Companies that Still Don't Ship to Canada? 142
mstich asks: "I'm curious as to why some companies make it so difficult to ship to Canada (from the U.S.A.). I'm only about 200km (124mi) from Detroit, so distance surely can't be the problem. Companies like NewEgg state that they won't ship to Canada, even though they will ship to Alaska (albeit, at an inflated cost) and some, like Crucial, do ship to Canada but they won't extend their 'free second day shipping'. Are there really that many underlying costs that show up when crossing the border? Is this just another money grabber? Does NAFTA fit into all of this, somehow?"
stop whining (Score:3, Funny)
You must be new here. (Score:1)
The asshole that has the same name [slashdot.org] as you? Read the fine FAQ. [slashdot.org]
Ever browse at -1:Uncut and Raw?
Re:stop whining (Score:3, Insightful)
If poster's scores are lowered enough times, they will begin to automatically post at score:0 but they will still be able to post.
Personally, I wouldn't mind a slight overhaul of the ratings system but even if banned, there are so many ways around that it often makes just as much sense to de-karmatize them to oblivion so that they can post from the same account and just be ignored.
And don't be so surprised about finding that here
Re:stop whining (Score:2)
If poster's scores are lowered enough times, they will begin to automatically post at score:0 but they will still be able to post.
Enough down-mods and the poster's sub-net will be blocked from posting. It doesn't even take many down-mods - I had a comment moderated up and down a number of times and got banned, because they don't take into account any up-mods, just the down-mods. I am still banned BTW, just posting via a different sub-net...
It doe
Re:stop whining (Score:2)
Not quite.
There is code to automatically ban a poster's IP address (or sub-net) if the poster receives too many down-mods in a certain time-frame. While an individual moderator cannot directly ban someone per se, enough down-mods and the poster will be banned. It does not take any editor interaction, it is an automatic ban.
And generally speaking asking for someone who has those higher permis
Re:stop whining (Score:2)
Maybe, maybe not. All it takes is a small handful of moderators who disagree with what you are trying to say to mod you down, rather than post a comment. It is one of the areas where moderation is broken - many moderators use moderation as a way to say "me too!" or "I don't agree" rather than properly rewarding/oenalising good/ba
Re:stop whining (Score:1)
Re:stop whining (Score:1, Insightful)
If people refrained from telling jokes because a few people might not have the correct frame of reference than there wouldn't be much humor around.
But if the post offended anybody than I apologize. I wasn't trying to be racist.
Re:stop whining (Score:3, Funny)
Since when are canadians a race?
Insentitive Clod! (Score:2)
I'm not sure that ethnic origin and "race" should be considered synonymous, but I think this is enough evidence to demonstrate your ignorance.
South Park? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:stop whining (Score:2)
That isn't racism. It's nationalism. Just as ugly, just as stupid, but not the same thing.
(Oh, and perhaps you might enjoy reading the FAQ for this site, which explains how moderating actually works here.)
IANALBIPOOTV (Score:3, Insightful)
Just a guess.
Re:IANALBIPOOTV (Score:2)
I wonder if would a company have to offer it's website/phone support in both french and english. That might drive the cost of business up a lot.
Either way, I sure the main problem is with trade regulations and foreign customer management, not so much with physical shipping.
foreign... interesting word... I wonder if I comes from Foe - Reign: someone under the reign of a foe? Guess it wouldn't kill me to look it up would it.
Re:IANALBIPOOTV (Score:2)
[Middle English forein, from Old French forain, from Late Latin fornus, on the outside, from Latin fors, outside. See dhwer- in Indo-European Roots.]
Re:IANALBIPOOTV (Score:2)
However, there is no obligation for companies (other than regulated ones like Air Canada, Via Rail, etc.) that aren't based in Quebec to do anything special.
Re:IANALBIPOOTV (Score:2)
that explains the shipping restrictions(NO-ONE will guarantee next-day shipping through a border, since if customs seizes it, for any reason, and "further investigation" is indeed, a valid reason, as far as I know(but IANAL) to detain a shipment for more detailed inspection.
