how to buy from a company that does not ship to canada

[vincent-poon]

hello friends,

I've been wanting a jacket from www.backcountry.com for a while, but unfortunately they do not ship to Canada with some brands. I dont have any relatives in the states, so I cant ship it to the states.

I know there are proxy services, but I've never really dealt with them before, and can PO boxes help?

thanks all.

[Havo]

A lot of people/places don't ship to PO boxes since its an easy way for people to scam. There are proxy services or you can have the item shipped to one of those places that are just over the boarder and drive over to pick it up. They charge a fee for this service.

[Madchester]

eBay?

Neither Topman UK or US ship to Canada, but I've been able to find two coats I wanted via eBay. Got both items for 1/2 of the MSRP too.

[JJ23]

I signed up for bongous.com (Bongo US), a fairly large looking operation. I haven't tried it yet, but paid the 5$ initial charge, and sent in the form 53(?) for USPS authorization for them to reship. I believe thats so they can receive locally from US via USPS, and I believe they only mail to Canada and others, via DHL.

The reason I haven't tried them yet is I've found alternatives to getting the goods I needed from other sellers (non ebay, but lots of searching) & i'm admittedly a little wary - because while they look good and have some presence online, theres a negative stories too. I'm sure I'll use them one day though.

Hope this helps.

[meems]

I signed up to Borderlinx.com. This is one of the sites that will proxy-ship items from US to Canada. I was not worried because they have dealings with Visa where they give you a 15% discount for your first month membership.

I signed up because I also wanted to make a purchase that wouldn't ship here. The merchant from whom I bought the item, charged me $16 to get the item to the Borderlinx site. Borderlinx wanted to charge me $108 to ship to me!!! And that is not including duty and taxes...duty and taxes were actually quite reasonable. I had used their shipping cost calculator and the quote I received was nowhere near the amount they wanted to charge me. And often, you don;t even know what the merchant's package dimensions will be. They told me that I should have asked the merchant. Whatever...

So, if you're planning on using Bordelinx, watch their shipping rates!!

[vincent-poon]

wow, thanks, looks like i wont be using borderlinx, haha.
with bongo US, if they use DHL, wouldnt there be a great chance i will get charged by duties and customs?
I've gotten many things from USPS, but have never been charged with fees, only UPS, and fedex, haha.

[Mystix]

If you have access to a car, you can drive to USAdress 5mins away from the Canadian border.

You have your package sent to them and you pick it up for $5. I do have the though that they could close shop and take off with my package, but they have never disappointed me. Quite a few members on this board also use their services.

[vincent-poon]

If you have access to a car, you can drive to USAdress 5mins away from the Canadian border.

You have your package sent to them and you pick it up for $5. I do have the though that they could close shop and take off with my package, but they have never disappointed me. Quite a few members on this board also use their services.

is this place reliable?
it looks kinda shady from the picture on their site, haha

[murdoc2k]

I'm looking for similar alternatives, but unfortunately, I don't live close enough to the border to make this trip affordable and feasible (in terms of time).

[pmc]

Move, it's that simple

[CanuckBassist]

is this place reliable?
it looks kinda shady from the picture on their site, haha

I had two packages shipped there, definitely no problems. Make sure you bring US money. They gave me really horrible conversion rates for Canadian money.

[ji_hyun_jun]

you can either drive across the border or use a forwarding service. I used 'thelettercarrier' to forward something to me, which worked out fine. They charged for shipping the item, a flat rate for the forwarding service itself ($5), and flat rate for receiving ($2) the item.

However, reviews for thelettercarrier have not been great, which I found out after using them, but i didn't run into any problems personally. There's an entire thread on these services in shopping discussion.

[Angry-Lemming]

Most MailBoxes Etc, now known as The UPS Store will accept your packages. Just find the nearest branch location across the border and ask them for details.

Shipping address would be:

Your Name
C/O The UPS Store
UPStore address

[Evil Baby]

I've used this place at least 8 times. Of course it's bout 7 minutes from my house but if you want to make a day trip down to Niagara Falls it's a easy jump over the boarder to pick up your parcel.

However before you try to ship to a place in the U.S., does the company you are trying to buy an item from accept Canadian credit cards? I know one place I was trying to shop at did not. I had to wait nearly a year until they accepted Paypal.

[vincent-poon]

I've used this place at least 8 times. Of course it's bout 7 minutes from my house but if you want to make a day trip down to Niagara Falls it's a easy jump over the boarder to pick up your parcel.

However before you try to ship to a place in the U.S., does the company you are trying to buy an item from accept Canadian credit cards? I know one place I was trying to shop at did not. I had to wait nearly a year until they accepted Paypal.

How are their rates and service like?
But I've already purchased the jacket, and I went with USaddress. I read some other forums' suggestions, and most of them suggest usaddress. Gonna pick it up on saturday, will update on the service and their authenticity.

thank you for all the help.