eBay

aramatic · ‎07-17-2023

They say to be careful what you wish for. Well, time to eat humble pie. I was a voluble critic of Global Shipping's mysterious "import charges" and of course the apparent nonsense of shipping an item twice, first to Erlanger, Kentucky, and then to wherever it was actually going. I've got what wished for, sort of... no more "import charges". Worse, CBSA collecting sales tax, charging $9.95 for the pleasure of doing so, and even adding 8% duty apparently at random. The federal government must be running short of money as it's grabbing every penny it can, and more.

And instead of Erlanger, everything from the US now seems to be sucked into a postal black hole in Illinois, inching forward from one post office to another somewhere in the Chicago area until finally being released. Even slower than GPS! I didn't think it was possible. I had something sent from Sweden on June 28. It arrived July 10. On June 23 I bought something that was shipped from Texas. Still waiting.

msau4301 · ‎07-17-2023

Have to agree with you be careful what you wish for is perfect phrase in this case, if we didn't like it we didn't have to buy but at least we could know ahead all costs with no surprises.

Another phrase that maybe works for this change is "better the devil you know than the devil you don't"!

reallynicestamps · ‎07-17-2023

The $9.95 is not CBSA but Canada Post's service charge for collecting those taxes on delivery.

Private couriers charge much more, remember all those threads complaining about UPS's $25 + "customs brokerage " fees?

The 8% is odd. We do pay sales taxes over $40 on US imports, what is your provincial sales tax rate?

marnotom! · ‎07-17-2023

@aramatic wrote:

Instead of Erlanger, everything from the US now seems to be sucked into a postal black hole in Illinois, inching forward from one post office to another somewhere in the Chicago area until finally being released. Even slower than GPS! I didn't think it was possible.

I could be wrong, but my impression from what I've read from others noting this issue is that this is more about USPS than it is asabout eBay International Shipping.s The Chicago USPS Distribution Center has had problems for a long time, and packages being processed there are subject to backups. What's probably happening is that your package was with a truckload of others that was waiting to get into the facility and ended up having to wait at smaller post offices until that truck could be accommodated.

If the seller had used a carrier other than USPS to get the item to the Illinois eIS hub, you likely wouldn't have seen a delay like this.

@aramatic wrote:

I've got what wished for, sort of... no more "import charges". Worse, CBSA collecting sales tax, charging $9.95 for the pleasure of doing so, and even adding 8% duty apparently at random. The federal government must be running short of money as it's grabbing every penny it can, and more.

As you're from BC, the GSP's "import charges" were estimates made up of GST, duty, and various processing charges, those processing charges usually coming in under US$5.00.

CBSA collects on BC-bound postal imports with declared values over C$20: PST, GST, and duty (if applicable). The C$9.95 charge is from Canada Post for collecting those charges from you and remitting them to CBSA.

So as I see it, I see the differences between the two sets of charges being that you're now looking at being charged PST on your imports and a bit more in sundry charges. Duty gets charged less often than you may believe. We actually have free trade agreements with a number of countries/regions now. You can always check the CBSA website for information on what's subject to duty and what isn't:

https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel-voyage/dte-acl/est-cal-eng.html

@aramatic wrote:

I had something sent from Sweden on June 28. It arrived July 10. On June 23 I bought something that was shipped from Texas. Still waiting.

Where was the last scan for your item? And more importantly, what is the last estimated delivery date?

reallynicestamps · ‎07-17-2023

@marnotom!

CBSA collects on BC-bound postal imports with declared values over C$20:

Are you saying that the NAFTA/CUSMA reduced tariffs ($150 duty free and $40 tax free allowances) don't apply to eIS imports?

Or only to those imports actually MADE in the USA? (Which would meet the spirit of theAgreement).

marnotom! · ‎07-17-2023

@reallynicestamps wrote:
@marnotom!

CBSA collects on BC-bound postal imports with declared values over C$20:
Are you saying that the NAFTA/CUSMA reduced tariffs ($150 duty free and $40 tax free allowances) don't apply to eIS imports?

@reallynicestamps , what I said was:

CBSA collects on BC-bound postal imports with declared values over C$20: PST, GST, and duty (if applicable). The C$9.95 charge is from Canada Post for collecting those charges from you and remitting them to CBSA.

Given CBSA's involvement in this shipment, the item was handled as a postal import. However, I'm now wondering if @aramatic bought something that was sent as an eBay International Standard Delivery item rather than through eBay International Shipping, as that's definitely a mail consolidation service.

