Here’s a little tale about how I shipped some items to Ogdensburg NY and saved a few bucks.
I was planning on ordering a wall mount for my flat screen TV from monoprice.com considering it was a full-tilt, swivel type wall mount for a cool $35. I’m not even sure where I can one for that price elsewhere! Best Buy has one that says it’s full motion for around $200. That’s quite the price difference!
Unfortunately, to ship an item this size to Canada, it would have cost an additional $70 in shipping costs. I would still save compared to paying $200 at Best Buy, but how would I be able to save some more money?
I have heard tales of people shipping their packages to Ogdensburg NY which is 45-60 minute drive from Ottawa, ON. There are a few options available, but let’s chat about the UPS Store in Ogdensburg. http://www.theupsstorelocal.com/2946/community.htm They have some informative web pages that give you guidelines on how to pick up your package. Simply put your name and THEIR address as the shipping information, and they will hold the package for $5/week in their warehouse. You pick it up, pay your $5, head to the border, pay the HST and head on home with your savings!
You can also check out your family name in a database which will confirm if your package had arrived or not.
I hit the road around 9AM on Saturday and headed for the border. There weren’t that many cars at the crossing so I made it to the UPS Store around 10AM. There were already a good twenty people there from Canada (judging from their license plates) in there picking up their package. The owners of this particular UPS Store were incredible. They had a list of packages that had arrived in the past week and they would find your name on the list, cross it off, and go fetch your package.
My particular trip wasn’t as swift as the others waiting in the store. They only had one of my packages (the wall mount) but they couldn’t find my Pearl Jam box set! Luckily for me, I did have the tracking confirmation that it did arrive in Ogdensburg the day before. He checked the listing in the system and for some reason the package had shipped without a name attached to it. Strange! 30 minutes of searching the warehouse didn’t produce anything so we ended up phoning the Ogdensburg Post Office hoping they accidentally shipped it there instead. No dice!
In the end, this very helpful gentleman brought me in the warehouse and laid down the law. He said we would have to search for it. Perhaps my name was misspelled or something. We figured out how the big the box would be roughly and went to town. I didn’t have much hope after searching for an hour in the warehouse.
The heavens did answer my prayer and on the last shelf that I was searching, I noticed a box that would have been roughly the same size as the box set. I pull it down from the shelf and sure enough, there is a package from the Pearl Jam Ten Club! It was addressed to a ‘Rich Grant’ or ‘Rick Grant’. Strange! Quite the mix up. I was wondering if there was a Rich Grant out in the world who had shipped it to Ogdensburg as well? Either way, after an hour of searching the warehouse, I walked out with my box set and the wall mount in hand for a cool $10USD.
However, I did find out three days later that the Ten Club had given me the wrong tracking number and there definitely was a Rick Grant who had ordered the same package to Ogdensburg! Sorry about that mate! I guess it’s a combination of Ten Club giving me the wrong tracking number, and the UPS Store giving me someone’s else’s package that led to this end result.
Here’s the breakdown of how much I saved by picking these items up in the States. At this point, Canadian and US Dollars are pretty well on par so no need to calculate the exchange rate.
Gas – $17.
Toll Booth Entry – $3
Price per package per week – $5
Toll Booth Return – $3
HST at the Border (depending on whether or not the Border Services Guard wishes you to pay) – 13% of the value of the item (not including shipping).
===
$28 + HST
So, as long as the savings on your item is under $28 + HST + Whatever you feel your time is worth, then it may definitely be in your best interest to head for the border!
In my case, I have heard horror stories of Canadians having to pay not only $20 extra for shipping for their Pearl Jam set (which is good according to the calculations), but also a $46 Duty charge COD! So in the end, I saved $66-($28+$19.5)(HST) = $18.5 savings. Mmm…some may want to stay home for that savings.
However, coupled with another item, I save on the gas and toll booth charges. So if we assume that at Best Buy I would pay $200+HST for my wall mount, I essentially saved: $226- $35-$10(shipping)-$5(UPS Store package cost)-$4.55(HST Costs at the Border) = $171.45!!! What the heck?! That’s quite the savings! However, this isn’t quite true considering I would have simply ordered the one from Monoprice which would have been $105 so the savings on that would have been $50. That’s still money in my pocket.
I’m also looking at returning to get a vacuum cleaner. Looks like I can save $80 on that purchase.
All in all, I think that if it’s worth my time and money, I will definitely go down to Ogdensburg to pick up some items. As a smart consumer, it only makes sense. Yes, I’m sure if you’re name is Mike, you will argue about supporting the Canadian economy. But at this point in my life, if I can save myself a total of $68.50, that’s $68.50 I can use to buy a beer for my buddy who is the naysayer. 🙂
***UPDATE***
Years later, I have continually used this service and it’s fantastic. I haven’t had any issues like I had when I had to search for my package from Pearl Jam. Walk in, grab your package, walk out…fantastic service.