Local regulation might also be to blame for something else, lots of special prices, etc... only apply for a specific jurisdiction, so some larger retailers might choose not to sell to Canadians, just so they don't have
Re:IANALBIPOOTV (Score:5, Funny)
Re:IANALBIPOOTV (Score:1)
Re:IANALBIPOOTV (Score:2)
Oops, there I go again. lol
Re:IANALBIPOOTV (Score:2)
"Look ma, it works with acronyms too!" - Rorschach
I could be wrong but.. (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:IANALBIPOOTV (Score:2)
Not NAFTA (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Not NAFTA (Score:2)
The answer was so that they could charge themselves and import duty! I had to say,"Let me get this straight? You the goverment of Canada need to charge the gove
Customs (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Customs (Score:4, Informative)
Why bother getting and filling out the right forms for a small market with its own distribution chain?
Small market? (Score:3, Interesting)
In tech, since Canada is arguably the most wired nation in the world (can't recall where I saw the stats, but I did see them recently), the market gains might be even higher. Think that's insignificant? Walk over to your sales department and ask them if they'd like you to boost sales by ten percent.
Re:Small market? (Score:3, Insightful)
Canadian laws and shipping (Score:3, Interesting)
Now postal service is another issue. USPS shipments to Canada get blackholed so frequently it's just not worth it. But really - why use one country's postal service to ship to anoth
Re:Canadian laws and shipping (Score:2)
Re:Canadian laws and shipping (Score:2)
They like to make things difficult so t
Re:Small market? (Score:2)
Re:Oh no? (Score:2)
Second, as has been pointed out by others, you do not have to offer pages in French in order
Re:Oh no? (Score:2)
You have obviously never been to Miami. Hint: they have no desire and see no reason to speak English down there. I'm also guessing that you have never been in business. What difference does it make if you have totally shut them out or just encourage them to shop elsewhere? The end result is the same. They're still gonna shop elsewhere.
Re:Customs (Score:2)
Well they certainly won't grow that market if they keep ignoring it...
Re:Customs (Score:3, Informative)
I imagine that a lot of customers end up bitching out the company they bought the product from, or even refusing to accept the delivery due to the extra fees. It just might not be worth it.
The smarter companies parter with a place like Border
Re:Customs (Score:1)
but the biggest thing that annoys me is when I go on my roof to chill and smoke, I can see Buffalo, New York (unfortunatly) and can walk to the US to get stuff... but even if I walk back with the carton, SNAP! duty is put on it.
And the fre
NAFTA (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:NAFTA (Score:1)
Re:NAFTA (Score:1)
-Peter
Re:NAFTA (Score:2)
Re:NAFTA (Score:2)
Mind you American do pay something I believe, but a heck of a lot less than Canadians do.
Seems to me we got the bad end of the deal. I guess we have Mulroney to thank for all this...
Customs forms and Brokerage fees (Score:5, Informative)
1. Extra forms to fill out. The company either doesn't want to take the time to fill out the single (small) form, or thinks that the forms will take a long time. Understandable, but frustrating to the paying customer.
2. Irate phone calls from customers who were levied heavy brokerage fees. I was one of these customers a few weeks back, when I got nailed TWICE with brokerage fees (to the US, and back into Canada) for a piece of hardware I sent back for free repair. I bitched so hard at UPS that they dropped the brokerage fees. However, even after that, the cost of the free, under-warranty repair was still $100 US.
Brokerage fees drive me nuts, since most of the time they appear after the fact, and are not consistently applied. This is very frustrating, not to mention expensive.
Re:Customs forms and Brokerage fees (Score:2, Informative)
"We charged you an extra $50 for brokerage to clear customs" == "We saw you coming and soaked you for some more cash"
It's your legal right to clear the package yourself (or get your own broker). Of course, in those cases the shipper says you have to pick it up in their warehouse in {vancouver, toronto, st. john's NFLD, whichever is farthest from you}.
The worst for this is UPS, t
Re:Customs forms and Brokerage fees (Score:2)
DHL is bad?
