MOTM

We have 2 issues here:

1. what is easiest & cheapest to ship 
2. what is cheapest & easiest to receive

UPS may very well be the easiest to ship with, but that is not what I was
talking about at all.  I was trying to give the *receivers* perspective.  I
think that was abundantly clear in my post.

>I suspect that a lot of the problems that have come up have more to 
>do with the customs service in the destination country than the 
>shipping method.  We have had problems ourselves when importing raw 

You suspect wrong.  I'm not an idiot, and my post was based on facts, not on
opinions.   UPS charges more for brokerage (notice I said "brokerage", not
"duty") than almost any other method of shipping.... and we're not talking a
little bit here, it's a lot more expensive, especially if it's a high-value
shipment.

My point is, it may very well be ewasy to ship UPS domestically in the US.
It might be easy to ship UPS internationally from the US, BUT UPS is a royal
pain when you're on the receiving end in Canada (I suspect it is for other
countries as well, but I cannot comment).  I'm always disappointed to find
out that a vendor will only ship UPS, because I know it going to cost me an
extra 5% or so. 
Read my lips :  UPS IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE WAY (total cost) TO GET A PACKAGE
INTO CANADA.

Pau