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

[pjcdn2005]

Hi, I have a question, since I am new. I just bought a ipod touch case from US, under $20, so is it true I do not pay anything such as tax and customs?

You definitely won't get charged duty on an item under $20. I'm not sure if they could charge you gst & provincial tax but if its being delivered by mail, its very unlikely that would charge anything for a parcel under $20.

[jakeeangel]

If you are buying from the USA and ask the seller to mark it GIFT and us Standard mail. Some companys wont though But if you send the seller a message before you bid ask to ship it ground regular mail.. I buy from the USA all the time as long as they send it regular mail and mark it GIFT.. they dont charge for gifts.. thanks I love ebay and shop the world.. you have to comunicate with the seller before bidding

You also should watch the Item you want and only bid the last five minutes cause some sellers have multipul accounts and drive up their items.

So watch the Item and bid last minute and watch out for the shipping fees they some will make money on just the shipping alone...

This entire post is absolute bullcrap driven by lack of knowledge and paranoia!! Marking things as gifts when they are not is illegal and makes Canada Customs flag it. They open what they want when they want because far too many people illegally mark things as gifts when they're not.

Do you think they're stupid or something, that nobody's done that before? LOL

[scruffyhampsters]

[scifan57]

Great post scruffy.
Personally I've had sellers decide on their own to mark an item as a gift.I would certainly never ask them to.

[stephanienevada]

read carefully cause you might buy something they won't ship to Canada. Then why do they get listed on Canadian site the should have a opition to not list item. It's stupid!!!!!!!!!

[wpgsnow]

any of the experience I have had with ordering from the US has been very straight forward. when you go into the item read the whole description and I have found that they do specify whether or not they ship to Canada. always click on the shipping information as that will also tell you whether they ship to canada or not.
anything that is shipped by courier UPS - Fedex try and avoid that seller, you will get charged with brokerage fees, customs clearance etc. the items I usually order come via USPS which is United States Parcel Service and I have never been charged any fees.

[sir.maestro]

UPS told us if the Value is over $60 you get busted. We got a $36 fee on a printer that was only about $120. But that was the only time. We just don't buy anything over $50..

[sir.maestro]

I also forgot to give this tip..I said before under $60 you don't get busted..HOWEVER, I have been told by some people who were selling me the item that the shipping was so high because they were including dities- taxes etc...DON'T let them rip you off. They are playing like they are helping you, but they are keeping that money.

[clipmart]

Happened to me one time and one time only lol When I first started buying on ebay, received an item and then got stuck with duty fees. Though the seller marked the item at the retail cost and not the amount I actually paid which was way less. *she was a newbie too* So sellers need to know that also. Maybe there should be a post for that too? lol

Anyhow, great advice and post 🙂

[darkstormdiy]

When I got an item from FedEx, they dropped it off and had me sign for it and THEN a couple weeks later sent me an invoice in the mail. Had they told me I'd have to pay an additional $21 I would have told them to ship it back (It was just a pair of boots). I was surprised they didn't require me to pay the fees BEFORE they gave me the item.
Sellers should make it clear in the listings if they're using a service like Fed Ex that will charge significant fees like that.
That's the only bad experience I've had - other than that, I've only had to pay it for guitars, which I expected anyways and a couple other things randomly, but they were small amounts so it wasn't too bad.

[i-vend]

I will NEVER buy from a US seller that won't ship USPS.
End of story.

At least there is a small chance of being treated fairly at the border.
I am sure that US sellers who insist on using couriers to ship to the Socialist Republic of Kanuckistan lose a lot of that north of the border business.
It's their choice at the end of the day... but I vote with my Paypal balance... 😉

[gregcarolann]

In the past couple years it has been alot more expensive to get things here from the states Shipping has almost doubled everything get hit with duties and other costs
Simple remedy is not to but from the US that's what I do 50% of my purchases used to be from the states now it more like 1%
The yanks have a way of pricing them selves out of buiness

[925heinz]

This is why a seller should state if he/she ships via UPS. I got caught once where i ended up paying more on Brokerage than the item was worth.
Now i make sure i know how they ship.

[pjcdn2005]

Just check the gift box dummies, whats wrong with you, don't know loop holes of the industry.

Any "gift" over $60 is taxable and can be charged duty.
Any item you pay for is not a gift and its usually fairly easy for a custom's officer to figure out whether something is a gift or not.

If you haven't been charged duty for an item under a $100, it isn't because the item was marked as a gift, it was because Canada post doesn't always charge duty for lower value items. UPS will charge.

It's not a good idea to call people dummies at any time, especially when you haven't done due diligence first.
:O

[surplusdealdude]

Yes, they do.

But they don't come here themselves - it's just for the members.

[teddybearman1965]

UPS=RIPOFF. Unfortunately, so many US sellers are under the magic spell of BROWN that they won't evenm consider USPS. I don't deal with sellers who use UPS.

[ve3tru]

If you order from the US heres what you need to do
1) Don't use ebay Canada most Americans set their bids to US only and not because they wont ship to Canada but its default. So you search for an Item and only 1 comes up. On the US site hundreds come up of the same product.
2) Never ever order from anyone that uses UPS only. UPS has its own broker so they set their own rules and blame it on the Canadian government, then you get hit with all those outrageous fees. Ive been charged duty on things that are duty.free (It was more then I paid for the Item) They bulk it together with other packages Voila now you have duty. USPS or even Can post its the best it may take longer but no surprises.
and have fun lol

[surplusdealdude]

Most things coming from the US are duty-free, ve3tru -the problem you hav to worry about is GST and sometimes HST.

Any item above $20 may trigger a "clearance", where duties and taxes are applied.

Below that, UPS is fine for shipping and there will be no extra charges.

[jakeeangel]

400!!! Ya baby!!

:^O

[lokijeep]

Nice snipe Jakee!