Earlier this year I bought a bunch
Re:Customs forms and Brokerage fees (Score:2)
Now, if you're not in a major centre that might be a bit of a pain in the ass. I'm in Winnipeg, though, and it's a piece of pi
Re:Customs forms and Brokerage fees (Score:2)
However, living in Winnipeg, which is the major point of entry for UPS Ground, you may have that option. In Calgary, we don't.
So, NO UPS for me. Ever.
No UPS ever (Score:2)
Re:No UPS ever (Score:2)
Hmph... ditto for my girlfriend, I thought she just had bad luck, but they screwed up delivery, screwed up the bill, screwed up billing, then screwed up cancelling the billing and finally, screwed up cancelling the collection agency which they screwed up by calling to collect for the screwed up bill.
There were about 5 lengthy phonecalls involved, 2 letters of apology and probably about 3 hours of time.
She then tried to use the privacy act to have them destroy all her personal information as she never wa
Brokerage Fees, how legal are they? (Score:2)
Firstly, you've got the postal rate for shipping a package to Canada. They know that they'll likely have to assess a package for tax if it's crossing the border. You've already paid your fee for the postal service, why shouldn't that be included (and yes, I know it depends on the value of the package, but that's b.s. in itself since it doesn't cost any more to assess tax on a $250 package than a $50 one)
Secondly, you as the reciever are 90% of
Warranties / Distribution Rights / ... (Score:5, Informative)
Issues like support come into effect; normally, if you buy a product in the States, service for that item are doine through the US based manufacturer, not the manufacturer's Canadian arm.
Some manufacturer's actaully sell different "model" numbers in the two countries with slightly different feature sets. for instance documentation in English & French; not just English..
Re:Warranties / Distribution Rights / ... (Score:1)
Many reasons (Score:2, Insightful)
There are several reasons; one is that the necessary paperwork to get the package through customs is a pain in the ass for the seller. They don't want the hassle.
Another reason is that many sellers only have permission to sell products in the U.S.A. -- i.e., they haven't bought the rights to sell the product in Canada. You need to find another distributor who has bought those rights, but sometimes that's difficult because the (smaller) Canadian distributor isn't nearly as well-known.
Re:Many reasons (Score:2)
The other problem mentioned by others, delays in Customs, I've found almost always the reason is that the seller screwed up. They'll tick gift instead of merchandise, trying to save the customer some money. They'll undervalue the item, or leave it off entirely.
Stuff like this seems to route the package into the "cavity search" group. They'll spend weeks investigating realistic prices,
Policies (Score:2)
Horse's mouth (Score:4, Insightful)
Crap, I sound like a troll.
Re:Horse's mouth (Score:2)
----------
If they're not interested in taking money from Canadians, they probably wouldn't be interested in spending the time to answer them, either.
Also, a lot of the reasons why companies don't ship to Canada come from laziness or ignorace of what's required, legally and customs-wise, to ship to Canada. Companies don't want to admit to that!
Re:Horse's mouth (Score:1)
customs (Score:5, Informative)
Customs and scams. (Score:3, Insightful)
CBSA are notorious for holding up packages for weeks for customs clearance. Sometimes things "go missing."
Cross-border claims for goods damaged/missing in shipment are a giant hassle. In certain high-value businesses (like computer parts), there are plenty of fraudsters who take advantage of this, claiming goods never arrived and disputing the charges.
It doesn't matter to the merchant whether the recipient has committed fraud or the item has been stolen or destroyed in shipment or customs clearance - they still end up eating cost. Apparently this happens sufficiently often with trans-border shipments that a lot of computer vendors won't ship to foriegn countries, or even to "America Junior".
Compounding the issue are territorial reseller agreements - some manufacturers limit a reseller to domestic sales only. If you sell some items that you can't sell to a foreign buyer, it's often easier to reject all foreign orders than to have to check each order for said items.
-Isaac
Parts missing (Score:2)
When I get a package, it must be signed for indicating it appears to be in good shape and seems to be together, etc. Anything that hasn't arrived... not signed for.
