Shipping from Canada

[spracks919]

Hi Everyone,

This is directed to my fellow Canucks. It's in regards to Shipping expensive books across the boarder. Who do you ship with? Canada Post only offers insurance upto $1000CDN, UPS & DHL offer insurance but at astronomical prices. I recently got a quote on a book to be shipped to Germany and it was $270 with $1900 insurance! I just got another quote for shipping a book to New Jersey with $2000 insurance it was $150.

Is this the norm? Or am I missing something?

Thanks in advance & sorry if this has been covered before

 

[jhutton2]

For big dollar books, I use UPS or FedEx. Insurance is expensive but worth it in my opinion for piece of mind.

 

I usually pay the extra $ and ship overnight so the book is not sitting somewhere in transit with me wondering what is happening to it.

 

 

[jhutton2]

One thing you might want to do is sign up for a business account with FedEx, its free and there are no minimum levels of business you need to conduct with them. Its quick to do and the rates they give you are much better than if you just walk through the door. my $0.02

[Iceman399]

Postal insurance is not cheap. You have a couple of other options (I am not advising any which way):

- Look for private insurance (which in Canada is not easy that will cover shipping)

- Don't insure it for the full amount (based on the above with it going to Germany they are charging you about $10 per $100 of insurance which is astronomical to say the least. Its often about $2 per hundred) by not insuring it for the full amount and only the base coverage of ~$100. It doesn't take long for the "insurance" on each package to add up to what you have lost if you lose only 1 package.

- See if the purchaser has insurance that will cover it (I have sold to a couple of guys and if its shipped on their account under specific ways such as fedex express with signature, their insurance will cover it)

 

[Artboy99]

My 2 cents: I agree with JHutton on the Fedex business account.

 

DO NOT ship expensive books via Canadapost. The tracking and insurance mean little. I recently sent books via Canadapost that had tracking, signature verification and insurance that were basically "stolen" as they were delivered to the wrong place.

There is nothing I can do either, because the parcel is considered delivered, someone signed for it, and insurance only covers damaged or lost items. They don't consider a parcel that was "delivered" lost.

 

Just a loophole I have recently experienced.

[Chadwick]

My 2 cents: I agree with JHutton on the Fedex business account.

 

DO NOT ship expensive books via Canadapost. The tracking and insurance mean little. I recently sent books via Canadapost that had tracking, signature verification and insurance that were basically "stolen" as they were delivered to the wrong place.

There is nothing I can do either, because the parcel is considered delivered, someone signed for it, and insurance only covers damaged or lost items. They don't consider a parcel that was "delivered" lost.

 

Just a loophole I have recently experienced.

 

 

Geez that is messed up! I would be yelling at my phone until they hung up on me.

[Jimmy Linguini]

My 2 cents: I agree with JHutton on the Fedex business account.

 

DO NOT ship expensive books via Canadapost. The tracking and insurance mean little. I recently sent books via Canadapost that had tracking, signature verification and insurance that were basically "stolen" as they were delivered to the wrong place.

There is nothing I can do either, because the parcel is considered delivered, someone signed for it, and insurance only covers damaged or lost items. They don't consider a parcel that was "delivered" lost.

 

Just a loophole I have recently experienced.

 

I only use Canada Post, and if you had insurance and have the intended recipient contact canada post, they will give you full insurance.

[Artboy99]

My 2 cents: I agree with JHutton on the Fedex business account.

 

DO NOT ship expensive books via Canadapost. The tracking and insurance mean little. I recently sent books via Canadapost that had tracking, signature verification and insurance that were basically "stolen" as they were delivered to the wrong place.

There is nothing I can do either, because the parcel is considered delivered, someone signed for it, and insurance only covers damaged or lost items. They don't consider a parcel that was "delivered" lost.

 

Just a loophole I have recently experienced.

 

I only use Canada Post, and if you had insurance and have the intended recipient contact canada post, they will give you full insurance.

 

no, it was delivered.

[spracks919]

Thanks for all the input guys.

I went the FedEx Business Account Route. Still seems really expensive, overnight is $230 to Jersey, $120 for Ground & 6 Business Days. I guess there's no way around it if you want to insure your books.

[streyouttacomics]

Quick question, when you fully insured the book does the US receiver get import charges like we do in Canada, we get taxed 13% of the assigned value but do the us also get these charges, I keep hearing different things.