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US to Canada package forwarding service?
Hey Tildes,
There's a product that is sold in US Costco, where the Kirkland brand is a fraction of the price of the Canadian Costco brand name version. Without knowing anything about tarrifs or customs clearing, do you guys know of a service that I can ship to in US, that will forward my package to a Canadian address? Or is that all kinds of illegal or was possible but not anymore? Brief search on Reddit turned up AI and astroturfed results sadly
I'm looking for a similar service for an item that is not available in Canada. I found the following https://shippsy.com but haven't tried it yet...
I've wanted a service like this multiple times over the years, and it does seem to be a service that's somewhat lacking, but that's probably because there are some pretty important hurdles to overcome and will generally require trust from both parties.
I work as a shipper and frequently send packages to the US, and from a cursory glance at their website Shippsy does appear to fit the requirement here, though I can't speak to their actual service or trustworthiness (though having multiple locations in Canada probably does mean they're reasonably well established).
I'd be curious to see how they handle the actual customs clearance process. They'll need to know the nature of the goods you're having exported/imported in order to complete the necessary paperwork, but they probably keep things in relatively general terms based on your description of the product. Still, it's not always that simple since customs agents may want to know the specific composition or manufacturer of the goods being shipped. And of course, they'd need to be sure they're not moving anything illegal across the border.
All in all, I think this company is very interesting and I hope they're legit and manage to keep afloat because they offer a good service, but there are definitely risks involved in using them that could include not being able to get your goods across the border and needing to rely on them to get them returned to the store you bought them from.
P.S. I see they've deactivated their "Canada to U.S. Returns" for the time being. I imagine that happened somewhere right around tariff day since shipping into the U.S. has been kind of crazy for the past little while.
I used Shippsy successfully several years ago and it was good overall. The cost was what they said and reasonable and pickup was straightforward.
This was well before the current state of the US though, so I can't really comment on what Tariffs and duties look like today.
One other thing I will note, the product I had delivered worked well, but after about a year it had an issue and was told by the company that the warrantee did not apply outside of the country that it was purchased (even though they sold the same product in Canada). Nothing to do with the shipper, but something to consider that I wasn't aware of at the time.