Shipping TO the US is messy

[Shazbot]

I'm trying to ship a package to a member here. I'm in Canada he's in the US.

Canada Post is on strike currently so thought UPS would be faster. I got a quote the one day and went back the next day to ship it. Now I'm told I need the recipients tax ID or Social security # or they won't accept the package as US customs is refusing everything right now.

Neither of us us a business just 1 resident to another. I will say the lady at the UPS store was nice enough but english was not a first language. Should I try another location or is this the new normal?

 

[marko]

that is not normal in my experience but i havent sent anything south in about a year.
id try another location / company

 

[300rag]

I think this started when the low dollar amount exemption for imports was removed.

 

[MoPar~Man]

The US postal service is apparently not affected by the US Gov't shut-down. US Customs and border protection is also up and functioning (they may be on the job, but not getting paid?). We ship to the US using Fedex (nothing to do with cars or car-parts). Having been doing that for 20+ years. It's expensive, but it gets there in 2 or 3 days. But always lots of forms to fill out - on line, but again we've been doing it for a long time. We just shipped something last week, it got held up at US customs for a day, then released (this is not unusual). What we ship is covered by USMCA aka CUSMA (ie the "free trade agreement") so no US duties or taxes. We include commercial invoice, and we have to know the recipient's EIN number (it's like a social security number for companies / institutions).

For person-to-person shipments between US/Canada, for items where a commercial invoice does not apply, I imagine you'd ship the item as a "gift" (and actual payment has happened using maybe paypal). You might or should know the HS tariff code for the item, it's not hard to look up. I shipped someone in the US some door arm rests a few years ago, using Canada Post (which gets handled by USPS on the other side) and I don't think I needed the recipient's SSN for that.

Canada post is delivering mail - are they not accepting personal non-commercial packages for delivery into the US right now?

 

[1962polara]

I feel for you because shipping too & from Australia is difficult & complicated