Canadian Buyers of US Parts Beware

[tawheed]

I've pretty much ordered all my parts thus far through Pelican Parts, both the shipping and the service have been spectacular..

[brian325is]

I always try to look for items that will be shipped by USPS. UPS fees are way out of line, not to mention you need to have someone home to sign and pay for the package.

I also found this site useful to determine fees related to ebay purchases

http://www.myborderpro.com/2006/

[clickman]

There are a few threads here about this. I'm another that has been ripped off by UPS and their ridiculous brokerage charges.

Someone said you can act as your own broker, although I haven't done that myself and am not sure about the practicality.

I like to order from Suncoast Porsche in Florida, but up to my last order a year or two ago they would only sent by UPS and not USPS. Apparently that has changed, and USPS is always the way to go if the alternative is UPS.

[ekam]

This might be useful.

http://www.myus.com/

[clickman]

Originally Posted by ekam

This might be useful.

http://www.myus.com/

Have you tried this?

[coolbreeze551]

Originally Posted by clickman

Have you tried this?

I haven't tried the site but if it is legit it seems pretty bad ass. I don't know if I would try it until I knew it was legit though.

[ekam]

No I have not tried that website.

Just ordered the X51 oil pan & deep sump spacer from Suncoast this morning. No problem with shipping USPS. I love those guys, I wish there are more businesses like them in Canada.

[coolbreeze551]

Originally Posted by clickman

There are a few threads here about this. I'm another that has been ripped off by UPS and their ridiculous brokerage charges.

Someone said you can act as your own broker, although I haven't done that myself and am not sure about the practicality.

I like to order from Suncoast Porsche in Florida, but up to my last order a year or two ago they would only sent by UPS and not USPS. Apparently that has changed, and USPS is always the way to go if the alternative is UPS.

You may be thinking of Sunset parts in Oregon. I just ordered from both Suncoast in Florida and sunset in Oregon within the last 2 weeks and Suncoast lets you choose between UPS and USPS but Sunset doesn't. Sunset will only ship UPS, that's how I got hosed.

[coolbreeze551]

Thank you ekam and brian325is. Those sites should come in handy next time I place an order.

[The Radium King]

i too despise ups, and resent lazy vendors that will only ship ups. usps rocks; you still have to pay customs, but it's a fraction of what ups charges.

not many canadian vendors of parts that are competitive even with customs added. i've used lne, pelican and suncoast previously; good to hear that suncoast is allowing usps now.

[clickman]

Originally Posted by coolbreeze551

You may be thinking of Sunset parts in Oregon. I just ordered from both Suncoast in Florida and sunset in Oregon within the last 2 weeks and Suncoast lets you choose between UPS and USPS but Sunset doesn't. Sunset will only ship UPS, that's how I got hosed.

No, it was definitely Suncoast. They've changed, which is good.

I'd also considered Sunset (when UPS wasn't the only option), but they'd been ripped off by some Canadians and refused to ship without a lot of private information.

Looks like it'll be Suncoast when I need my new water pump, front engine mount, fuel filter, oil filter, plugs. But the new 160 thermostat will come from LN Eng! (And maybe the spin-on filter adaptor.)

Unfortunately that'll all have to wait until my own personal piece of the North American economy recovers!