Just wondering if there is any advantage to having a P.O. box setup under a business' name in the U.S to have things shipped to. Or would this complicate things even more?

 

i send stuff to my aunts house in the US she lives right by the border and drives it across for me she lives 5 mins from the border i live 20 mins so i got it easy

 

For $5 a box, UPS store will recieve any shipments for you and hold it for a couple weeks. You just then drive down and pick it up, avoiding all the brokerage problems. That, and many places offer free shipping within the United States.

I did it and it worked like a charm.

 

I second Nick on that.

The UPS Store is the place to get stuff shipped to. Just go accross the boarder to the nearest town and find the UPS store. (or better yet, visit UPS.com and find locations in the city closest to you).

Heck, I'm bored, I'll go look it up.

Here we go. Closest US city that I can tell from googlemaps is Port Huron

The UPS Store in Port Huron:

THE UPS STORE
3560 PINE GROVE AVE
PORT HURON, MI 48060
810-985-3400

You can have stuff shipped directly to the store with your name on it. Just call them and let them know it's coming. 5$ US and they hold it for at least a week (that's the longest I've ever waited to go get it).

Here's a map to get there:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Walker...3.517273&hl=en

This is the best way I've found to get parts from the US. You save tons on shipping because UPS ground in the states is cheap as dirt in continental US. It's when they cross that imaginary line in the sand that it gets expensive.

Jon

 

Can't beat it, done all of the above. Just two things you have to watch for...

1) The company or individual will ship to a P.O. Box

2) They accept that your shipping address is different then the billing address for your credit card (if you're using credit). I've added U.S. addresses to my credit cards as secondary addresses and some shops still won't ship it because it is not my primary billing address i.e. Racing Beat...

 

Very true. Both Racing Beat and Mazdatrix wont ship credit card orders to an address that isn't the billing address. The best way around it is to send them a US money order. With that in hand, they'll gladly ship anywhere you like.

 

maybe i should set up a box, im only like 20 mins from the border in the first place. too bad it would take me like 2 hours to get across the border

 

is there a size restriction for items that they will hold? like would large items be a problem?

also, what do you guys do when coming back into Canada in terms of "claiming" stuff?

- Aaron

 

hide it!

if you get caught they will shed your car to pieces, then leave it on the side of the road.

 

well, my room mate has a PO box in the states, and since I live minutes from the border and his PO Box is not even a minute away from the time you get into Detroit, it's pretty convenient.. just hide the stuff in your car, if it's new car parts just make them dirty and say they've always been in here

 

There doesn't seem to be a size restriction I know of. My dad had a drive shaft delivered without issue, and a RB exhaust is no problem. Just keep in mind that they charge per box, not per order.

As far as hiding stuff, it usually isn't worth hiding. With the drive shaft, it was made in the USA, so all we had to pay was the tax. When going into the ststes, we just said that we were picking up a car part, then on the way back declared it. We went inside and payed the tax. It was no where near enough money to risk getting caught. Now, if it was something small, or something that you could install on the car while you were there, that's a different story.

 

I live in Sarnia joe, 5 minutes away from Port Huron.

 

Ok so how would I go about setting up a PO box in Port Huron? Do I contact the UPS store that vipernicus42 posted about?
Another thing, would a P.O. box be considered a US adress?

 

The UPS store has P.O. boxes, but IMHO it's not worth having one. You can ship to the UPS store even if you don't have a P.O box. It's only worth having one if you receive tons of mail/letters there. $5 per box is not bad, but if you had to pay per letter, it'd probably be cheaper to get a P.O. Box.

Yes it would be a US address.

Jon

 

Perfect, thanks for the info, it helps alot!!