New compulsory "Import Fees" from USA to Canada

[what-a-guy-2002]

Member since 2010 (632 100% feedback). I have been experiencing the new compulsory "import fees" policy on items from USA. Surprising! I am disappointed with this policy. It is a negative one on many levels notwithstanding for USA and eBay revenues, as many like myself will now be sure to be motivated to resource items outside of USA, and outside of eBay.

Also disappointing is a story I was told that USPS recently (January 28, 2013) redefined Canada from being an 'intermediary' to an 'international' country, and therefore shipping fees from the USA to Canada have risen 80%!

Must be people in rooms in the USA racking their brains on how to support the USA economy versus just printing money.

[pierrelebel]

"Anyone know when paypal is going to get it up and running?"

As previously indicated, that program is also administered by Pitney-Bowes.  The question should be addressed to them, not PayPal who is only the payment service handling the transaction.

[rainbow71113]

ahh, I didn't realize they were responsible for that as well, I thought it was a service offered by Canada Post

[pierrelebel]

http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/aboutus/news/pr/2006/2006_feb_news_ebay.jsf 

[rainbow71113]

thanks for the link, I see they say that Pitney Bowes is the technology provider, does that mean that they are only the "hardware" but Canada Post is still the one responsible for the items? 

until I saw that for a $200 item, the shipping was going to be $15 (reasonable) + a mandatory $87 in import charges

I was just talking to the appeals dept at Ebay about a different issue and I mentioned your post, we figured out if this item was $2000 it would be $870 approx in fees (just multiplying by 10), now Canada Post would be around $260 approx....even the ebay rep was surprised and said she will contact her supervisor about this and point out that this would be extremely undesirable for a buyer especially if they seller doesn't cancel the transaction.  

Also the rep said that there are revisions in the works for feedback policies- they are going to address "buyer stupidity"  where the negative is obviously in error - for instance when a buyer says "I thought I was buying a book" when it clearly says DVD in the title - it looks like Ebay will be considering removing these feedbacks so sellers don't get punished for what a buyer "perceives"  the transaction to be and instead to be based on actual facts.

[pierrelebel]

"we figured out if this item was $2000 it would be $870 approx in fees (just multiplying by 10),"

That is incorrect.

The taxes do not change as a percentage.  They remain whatever the rate is for your province.

The brokerage fee also is not a straight percentage. The higher the value, the lower the percentage.

It is NOT possible to compare a $200 with a $2000 item.  Each one requires its own set of calculation.  I expect the difference to be rather small (percentage wise) between a $2000 item shipped by mail and the same $2000 items shipped through Pitney Bowes system in the USA.

"....even the ebay rep was surprised"

Of course, as the assumptions are incorrect.

Yes, the new system will cost more money to the importer in all countries in most instances.  However, the added cost is nowhere near $870 for a $2,000 item

[pierrelebel]

"Canada Post is still the one responsible for the items? "

Yes, Canada Post is the seller of postage and the carrier of the parcel

PayPal is the payment transfer service

Pitney-Bowes manages the system - determining postal fees based on information provided by Canada Post and the seller (weight, meaasurements, point of origin, destination)

[rainbow71113]

hello again,

The taxes do not change as a percentage.  They remain whatever the rate is for your province.

not the way it's worded- it says it will be a percentage of the final total, nowhere in the policy does it even mention what that percentage rate is....$87 on $200 is clearly not anywhere near the GST/HST rate for any province.  I will have to try to find a listing with a high dollar amount, these GSP can only go as high as $2500 so I need to find something that's listed around that price to actually see what the import fees are.  If anyone knows of a listing that we can look at I would appreciate the info.

[pierrelebel]

"$87 on $200 is clearly not anywhere near the GST/HST rate for any province. "

Of course not.

You need to getthe beakdown

For example, for a $200 item it may be

HST (15% for NS) $30.00

Brokerage Fee $20.00

Shipping $20.00

Etc... $17.00

Total $87.00

For a $2,000 item, it may be

HST (the same 15% for NS) $300

Brokerage Fee $70.00

Shipping $30.00

Etc... $25.00

Total $ 425.00

[pjcdn2005]

I suspect part of that fee is duty. Although Canada Post parcels rarely have duty, couriers often do. That could be the case with PB.

isis...TP has been up and running since April 10, however, it does have some glitches so it won't allow certain sizes of parcels. Or if you try to use it more than a couple of times, it goes down until you sign out and in again. There's more info in the TP thread.

[rainbow71113]

thanks for the TP info, I guess the packages I've been trying are not ones that work right now.

will have to try other sizes- I was just trying to figure out what the rates were going to be, doubt I'll use them

[pocomocomputing]

I suspect part of that fee is duty. Although Canada Post parcels rarely have duty, couriers often do. That could be the case with PB.

isis...TP has been up and running since April 10, however, it does have some glitches so it won't allow certain sizes of parcels. Or if you try to use it more than a couple of times, it goes down until you sign out and in again. There's more info in the TP thread.

I also found that PayPal shipping labels using Tracked Packet will stop working after a couple of tries when I was testing using PayPal ShipNow.

