Actually there are hardly any duties on Electronics coming from the US anymore. That said the NAFTA only covers goods made in the US not exported to the US from overseas and then sold into Canada. The fees paid to transport companies for brokering the purchase cover only the admin costs the courier charges for filling the paperwork with Revenue Canada. No duties are included, and our Federal and Provincail laws are what enable the couriers to charge taxes on Revenue Canada's behalf. As they are sales taxes the courier does not get a portion of those either.
Canadian customs officers have gotten so good at their jobs, that if no value is claimed or if an item is sent as a gift, they will often look for an insurance waiver and charge taxes based on that.
I am in charge of transportaion Logistics of Pharmaceuticals to the US, and just as PurplePeople stated it seems only Canadians no how to fill in a B13A or assign a HS code. The americans I deal with have no clue how to export to Canada.
Anthony
That $300 fee should really be checked by another brokerage against the regs. I'll guess they will find some serious mistakes. Maybe they used the wrong classification and it became military parts or something else really dumb. Either way, nobody should pay 10X the value in import fees. That's worse than paying a fine, it's more like being being fleeced.
ensen.
ensen.
Prune said:
Never, ever use UPS to get anything across the border -- in either direction.
I have some experience with Canada Post, having sent out over 10,000 packages over the last 3 years. They are not perfect but they are very good. Only 3 of those were lost (and that according to the recipient, who either had their item replaced or refunded).
We have probably had more than that lost coming in our direction, but again it is the word of the sender -- there have also been a few cases of envelopes arriving in little plastic bags -- more often with their contents than not. And one case of a poster tube being ripped open and the contents damaged.
Last spring, Canada Post & USPS implemented a common tracking system for parcels and it seems very good -- nothing lost & things get to their destination quicker. The only beef i have is that USPS has a minimum size (probably because of machine sorting) and i will often have to send stuff out with styrofoam "extensions" taped onto the outside of the box.
The Post Office also has the cheapest rates -- at least going from Canada to the US (and even cheaper into other parts of Canada (at least if they aren't limbo sized, ie greater than 20 mm thick, or over 500g but still not big enuff to be a serious package).
Delivery times have a fairly broad distribution -- from days to many weeks, but typical is 5-10 working days, by air or ground to most places in the US. It is interesting to note that air to Japan or Europe is typically faster.
dave
SY said:
3 of them were from me, and would have gone post but for the use of SYs UPS account number
purplepeople said:
I can't remember how many times i have done this.
And to add a point to my previous post -- UPS typlically charges at the border going either way (unless you already have a designated agaent). The $5 fee by Canada Customs is usually only invoked when an item has enuff value (or the paperwork catches their attention) to make it worthwhile charging GST (Vaklue Added Tax of 7%) or sometimes PST (Provincial Sales Tax --they are not very consistent on this one). Still it is amzing how many items sneak in.
dave
I would like to tell everyone now NOT to use Purolator when shipping or receiving from the states. I received a package this morning, that was a gift, from the states. It may be worth about $20. They tried to charge me THIRTY EIGHT ($38) for the freaking thing! I ended up refusing the package, because well, it's December, and I certainly can NOT afford to give someone $40 at the drop of a dime, especially when I'm not expecting it. I can't believe these morons are still in business, they're charging over 7 times what the post office here charges. It's ridiculous, and I will be telling everyone that I possibly can not to ship with these greedy, money hungry people. And when I call them later on tonight, I'm going to tell them that.
Yep, Purolator really sucks. I recently bought something from eBay and the guy shipped USPS Global Express Mail from the US. Left the US on the 15th according to the USPS tracking system. On the Canadian side the carrier is Purolator. Called them up, they don't have an item with the tracking number. Called customs, they said if Purolator doesn't have the number, then they don't have it either. Rotten maggot infested c#%ts!!! I can't even start a trace now as I'm not the sender... ARRRGH!!!!!
I've only sent one shipment to Canada... via UPS. Shipment was relatively inexpensive, no brokerage fees that I was informed of by the buyer on the Canada side, and the package arrived quickly by standard UPS ground.
However, the comments in this thread have certainly made me take notice, and I figure I may have just been lucky. Perhaps in the future I'll try USPS, or maybe just not ship to Canada at all!?!
However, the comments in this thread have certainly made me take notice, and I figure I may have just been lucky. Perhaps in the future I'll try USPS, or maybe just not ship to Canada at all!?!
Prune said:
Purolator's still around? Jeez. They've been gawdawful for at least 20 years. Back in '83 I knew a guy who sent his grad school application to Dalhousie via Purolator. He figured it had lots of time to get there - a whole week - but as it turns out the paperwork arrived ten days after the deadline. Dalhousie didn't care, a deadline was a dealine, and Purolator couldn't be arsed to even refund the shipping fee.
My father used them as well, twice, the second time because he figured the first time was an accident. Nope. They screwed up his shipment so badly the second time that a copy sent via FedEx two days later arrived at its destination a week before the Purolator truck.
You also want to avoid the FedEx office for Berkeley/Oakland/Emeryville. It's staffed by surly baboons who have a habit of getting packages to their destination weeks late. The rest of the FedEx operation that I've used is fine, but the above office is ludicrous.
Francois.
Here's yet another horrific UPS story: I ordered a small magnesia crucible (MgO makes one of the highest temperature and most intert ceramics) from the US for about $50 (so $56 Canadian), and they shipped UPS for $18. I had no choice as the cheapest equivalent in Canada was over $100. The customs charge was only $7, however UPS added a ludicrous brokerage fee of $40!
OK now, how does this make sense? It's not even a hazardous material (though one common use is for melting uranium and plutonium alloys). UPS is one of the biggest legal ripoff operations in existence today.
OK now, how does this make sense? It's not even a hazardous material (though one common use is for melting uranium and plutonium alloys). UPS is one of the biggest legal ripoff operations in existence today.
yup yup yup
Definitely seen the UPS (oops! we stepped on it!) brokerage mafia arm-breaking. Made me change to using FedEx Ground, or USPS... Both seem to do a decent job. Canada post inside Canada is rediculous, and Purolator is worse than UPS.
If you ever ship something big, try and find a cartage or trucking company. You end up having to broker the customs charge yourself, but you save a lot in the end.
Definitely seen the UPS (oops! we stepped on it!) brokerage mafia arm-breaking. Made me change to using FedEx Ground, or USPS... Both seem to do a decent job. Canada post inside Canada is rediculous, and Purolator is worse than UPS.
If you ever ship something big, try and find a cartage or trucking company. You end up having to broker the customs charge yourself, but you save a lot in the end.
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