This new Duty for Canadians buying items from the US that's now on most items

[rdmidd]

This Duty Fee that's now appearing on most US items for sale to Canadians .  Is against E Bay policy. E Bay clearly states that The responcibility of paying duty  is the Buyers not the seller. So lets stop it now. Reason .We are being charged duty on items that are not taxable, the prices quoted are often more than the bid price but on the actual assumed value  .  The brokerage fees are higher than the product.in some cases. If and when we pay tax on an item We should pay duty on the bid price not on shipping charges & assumed value for  insurance purposes. This is done by us at any CDN Post office who charges us stated duty on value +$5 service charge. Roy Middleton

[ut.babe]

Canada Post actually charges close to $10 now for a fee.  It used to be $5. 

Pitney Bowes, who is doing this collecting here, their fee is around $5.

The 'duty' is more often than not applicable Sales Tax, not 'duty' which is a separate category, and unfortunatly I'm fairly sure that sales tax is charged on the shipping cost of items that you - lets say - mail order from a company in Canada.  So I'm only guessing it might well be charged on shipping from US as well.

All that said, those are only minor clarifications.  I don't care for the GSP, won't buy from sellers who use it, and I don't mind paying sales tax and/or duty if our Canada Border Services (not the Post Office, though they act as collectors when the CBS tells them to collect) decrees I must but I don't like paying it up front to someone else.

This cost which is part of ebays GSP (Global Shipping Program), is appearing on listings by US Sellers (as opposed to 'now on most items').

Totally sucks, agreed, as you will see if you scope most of the posts by Cndns regarding it here - and a number of US sellers as well.

[marnotom!]

An elaboration on your clarification, if I may, ut.babe.  😉

A number of U.S.-based online retailers are now set up to collect taxes prior to the item being shipped to Canada.  Borderfree (formerly owned by Canada Post!) is contracted out to handle this for a number of clients, such as Eddie Bauer, Sears and JC Penney. 

Amazon likely does something similar for items sold through their fulfillment division.  I once compared the cost of a mobile phone on the .com site to the same phone being sold by the same seller through the .ca site and the difference in price was quite substantial.  For grins and giggles, I started going through the checkout process and noted that GST and PST were "zero" on the invoice, which leads me to suspect that they were folded into the item's selling price.

[ut.babe]

"An elaboration on your clarification, if I may, ut.babe."

Absolutely!!! 🙂
I'm pretty sure you're right as well, I noticed the same thing.

[jidraw66]

Listen to this!!  I purchased an item from the US.  It cost me 31.00.  I paid $30.00 in shipping charges.  $10. to the seller and $20.00 to Pitney Bowes.  The item arrived totally smashed up.  Seller is returning my purchase money and I believe the $10.00 shipping charge..  It is on its way through Paypal.  Pitney Bowes/ Global Shipping has $20.00 of my good money for shipping a parcel that was opened up and repackaged in KY at their Global Shipping Centre. This package left WI, made it to KY and was opened.  They placed a piece of paper inside stating that they had done so.  There was no mention of the item/items being crushed so I assumed that they were destroyed after they were repackaged and sent on to me.  Some of the items were so bad that I would have to say that they were damamged while out of the box and not during shipping.  Some were partially unwrapped. 

[afantiques]

Did you open a SNAD case? (Seriously not as Described) . If you just dealt informally with the seller, you won't get the PB fees refunded, you do need to go through the formal process, as ebay/PB will refund all your payment if an item is damaged in transit.

If you did go through the formal process, the PB portion of the payment may take a day or two to arrive.

[redladybug222]

I agree, lets stop it now. I will not be buying from sellers with GSP....and will go on other sites to purchase items....

[jidraw66]

Well my Seller is awesome!!  She refunded my charges for payment PLUS the shipping!!  WOW!!  winter13koz was so awesome!!  And then EBAY tells me that they will refund my money to Pitney Bowes!!  I get it all.

[redladybug222]

How can we make sellers aware not all items are charged with these fees and by choosing GSP they could potentially loose sales.  It should not be up to GSP to collect these fees.  I'm sure, GSP's only goal is to line their pockets.  I am very disappointed in Ebay.  It is not right to have to pay 1/3 more for an item when import/duty fees may not be applicable.  This should be between the buyer and Canadian Customs (or the CANADIAN company responsible to collect)...NOT GSP. 

[afantiques]

How can we make sellers aware not all items are charged with these fees and by choosing GSP they could potentially loose sales

there is not much buyers can do, but posting your comments on the ebay.com Seller Central board is the nearest you will get to US based sellers.

If every Canadian who complains here posted on seller central on US ebay it might get noticed more.

[redladybug222]

Thank you......my next stop ebay.com

[ut.babe]

Interesting that they are now including a note to say they opened it. Don't think that was always the way, but it should have been.
Thank you for posting the pic of that note. Glad you got your money back too!

[femmefan1946]

I'm sure, GSP's only goal is to line their pockets. 

Well. yeah.

They are a business. That is why I sell on eBay too. To line my pockets.

Pitney Bowes, which handles the program for eBay, do this by providing a service to their customers.

YOU are NOT their customer. (And for the record, you are not eBay's customer either.)

The customer is the US seller who is too nervous to ship outside the USA (and often not outside the lower 48). GSP provides insurance and tracking and a guarantee that they will not suffer from slow shipping.

The US seller may even get a small discount on the cost of shipping, this is not clear from what I have read,

EBay may get a small cut of the $4.95 commission Pitney Bowes charges. More importantly, they have lower labour costs because they are not handling as many international slow delivery/lost package claims.

