VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION General Discussions Canadian Postal Money order

I recently received a $720.00 (U.S. Funds) Canadian Postal Money Order, for parts I sold to a chat member. My bank wanted to charge me $20.00 and another $60.00(ish) for the intermediate bank who would handle the transaction to Canada. I declined. I went to my local P.O. where they were ready to cash it, after a verification phone call, until it popped up on the screen that they had a maximum amount of $700.00 for cashing a Canadian Postal M.O.
I'm too old for this grief. No more parts to Canada from me.
Make sure payments from other countries are in U.S. funds AND drawn on a U.S. bank

Mike

Because of all of the paperwork and BS I quit shipping to Canada years ago.

Your problem is the US institutions. Anyway I have switched to PayPal and if you don't want to pay their fees just add them to your asking price before advertising or offering the part. Quitting shipping anywhere is not a real solution and not much help with this hobby. I've shipped many parts to the US and abroad and if we all stopped it would get real hard for anyone to restore a car.

I agree that the problem is on the USA side and that is why I quit shipping to Canada. There should be no problem to ship to Canada since we are all on the same Continent but the paperwork on the USA side is a nightmare for the average person who does not ship to Canada regularly like some of the companies doing business selling automotive parts. I am able to ship a part to Denmark way easier than I can to Canada. Some of my customers in Canada have USA addresses near the Canadian border for shipping to avoid the shipping issues.

Canada is easy. People just have to pay attention to what they are doing - ideally on the Canadian side so we don't tick guys off in the US that have stashes of parts lol...

For simplicity, many of us ship to drop locations within the US and pay with Paypal (and pay any paypal fees), so zero issues as it's identical to a US transaction.

Money Orders are ancient and clumsy so many people, banks and post offices get confused as they rarely see them these days and there are too many touch points for people to screw up. You should have received a US Postal Money order, not a Canadian one.

We have a really hard time finding parts up here since the market is so small, so any effort to get goodies to us is ALWAYS appreciated!!

I agree.... No more of my parts will ever be sent to Canada ever again.

I quit shipping anything to Canada after a buyer sent me a nasty email complaining about the high cost of duty fees he had to pay after his parts were cleared through Canadian customs.

I replied to his nasty email asking him why he was complaining to me instead of his own government.....never got a reply back from that guy.

So you let one idiot govern what you do? I've had bozo's do similar things to me from the US. I don't paint all Americans because of the couple of dumbasses. I like Americans. You guys are great neighbours. I've shipped more parts to the US then I have shipped from so if you don't ship here it won't be a loss for me but that's not helping the hobby.

This part was sent to a Niagara Falls, NY address, so no problem there. I'm just surprised that the folks selling the M.O. up there did not know the problems I would encounter on my end. I suggested PayPal but it was not going to be simple for the buyer.
His lack of sympathy/regard for my problem did not help my mood.

Mike

Thinking back the post office would only issue their money orders for a maximum of $500 US so I would have had to buy two to get $720? Maybe the postal guy screwed up as a lot of post outlets are now contracted out and not run by bonafide postal workers. You should have stuck to paypal and let the buyer worry about it. I had and several people end up setting up accounts to buy from me. Really it's free for buyers and your card info is protected. A no brainer for me. And like I said just factor the 4% they charge into your asking prices and all should be good. As far as the guy griping about the import duties and taxes he's an idiot. If you don't know the government will want it's cut crossing the border then you are out of touch with reality. I guess he bitches about paying sales taxes when he buys in Canada too! Actually most items coming via the postal service (US post then Canada Post) arrive at my door sans charges. They ding me sometimes but mostly on big items. My issue is actually with US Post as they are charging two to three times the amount it would cost me to ship same item to the US via Canada post. What's up with that?

The problem is definitely the US banking system. They are so far behind the rest of the world. I seem to go through this mess every time I try to register for meets in the USA.

Guess I'll revise my "Parts Wanted" ad right now.......

I dealt with Tim and had no real problems.

He sent me a Canadian MO with US Dollars,

The P.O. workers here didn't know what to do. They got the supervisor and she made a phone call and then directed her employee to pay me.

When you're dealing with someone whose integrity is sound, then you don't really worry much. I didn't. because I fully trusted Tim and knew that he would see that I was paid.

I hope there is a way for you who have had problems to work out a good way to handle the hurdles you seem to be having.

Best,

Charlie

OK, I give in. You guys are right, I shouldn't let one transaction stop me from future commerce with our friendly neighbors to the north. I will be more specific in my payment requirements in the future. PayPal seems like the best option.
I was more annoyed by the indifference expressed by the buyer than any other part of the deal.

Mike

I agree.... No more of my parts will ever be sent to Canada ever again.

I quit shipping anything to Canada after a buyer sent me a nasty email complaining about the high cost of duty fees he had to pay after his parts were cleared through Canadian customs.

I replied to his nasty email asking him why he was complaining to me instead of his own government.....never got a reply back from that guy.







The guy complaining about the duties he had to pay was just straw that broke the camels back.



Here is a list of some of the additional problems I encountered for many years when shipping to Canada:

Continual complaints about the high cost of the shipping fees.

Numerous buyers paying with checks that cannot be cashed in the U.S. { routing #'s are not compatible with U.S. banks }.

Overly stringent packaging requirements { expect to be browbeaten by the mail clerk when shipping anything to Canada }.

Excessive documentation required for the customs form.

Inability to track the package properly after it gets shipped.

Parts lost in transit with no one willing to take the blame { USPS blamed the CN Post & CN Post blamed the USPS }.

Parts arriving damaged { or missing some parts } because customs opened the box for inspection & they did not re-pack it properly { this occurred numerous times }.

Same crap on this side of the border. Looks like you have gotten all the wackos. Yes USPS does charge fees 2 to 4 times what Canada Post charges for equal packages. Why I don't know? How many times have I gotten checks from the US that can't be cashed here. Actually the banks here don't want to see them as they have trouble getting US banks to honour them. Items going to the US also have to be packaged properly via CANADA Post guidelines. Well every carrier has packaging requirements don't they? Typically customs opens suspect packages so what's wrong with the way you package and declare contents? I don't know about tracking, seems to work fine from here to the US? You have your struggles and we have ours. I work past them and enjoy helping others where ever they are.

Shipping is a hassle in general. I'm sitting on parts I'd love to throw on Ebay to help fund my project but know it will take a fair amount of time to deal with the logistics so I'm avoiding the process lol...

I've likely imported a couple thousand shipments from the US and it's been relatively uneventful, just the odd annoyance. We get used to paying stupid amounts to get stuff here so most of us don't complain.

I've had help from a couple VCCA members getting me stuff when sellers have refused to sell Internationally and their help was greatly appreciated!!!

The bottom line is.... None of these irritating events have ever happened when shipping NOS parts & accessories within the U.S.