You can check that it was signed off upon receipt, you know.
its the system (Score:1)
thats the reason.
One word (Score:2)
I used to have to get stuff shipped from the US to Canada, and I was constantly running into customs issues. And yes, this was after NAFTA.
e-Commerce solution (Score:1)
Canada. Hmmm. Canada? (Score:1, Troll)
I'm not sure I could respect any country that considers a 'Smartie' a stale-tasting M&M-like candy. Yuck.
Okay, I'll concede - we'll take BC and the Yukon; you can keep the rest. That way we can get to and from Alaska (over land) without going through customs. Getting through the US/Canada border is about 50 times harder than the US/Mexico one. (Fact)
Re:Canada. Hmmm. Canada? (Score:1, Flamebait)
And I've had equally hard times getting abck from TJ as from BC - though Mexico doesn't charge to leave their country.
-bZj
Re:Canada. Hmmm. Canada? (Score:2)
The Moderator has obviously never been to Vancouver. I didn't make that shit up - that quote cam from residents of the city! Then it was proved to me, by having to step over needles while walking down town.
Psh... flamebait.
-bZj
Re:Canada. Hmmm. Canada? (Score:2)
If you anex any part of canada you have to take Quebec. You know you want to.
Imagine, the US with a near monopoly on maple syrup, and that stupid-looking disturbing clown from the Quebec winter carnival will be yours! He'll frighten any evil-dooer to surrender.
Re:Canada. Hmmm. Canada? (Score:2)
Re:Canada. Hmmm. Canada? (Score:2)
I kid because I care. You guys are awesome, really. Our first line of defense against those Ruskies invading from over the North Pole! Plus, Canada is where we keep our Aurora Borealis.
Re:Canada. Hmmm. Canada? (Score:2)
Re:Canada. Hmmm. Canada? (Score:2)
re: -40F winter
Hey, I know better - I'm in Seattle, and Vancouver's weather isn't that much different than here.
Really, we should just merge, and just call ourselves Usanada or something. United States of North America? Hmm. Hey, if that happened, we would _definitely_ not put up with any shit from Quebec!
I'd prefer that BC, Washington, and Oregon just split off into our own little Pacific Nor
Re:Canada. Hmmm. Canada? (Score:2)
Hey, I know better - I'm in Seattle, and Vancouver's weather isn't that much different than here.
An American saying that it's WARMER in Canada than it really is! That's a new one. :)
Re:Canada. Hmmm. Canada? (Score:2)
As for snow in Seattle, we get, what, maybe a couple of days of snow a year? That ain't much...
I know, I know... (Score:4, Funny)
Sorry, you really are in a different country.
Int'l Address Issues (Score:2)
Most people in the US tend to look at you funny the first time they hear you say "postal code" instead of "ZIP code".
Re:Int'l Address Issues (Score:3, Informative)
What's even funnier... (Score:1)
Re:Int'l Address Issues (Score:2)
This must be some new definition of the word funny that I am unfamiliar with.
More idiocy (Score:2)
Mal-2
Black market, dude (Score:5, Funny)
I don't know why, either, but I can suggest a practical work-around:
1. Find an elderly person in the Lower 48 states who takes a bunch of expensive prescriptions drugs. That's nearly any old person, so this part is easy.
2. Offer to ship the old fart some of your cheap Canadian versions of prescription drugs. Given the exorbitant prices of the same drugs in the U.S. will immediately agree to your proposal. Then have gramps ship you cheap American electronic products in exchange.
3. Profit!
(This comment is a satiric joke about the American health "care" system. It is not advocacy for or instruction in black market cross-border transactions. orthogonal is not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. orthogonal is not a doctor and this is not medical advice. Void where prohibited. orthogonal loves America and its great Christian Leaders King George Bush, Failed Marshall von Rumsfeld, and Inquisitor General John Ashcroft. Scaring peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty... only aid[s] terrorists [by eroding] our national unity and diminish[ing] our resolve. [cnn.com] We have always been at war with Eastasia!)