[35vblue]

Since NAFTA pretty much anything send from the States as long as it's via USPS/Canadapost gets through fine with no "duty." It's only if they're in the mood with clothing do I ever get nailed and that's mainly one time out of maybe five.

The problem is if the dopey co. you buy off uses a courier (especially UPS is notorious for this), you get aniled with duty and a border broker fee which is definitely an outrageous % often stripping that of the 12% (PST+GST) I may have be assessed.

[pierrelebel]

"Since NAFTA pretty much anything send from the States as long as it's via USPS/Canadapost gets through fine with no "duty.""

That is correct.  With very few exceptions, most goods manufactured in the USA enter Canada "duty free", regardless of value.

However, and that is important, consumption taxes (GST/HST and PST) still apply if the new or used goods are taxable in Canada.

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/postal-postale/duty-droits-eng.html

It is well understood that many parcels valued at more than $20 still enter Canada without tax being charged by Canada Customs. When taxes are assessed on a parcel coming by mail, the buyer also has to pay $9.95 Canada Post service charge in addition to taxes.

[redladybug222]

Why did Pitney Bowes take on the responsibilty to collect import/duty fees.  Canada has it's own programs to do this, along with every other country that has import fees. Can't they offer the same shipping program without collecting these fees?  I have purchased many items the past where import fees did not apply, now I must pay this fee?  I may NOT be a GSP customer but I AM the sellers customer and I for one, and by reading many different disscusion forums, there are many, who are not willing to pay a fee that is UNNECESSARY.  Would you?

[pierrelebel]

"Why did Pitney Bowes take on the responsibilty to collect import/duty fees. "

Why?

Many US retailers have similar programs where Canadian taxes are prepaid allowing for much faster delivery since the parcel does not have to go through Canada Customs which often results in delay of several days before delivery.

The service is not for most purchases by most Canadians.  In fact many US sellers are using the program when they should not.  eBay needs to do a better job educating sellers about GSP.

[marnotom!]

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@redladybug222 wrote:

Why did Pitney Bowes take on the responsibilty to collect import/duty fees.  Canada has it's own programs to do this, along with every other country that has import fees. Can't they offer the same shipping program without collecting these fees?  I have purchased many items the past where import fees did not apply, now I must pay this fee?  I may NOT be a GSP customer but I AM the sellers customer and I for one, and by reading many different disscusion forums, there are many, who are not willing to pay a fee that is UNNECESSARY.

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I'm unclear on what part of the fees you feel that are being levied by the GSP are "unnecessary".  Canada Post levies a C$9.95 processing fee on items that are sent by mail and assessed taxes/duties by Canada Border Services, yet you don't suggest that that fee is unnecessary.  Express Mail from the U.S. to Canada costs much more than letter mail (First Class International) yet you don't suggest that Express Mail is an unnecessary expense.  Can you clear up for me what you mean by "unnecessary fees"?

For what it's worth, while "Canada may have its own programs" for collecting taxes, they're not generally used for large commercial shipments.  You don't think that a palette of hedge trimmers made in Mexico destined for Canadian Tire goes through the mail system and can't be collected by its warehouse until someone pays the taxes due on it, do you?

[redladybug222]

An item I was going to bid on was $100 plus shipping (about the same shipping costs I would normally expect to pay), on top was the import fees - $29.95....this is the fee I would not be normally be paying and I feel is unnecessary. Item now costing $130 plus shipping.....instead of $100 plus shipping. Same type of item I have purchased in the past.  I never paid extra fees when items were delivered previously.  I would rather take my chance with Canada Customs than paying the import fees up front, especially since GSP puts import fees on all items, even ones that might be exempt, as far as I can see.  Unfortunately it's the seller who is loosing my business. 

GSP is marketing collecting import fees as being benefitial to the buyer.....really, not for this buyer. 

[marnotom!]

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@redladybug222 wrote:

An item I was going to bid on was $100 plus shipping (about the same shipping costs I would normally expect to pay), on top was the import fees - $29.95....this is the fee I would not be normally be paying and I feel is unnecessary. Item now costing $130 plus shipping.....instead of $100 plus shipping. Same type of item I have purchased in the past.  I never paid extra fees when items were delivered previously.  I would rather take my chance with Canada Customs than paying the import fees up front, especially since GSP puts import fees on all items, even ones that might be exempt, as far as I can see.  Unfortunately it's the seller who is loosing my business. 

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Technically speaking, any item with a declared value of C$20 or more is subject to taxes (and duties, if applicable) if sent by mail.

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/postal-postale/duty-droits-eng.html

My wife and I have been using eBay since about 1999 and I can tell you that about three-quarters of the items we bought in our first five or so years were stopped by Canada Border Services (or whatever it was called back then) and taxed.  We even had one item from the UK assessed for duty as well as tax.  We even had one instance where the declared value was disregarded and we were charged taxes based on market value for the item!

You've been using eBay since 2004 and that's about the item we started noticing a marked drop-off in the instances where we were charged taxes on personal imports by mail.  This is probably why you've "never paid fees" on your purchases in the past.  It's not that the fees were "unnecessary".  You just got lucky.

I suspect that the import charges on that $100 item you were considering are a mix of taxes and duty (likely not an item manufactured in a free-trade zone) as well as the GSP's custom clearance charges which are described a bit in the GSP terms and conditions page for buyers.  If it's an item subject to 18% duty, that could boost the price a fair bit.

By the way, do you know what shipping method is being used by the seller of the bed warmer you purchased recently?  If they're using UPS Standard or FedEx Ground, you may be looking at paying taxes and fees upon receipt.