CANADIANS: Read before you purchase from the USA!!!

[canuckchat]

If you reside in Canada - and purchase an item from the USA - you need to educate yourself as to the fact that you WILL be paying applicable taxes and possibly duties on the item when it crosses the border into Canada.

Yes, if the item is shipped by postal service, your "brokerage handling fee" will be a nominal $5 or $8 - plus the applicable taxes for your province (and possibly duties, but seldom are they charged.)

And yes, MANY times the items shipped by postal service are NOT charged taxes or duties incoming - so sometimes you will escape paying the taxes that are due to the Canadian and provincial governments.

However, you should ALWAYS - and I stress ALWAYS! - calculate the cost of the taxes and possibly duties into the decision to make a purchase internationally.

Additionally, if your item is sent by the USA seller (or other international seller) through a courier service (for example, UPS, FEDEX, DHL, etc.) then your applicable brokerage fee will be upwards of $25, on a sliding scale dependent upon the value of the incoming item.

Yes, these fees (brokerage, tax, duty) are ALL part of the cost of buying an item internationally and having it shipped to you in Canada.

It is NOT up to the seller to pay these for you - YOU are the importer of record - YOU are the one who will be billed for these charges - YOU are the one who will NOT get your parcel until you pay these charges.

So - before hitting the "BID NOW" button, do a bit of calculating and make an informed decision to see if it is really worth getting that imported widget!

Happy Bidding, Folks!
:-D

[gtlca88]

I have also got dinged for the brokeage fee of $25.00 from UPS, the thing I received was merely a .99 US cent item I bidded on Ebay for christ sake, the delievry guy insist that I paid up or I won't get the package, so I gave in and paid. Realized that the value on import was stated as .99 cent US, so I contacted UPS with the information I got, she told me I will get reimburse, in about 4 weeks, I received a cheque for the full amount I paid, Yes!

[douglasherbert55]

Wow, got hit with my biggest fee yet!
Bought a product worth shipping at $107 US. My brokerage charges from UPS is $46.40. This will be my last purchase with anyone that uses UPS.

[ms.limited]

I also brought a electronic thing (Apple Ipod) from USA and the shipping fees and custom fees make the price so high that it would be the same price to buy it here local.

[rmori7]

Never accept UPS postage because you will be charged a lot of fees + taxes. Request USPS service and you may have chances of paying no duty and taxes.

[efclan]

how does the EMS work out, the same as with UPS or not?

[spottedcanine]

I live in Ontario and whenever I order from the USA I will ahve it shipped USPS. inevitably I have never had to pay brokerage nor customs fees. so good thread and canadians, buyer beware.

[junglejammies]

Before any more incongruous posts, I would strongly recommend that you read and digest the OP. Based on most of the superfluous nonsense that follows it, it serves to prove that most people do not bother to read or take time to do a little research. Had you done so, you would not only be more cautious about buying from the U.S. but you would have saved a lot of those hard earned bucks. It's better to keep your mouth shut and give the impression that you're stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.

[margaretm01]

I would like to point out that sellers, when filling out customs forms, are supposed to put the amount you paid for the item(s) in, NOT including postage. I had to pay taxes and handling fee on a package where the seller erroneously put the value at $20.23 when I only paid $8.50 plus $10 postage for the item. I do not mind paying taxes legitimately - well, I do mind but I accept it lol - but when it's due to a seller's error, I get pissed off. If it happens again, I very well might just refuse the package.

[canuckchat]

... just fill out the back of the white form and send it in along with a printed out copy of the auction, clearly showing what you paid for the item...

[mitch53ell2008]

I refused a package from UPS because they wanted $78.00 when it arrived at my door. I now see that the Seller has paid UPS a $105.00 return fee before giving me a refund. USPS is the way to go.UPS can go to hell.

[brindlebaby]

It is certainly a wr do we? don't we? I am canadian and get stuck with this every day. My sisters live all over Canada and they have to pay fees with that, if so we write the post office and inform and eventually you do get your money back. Very sorry.

[junglejammies]

Huh?:_|:_|:_|
Go back to OP

[oldtimer7444]

Thanks to all that have posted on buy from the US. I am new to the ebay thing and I have read the postings. I just don't understand why shipping costs within Canada are so high from different sellers when an item is being shipped within the same country.