I found a way to trick the PayPal system to make TP work again.  When I select the Tracked Packet option, it may give an error message that that service is not available or select correct service. What to do is to choose the top menu option of Select Service (no selection basically) and then try to go to the second page. You will get a message to select a service and then you can select TP and it works again! I did this trick a few times when testing Tracked Packet. Worked every time.

[grandogranto]

Yes I agree these new "fees" are obscene.

One seller actually wanted me to pay $19.95 shipping (for 6 screws) on top of the $6.75 Screws...that was me getting screwed twice.

These sellers need to give their brains a shake.

Prices like that stop buyers, forever.

[zanadoo_56]

The Global Shipping Program is a rip off to Australia too.  Our customs/import tax threshold is $1000 - so we are definitely paying Pitney Bowes extra for doing nothing!  Also I prefer items sent by the postal system not couriers, which is how the paperwork reads.

I had a purchase planned from the US....then I discovered the extra charges.  Not impressed.  I still haven't bought the item.  Interesting to read sellers may not know about the extra fees - I didn't realise that.  I may e-mail the seller and ask if they are willing to forego using this expensive unnecessary option.

[fixit7757]

GOOGLE    Vicki A. O'Meara -- you'll figure out how this happened.

[thebman334]

I have noticed this as a buyer of US items living in Canada. "Shipping" prices have gone way up. For example to ship a baseball card to Canada, many sellers are now charging $6 or more.This is in a normal envelope or a small padded envelope. I just will stop buying things from these US sellers - the items themselves in many cases are not even worth the shipping price.

For example, i buy a baseball card for $1.99, the shipping price is $6?

[kmatic734]

I purchase a lot of items on E bay and rarely get charged duty. It's all in the hands of our Customs/ I usually don't pay if items are less than $120.00/ If the sellers are using the Global Shipping option than it doesn't matter what the cost is, you get charged import fees even though our Customs would have not charged us. As a Canadian you should inquire first.

You then have the option not to purchase from the seller. The suspension of E bucks from Canadians is just one more factor of how E bay does not value their Canadian customers.

[rainbow71113]

one reason we have seen such a jump in US shipping prices is the 90% tracking quota they need to keep their top seller, power seller statuses and their 20% monthly discount.  I have also seen some sellers fudging their tracking numbers to maintain that 90% which I think is way too high- currently I have had 2 parcels delivered to me that are showing up delivered in the US.   I had started a discussion a while back asking if anyone ever achieved anywhere near 90% and not one seller responded.  We all know what's going to happen, eventually ebay is going to enforce that on Canadian sellers especially since we now have that new tracking option and that will send our shipping prices skyrocketing too.  That or we will have to charge higher prices to offset the loss of the discount and as a result will lose sales that way as well.  Currently it's hard to beat the UK shipping prices but they aren't charged fees on their shipping yet....I've heard from one UK seller that the minute they get charged for fees she will not be able to keep her store due to the rise in costs.

[son_of_mogh_worf]

For me, shipping is usually a minor part of the cost. I understand why shipping rates went up (I think USPS raised them), but it's an necessary evil.

The problem is GSP is a huge ripoff. On some $800 items, I see GSP fees of $400! In what way is this better than paying $50 or so to have it shipped direct to Canada? Even after taxes and duties, that's still a savings of over $300.

Even worse, some items don't even give you an estimate until you check out - how the )#(@U% am I supposed to bid on it when I don't know how much it'll cost me? For all I know, it could cost me 100% of the item's value.

I just wish there was a way to skip this - I would much rather take my chances with even UPS than get royally screwed. I understand why it's offered, but damn, it's easier to just stick a "US Only" label than to have the buyer really get royally screwed.

50% goes to taxes? WTF? I wish there was a way to ask the seller if they'd ship direct and bypass what is obviously a huge profit center by charging overinflated rates. If it was more reasonable (like say $5 or 1% or whatever) then fine. Not 50%. And not when I can't even get a good estimate on the fees.

[rainbow71113]

I've found a few high priced listings...

it looks like books that are $2500 (I picked this because it is the highest value you can use the GSP on ) (see 230952033231) are all coming up as $396.77.

listing #390571568233 is $587.27 for a $2300 projector.  So Pierre is right- it will depend on

the type of listing and probably has something to do with the weight involved, however I saw books that are very light going for the same $396.77 as the heavier ones.  And these are only the import fees, there is still the shipping charge on top of them.

[pierrelebel]

Isis - since you live in NS, you will generally see higher fees as the rest of us since NS has the highest HST rate in the country (15%)

Looking at 230952033231 (US$2,500 lot), I see shipping charge to Ontario of $43.43 and import fees (taxes, brokerage and misc fees of $344.31).  Considering HST in ON is 13%, this would suggest "fees" of less than $20.00 in addition to taxes. 

Looking at 390571568233 ($2,300 projector) I see shipping to Ontario of $116.67 and import fees (duty, taxes, brokerage, misc fees of $535.16). The projector is made in Asia and is most likely subject to duty in addition to taxes (GST/HST) this may explain the higher "import fees".  The same duty rate and taxes would apply if imported by mail.