The confusing part is that he refers to the Illinois shipping hub, and I don't believe eISD items go through Illinois.

The eIS-forwarded item I purchased a while back was valued at less than CA$40 but more than CA$20 and was shipped with a "DDP" ("delivered duties paid") sticker on it and no customs form. Canada Post handled the last mile delivery.

dinomitesales · ‎07-18-2023

@aramatic wrote:
Worse, CBSA collecting sales tax, charging $9.95 for the pleasure of doing so, and even adding 8% duty apparently at random.

I don't understand - this has always been the case for imports into Canada valued over a certain amount. What does this have to do with eIS? Duty percentage is variable and based on the category of item and the country of manufacture. What was the value of the item you purchased?

In my personal experience of seeing dozens of customs-assessed parcels a week while working at the post office, it's been a long time since I saw anything valued at less than $100 CAD be assessed. This makes sense because they simply don't have the labour force to assess every package coming in worth more than 20 bucks. $100 has been their arbitrary cutoff for quite a while now.

aramatic · ‎07-18-2023

This was not the case with Global Shipping. The import charges were paid at the point of sale in the US. The item was then not subject to further charges on entering Canada.

aramatic · ‎07-18-2023

Everything I've had recently has trundled its way through Illinois... Carol Stream, Glendale Oaks, etc. etc. etc. I don't look when I purchase whether it's Standard Delivery or eBay International Shipping. I don't have a choice. What's the difference?

dinomitesales · ‎07-18-2023

@aramatic wrote:
This was not the case with Global Shipping. The import charges were paid at the point of sale in the US. The item was then not subject to further charges on entering Canada.

Yes, but you were charged import fees on EVERYTHING valued greater than $20 with the GSP. At least with the way they're doing it now they aren't charging you up front, so any potential fee assessments are being done by CBSA. This is good for anyone making purchases in the $20-100 CAD range, as they are less likely to be assessed anything. This was the biggest complaint with GSP because people most imports into Canada weren't assessed anything and people would much rather "gamble" with CBSA than pay money up front to eBay.

And even if you do get assessed, I would imagine the total being charged by CPC/CBSA really isn't that much different than what eBay was charging via GSP.

reallynicestamps · ‎07-18-2023

so any potential fee assessments are being done by CBSA.

More likely by the company running eIS for eBay as a sub-contract to CBSA.
Not actually all that unusual, hundreds of US and other exporters do it all the time, just as UPS and FedEx do for the shipments they handle.

And the couriers charge substantially more than $10Cdn. for customs brokerage.

trundled its way through Illinois.

Google Maps would show those as suburbs near O'Hare Airport, I bet, if I were not too lazy to look.

CBSA collects on BC-bound postal imports with declared values over C$20:

Which is not exactly my question.

With CUSMA we should have a $150/$40 allowance for imports, not the $20 that was in place before 2020.
I guess we need the value of the purchase, since if it is over $150 there would be duty and the sales tax would apply on anything valued over $40.

aramatic · ‎07-18-2023

My experience so far is that the CBSA import charges (with the built-in $9.95 handling fee) are more than the equivalent GSP import charges. Plus the CBSA is collecting on just about everything above $20, which didn't happen under either GSP or non-GSP shipping. I even had a shipment worth $400 come through scot-free. The postman who recently brought a package for me to hand over $29 for confirmed that others are noticing how the CBSA is out for every penny. They may be entitled to it, but it's quite a change in practice. As I said, it looks like the government is running out of cash.

ricarmic · ‎07-18-2023

I think the government ran out of cash a few decades ago... 😉

marnotom! · ‎07-18-2023

@reallynicestamps wrote:

so any potential fee assessments are being done by CBSA.
More likely by the company running eIS for eBay as a sub-contract to CBSA.
Not actually all that unusual, hundreds of US and other exporters do it all the time, just as UPS and FedEx do for the shipments they handle.
And the couriers charge substantially more than $10Cdn. for customs brokerage.

I'm just taking @aramatic's account at face value here. My thinking is that if a subcontractor was responsible, there wouldn't be references to CBSA on the paperwork. And he mentions the C$9.95 Canada Post charge, so there's that.

@reallynicestamps wrote:

CBSA collects on BC-bound postal imports with declared values over C$20:
Which is not exactly my question.
With CUSMA we should have a $150/$40 allowance for imports, not the $20 that was in place before 2020.
I guess we need the value of the purchase, since if it is over $150 there would be duty and the sales tax would apply on anything valued over $40.