Again thanks for the heads up.

[sir*edward*ross]

I just don't understand why shipping costs within Canada are so high from different sellers when an item is being shipped within the same country.

Unless the seller wants to lose money on shipping, the cost will be high as Canada Post's rates are high for most weight classes as compared to US Postal rates.

There are certain weight ranges where it is cheaper to ship across Canada than from the US to Canada but the rule of thumb is shipping within Canada is expensive.

[lovelyelizibeth]

Thanks This was helpful for me. I will keep it in mind.

[rebelxsi]

Hi everybody,

All this is true i am sure and thank you for those advise, new to this but if the item is from a store i understand, if it is used do we still pay tax??? when it come in, the tax are all ready being paied for that article when it was new......

[terry13blues]

I found an eBay listing for a Canon camera. The minimum bid was $34.99 USD. My $35 bid was the only bid. The shipping cost was $15. When I won the camera I paid immediately using PayPal. With an 80-cent Canadian dollar the price came to 64.44 Canadian. I shrugged off the fact the seller was shipping via UPS because I felt the price was low enough that the brokerage charge, if any, would surely be insignificant. The seller did not give me the tracking number so I did not know exactly when the camera would arrive by UPS. After I asked, the seller responded the next day with the tracking number that I received on the same day that it arrived in Saskatoon. On the first delivery attempt on Feb 5, UPS left a note saying there was a $34.12 COD charge. That raised my purchase price by 53%. UPS was charging $31 as a handling fee for collecting the $3 of GST. That is considerably higher than the $19.45 brokerage fee listed on the www.ups.com website so they must have added bond fees and a COD fee. Nobody is at home at my place during the business days when UPS makes their delivery attempts. After 3 attempts to deliver, UPS states that it will automatically return the package to the sender. I picked up the phone and spoke to an automated answering service advising me that I could pick up the package myself at a UPS facility, rather than stay home from work waiting for the delivery person. I chose to pick up the package myself. I did not want to risk losing my $63. I was surprised when I got home on Feb 6 to see the note saying that UPS had mistakenly made a second delivery attempt. I drove to the northern outskirts of Saskatoon to the UPS office and arrived shortly before closing time on Friday afternoon. The haggard looking receptionist went to the back room to look for my package. After 5 minutes she concluded that the package was still out on delivery truck parked behind the building. Apparently the fax telling the UPS office that the customer would pick up had been faxed to their office after the trucks had left to make their deliveries. I bit my tongue and paid the $34.12 and left. The camera was bouncing around inside the original box with the battery charger and manual. The camera could move a centimeter in any direction. The original box was very well packaged so it was in good shape. However, I wished that the seller had stuffed some bubble wrap inside the original box so that the camera itself didn’t have to bounce around so much on its trip from California to Saskatchewan. The GST was calculated on the full $63 purchase price (including shipping costs). Now my camera cost $98.56. Fortunately, the camera works exactly as advertised. That’s good.

If the seller had used USPS instead of UPS, then Canada Post would have made one attempt to deliver the package to my residential address when nobody was at home. They would have left a note in the mailbox saying the parcel could be picked up at the post office 10 minutes away. I am almost certain there would have been no GST charge. But I would gladly have paid any $3 GST owing since there would have been little or no brokerage fee.

I resented the threat of having UPS return the item to the sender if I did not stay home waiting for the delivery. I resent the courier’s exorbitant handling charge for collecting the GST. I was annoyed at the poor sloppy interior packaging by the seller. There. That's off my chest.

[canuckchat]

... UPS calling...

[4x4jeepmudmonster]

UPS was sued here in Canada over charging brokerage fees without consent of buyer. They lost.

[trainswoodpuppets]

More about couriers and cross border shopping. If you think you can send it back to the sender, think again. The parcel goes back to the border and the sender is asked if they want it back or not. Remember they have been paid in full. If they want it back they must pay the courier fees.(The couriers win no matter what) If they say no, the parcel is sold or destroyed. I have had sellers mess up and send items by courier when they agreed, and I paid for, postal shipping. Their response and that of EBay is: "the buyer is responsible for all cross border fees". BEWARE!!!