Re:Black market, dude (Score:2)
- PFC RustyTaco
benefits of world power (Score:2)
Even Steven, in the end....
-bZj
Try Local (Score:3, Interesting)
Or simply buy at a local store... Like the Vermont public TV said: "A dollar spent in Vermont stays in Vermont"... Apply where you live...
1 word! (Score:2)
this is (Score:1)
It's quite simple (Score:1)
2. See #1.
3. See #2.
Shipping to Canada is no easier than shipping to Mexico, England, Russia, China, or any other country. It takes less time, but the process is still the same. I've sent a few items to Canada and thus far have not had a problem, but I've been sending used items of small value. Not new computer equipment that I'm sure would be held up.
Much more work to ship to Canada (Score:1)
The whole thing surprised me. I figured what with NAFTA and crossing the border so easily that shipments wouldn'
Credit Card Address Verification (Score:4, Interesting)
Electronic credit card processing systems have an address verification service available. My company primarily uses Vital Processing Services (vitalps.com) and that system's address verification service supports checking the leading digits of the street address, as well as the billing zip code. It does this by sending an address-verification query to systems owned by whatever bank owns that card. That bank checks that query against their billing information for that customer, and reports back if some or all of the address information matches ("ZIP MATCH", "EXACT MATCH", "NO MATCH", etc.)
This address verification service only supports numeric zip codes and street addresses. If address verification is attempted against a Canadian address, the address verification system returns SYSTEM NOT AVAILABLE. (It's not available because the bank that issues that card is in a foreign country, even if someone types in a 5-digit zip code when doing the transaction.)
It's impossible for an Internet merchant to get perfect protection against fraud while accepting payment from Visa or Mastercard, but they can eliminate many of the common sources of fraud by always using a tracking shipping carrier (and getting a signature proof of delivery every time), and only shipping to an address that the address verification system indicates a match with. (If the customer is ordering an item as a gift, sending it to a different address than they receive their credit card billing statements at, best practices state the merchant should ask the customer to call their bank and "whitelist" that shipping address.)
Since many (most?) processing systems' address verification services don't support international address verification, most merchants must choose to either ship merchandise internationally without getting an address match, or to manually find the phone number for the bank that issued the card and *call them*. (Merchants who accept credit cards are given access to a system that lets them look up the first 6 digits of a Visa card or the first 11 digits of a Mastercard and find the bank that issued that card.) For small merchants, or merchants with occasional big-ticket purchases, they can take the time to personally attend to those transactions and make phone calls. For a large discount Internet superstore of some kind, though, they just don't have time to personally handle every address-mismatch.
So for convenience, they just refuse to accept cards that return a SYSTEM NOT AVAILABLE address-verification match.
--Michael Spencer
Paypal (Score:2)
Re:Credit Card Address Verification (Score:2)
And then I put my US mailing address in the shipto:
Works a lot more than you'd think, some CC verifiers only check that your name and street address matches.
Some places only check that your name matches...
It can be done. (Score:2)
What's funny is that there are lots of companies who manage to ship to Canada, or even to drop ship large groups of items and then ship from within the country.
It is possible to handle Canadian orders successfully and without surprises, and some retailers even have sites that will calculate brokerage and duties before you commit to the order.
Ultimately it really comes down
Fast shipping to Canada ? (Score:1)
/me *heart* Crucial
Have package shipped to a US mailbox (Score:2)
Also some shops don't have an online order form for a Canadian address, but if you call they will sometimes ship to you. Due to br
Re:COULD IT HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH CALLING THEI (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Duties & Consumer Laws (Score:3, Interesting)
To sell goods TO CANADIANS, which is what we're talking about here, you don't have to do any such thing. And as for import duties:
1) anyone who has ordered anything from the States expects to pay GST and import duty on pickup;
2) import duties are not generally outrageous; in my experience
Re:Duties & Consumer Laws (Score:1)
Damage from Customs (Score:2)
Re:NewEgg.com (Score:2)
I've been trying to buy a particularly hard-to-source part in Canada and BBF just found three mail order suppliers.
-psy