Items imported by mail are still subject to the C$20 de minimis. The C$20 limit appears to cover both taxes and duties and it doesn't seem to matter where the item was mailed from or where it was manufactured. Having said that, duty-free is duty-free, so most mailed items that go through the assessment process probably wouldn't attract duty, anyway.

Items imported from the US or Mexico (it doesn't look as though the item's country of manufacture matters) by courier (commercial carrier) are subject to the C$40 taxes / C$150 duties limits that you mention.

All this (and more!) is spelt out on this CBSA webpage:

https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/services/cusma-aceum/lvs-efv-eng.html

I suspect that there was quite a bit of lobbying done by commercial carriers and possibly even eBay and/or Pitney Bowes to get their limits adjusted to something quite different than those for postal imports.

marnotom! · ‎07-18-2023

@dinomitesales wrote:

And even if you do get assessed, I would imagine the total being charged by CPC/CBSA really isn't that much different than what eBay was charging via GSP.

For BC-dwellers such as @aramatic, @reallynicestamps, and myself, there would be a difference in that the GSP's import charge estimates didn't seem to include a calculation for BC PST which adds (if applicable) another 7% to the amount assessed for taxes.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎07-18-2023

@reallynicestamps wrote:
so any potential fee assessments are being done by CBSA.
More likely by the company running eIS for eBay as a sub-contract to CBSA.
Not actually all that unusual, hundreds of US and other exporters do it all the time, just as UPS and FedEx do for the shipments they handle.
And the couriers charge substantially more than $10Cdn. for customs brokerage.

trundled its way through Illinois.
Google Maps would show those as suburbs near O'Hare Airport, I bet, if I were not too lazy to look.

CBSA collects on BC-bound postal imports with declared values over C$20:
Which is not exactly my question.
With CUSMA we should have a $150/$40 allowance for imports, not the $20 that was in place before 2020.
I guess we need the value of the purchase, since if it is over $150 there would be duty and the sales tax would apply on anything valued over $40.

Because there is no actual visible breakdown of charges can anyone confirm if EIS is factoring in the billed shipping charges for basing a value for customs? Is it possible this may be throwing off the calculation for duties/tax being collected?

-Lotz

reallynicestamps · ‎07-18-2023

Items imported from the US or Mexico...by courier (commercial carrier) are subject to the C$40 taxes / C$150 duties limits that you mention.

Items imported by mail are still subject to the C$20 de minimis.

Which is a complete turnaround in 2020, because CBSA and Canada Post were basically ignoring low value imports (from anywhere) on the basis that it cost the taxpayer more to collect than it could be collected.

marnotom! · ‎07-18-2023

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:
Because there is no actual visible breakdown of charges can anyone confirm if EIS is factoring in the billed shipping charges for basing a value for customs? Is it possible this may be throwing off the calculation for duties/tax being collected?

For what it's worth, @lotzofuniquegoodies. my C$36 pair of pants shipped through eIS would have been taxed if shipping charges were factored into the declared value. They weren't.

marnotom! · ‎07-18-2023

@reallynicestamps wrote:

Which is a complete turnaround in 2020, because CBSA and Canada Post were basically ignoring low value imports (from anywhere) on the basis that it cost the taxpayer more to collect than it could be collected.

And they still are, of course. There was likely a bit of nudge-nudge, wink-wink going on during this part of the CUSMA negotiations.

marnotom! · ‎07-18-2023

@aramatic wrote:

Everything I've had recently has trundled its way through Illinois... Carol Stream, Glendale Oaks, etc. etc. etc. I don't look when I purchase whether it's Standard Delivery or eBay International Shipping. I don't have a choice. What's the difference?

There probably isn't a lot of difference on the buyer's end, apart from the fact that eBay International Standard seems to be slower, and items sent this way are always subject to being charged taxes/duties upon receipt. eBay International Standard is actually more a way of offering discounted international postage to US sellers. I've seen a few listings where buyers can choose between it and other shipping methods the seller offers.

At this point in time, eBay International Shipping seems to be handling tax/duty charges in a number of different way, so it's a good idea to check the listing page carefully for clues as to how this is going to be accomplished.

In fact, it's a good idea to make sure you know what you're getting into if the shipping method stated on the listing page is vague. A seller using "Standard International Shipping" may well be using UPS Ground to Canada, which can and does charge a lot more than C$9.95 for customs processing ("brokerage") at your door or just before.