Cross boarder shopping

[mrsg]

Hi all,

I live in Canada as some of you may know. I bought a tach from emn for $18US plus $8 shipping. It was a good deal saying i could buy a small one like that here fore about $200.(looked at all local shops and that was best price for digital one)

My package cost me $20.11 Canadian at time of border crossing. I was 11 cents over $20 so i was hit with a brokerage fee of $20.57. Yes more then it was worth.

Several lessons learned.
1- Anything over $20 they will hit you for duty.
2-If you use ups they will charge you brokerage fee's
3-Call and complain about how i "choose UPS" because i trust them and you ding me for brokerage over 11 cents? They might drop the charge 1 time like they did for me.
4-Call and have all your items shipped regular mail. Will cost you $5 handling fee plus what ever duty(taxes) you owe instead of $17.90 brokerage fee and $2.67 taxes.

Just trying to save some of us Canadians $$ hope this helps someone.

Ray

[Rebel]

Hm, how about if you had a package mailed to you by a friend on this side of the border, do they hit you then too?

[mrsg]

Nope, you specify a gift and they charge you Zip. Now if you insure the item for $500 they will charge you on $500 unless they notice it is a gift. If they do charge you have to file paper work to get your money back from the government. Takes about 6 months, and yes this happened to me as well. They will use what ever number makes you pay the most money to them so keep that in mind when you ship!!! Use great big words for gift.