I have to agree with my fellow Canucks here...
My experience with UPS and FedEx, apart from one good experience (CD's from HP by FedEx) its all been BAD. USPS has necer failed me so far, asnd if you know a few of the 'tricks' the Canadian customs assessments are not a problem, One thing when buying my DVD's is to buy about three, but make sure they are under $20 Cdn (I use
http://www.xe.com/ucc/ for my up-to-date conversion values) That way I get no $5 assessment fee, no taxes (14% here in Ontario) and get the discounted shipping on additional items.
Additional items are that when you do have an item thats assessed, the flat fee is $5 plus those taxes (Ontario is the highest at 14%) but thats paid only on the value above $20 Cdn. If its wrapped as a gift (inside the main wrapping, with an occassion card) the allowance goes up to $60. Might be worth your friend sending you a 'gift' for that special occassion, eh? There are other tricks... you just need to know them.
Also... make sure there are NO extra price tags on the item... 'cause Customs will use the higest one they can find. I had a Verlinden fig set I bagged for $10 US get assessed at $40 US cause the fool seller forgot to pull the store tag on the box. I got my taxes back by submitting a copy of the eBay sales receipt, but the $5 assessm,ent fee is NOT refundable (the seller kindly gave me a refund equivalent to that amount)
The other pain is that USPS and Canada Post do not integrate the tracking into each other's systems. Once it crosses the border, its GONE unless you paid for a tracking number, and you only see when it arrives. No notice that its crossed the border, nothing in the other country until the package is flagged as arrived, and sometimes not even then. I ALWAYS ask my buyers to tell me when their package arrives so I can tick the parcel off my 'in transit' list.
If its inbound to Canada... use USPS if you can. Outbound, heck, thats the buyer's choice. He wants to pay $50 for UPS when $10 to Canada Post will do, thats fine by me.
'Nuff Said