I've been fairly successful, so far, in shipping projects all over the continental US. A friend in Canada wants to order from me, but is concerned about the glass getting through Customs without being destroyed.
Does anybody have any horror or success stories to share?
TIA BevC
Sorry, I've never shipped any glass so I can't answer that part for you. One thing to keep in mind when shipping from the U.S. to Canada: don't use UPS, your friend will be in for crazy brokerage fees as UPS is not a customs bonded carrier - use Fedex or the post office instead. As far as the customs people handling your work, it's hard to say how adept they are considering many of them are part time summer students... Good luck, Bart.
- Check my most up to date email address at:
I've shipped lots of glass beads there - no problems -- probably have to worry more about how much CUSTOMS she will get socked with.... it's pretty horrendous rates...
Cheryl last semester of lawschool! yipee! DRAGON BEADS Flameworked beads and glass
Yu may wish to visit the CraftWeb discussion and look in the archives of this group at Dejanews.com (Google Groups etc.). There was a long, long thread one place or the other (or both) last year about shipping with a lot of emphasis on packaging for stained glass panels.
Thanks for the input. I really appreciate it!
BevC
As was mentioned by another poster, send by mail. If you ship via UPS, they'll charge $50.00 for customs brokerage.
Problems with goods coming into Canada are no different than problems with goods going from Canada into the U.S. We routinely ship both ways. Northbound, the problem is they're mostly looking for guns (we REALLY don't like them in Canada). It's usually a simple task to scan the package if they're suspicious. Southbound is an entirely different problem. They're looking for pot (which we do like in Canada) and Customs usually insists on taking every package apart to inspect it. In the past we had so much difficulty with damage caused by U.S. Customs that we now routinely take the goods ourselves into the U.S., clear through U.S. Customs, then ship from some U.S. point as a domestic shipment.
I thought we might solve the problem by printing up some bright orange labels that said, "IT'S GLASS - NOT GRASS", but wasn't too sure if the customs inspectors had a sense of humour. Now we just take our stuff down to Seattle every few weeks and ship from there. NEVER had any trouble with stuff coming into Canada. That could be 'cause I've never been bringin up any guns.
InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.