill at the other end.
It seems to take 2 weeks PLUS to get a shipment delivered to Canada.
Of course, I can have a package in Detroit in 3 days.

I do remember getting a UPS shipment of an unsolicited software demo
from Protel in Australia some years ago, and fumed over getting a
$5.01 bill from UPS. $5.00 customs clearing fee, and $0.01 duty paid.

Jon