@madjimsmuseemacabre wrote:
thanks for the help. This only happens with Fed Ex. Customs plus this and that and all the above taxed. I think that it has to do with shipping to the U.S. first. BTW what`s with the outrageous shipping charges from the U.S.?
It has nothing to do with shipping to the United States first. Anything considered a casual import by the Canada Border Services Agency with a declared value of over C$20 is subject to GST/HST/PST and duty although it's not always considered cost-effective for CBSA to collect those taxes/duty for items sent by mail so quite often nobody bothers assessing and collecting them.
Carriers such as FedEx don't have that leeway and they need to recover the costs involved in advancing and remitting taxes and duty so you get charged a fair schwack of processing and brokerage fees on top of what you owe to the government.
As for your question on shipping charges from the United States, some sellers are now shipping through a service offered by Pitney Bowes through eBay called the Global Shipping Program (GSP). Many of those sellers aren't even aware that they're offering that service and many of those who are aware that they're offering the service aren't aware that it's not really suitable for items that can be shipped just fine as oversized letters. There should be links to further information on the GSP on listing pages where it's offered. You can also read up on the two tacked threads on this board where it's discussed.
