eBay

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎04-24-2025

For anyone considering making a purchase from US via UPS here ia an idea of what to expect (it will vary depending on items Coo and value) but mostly so you can avoid a bit of sticker shock.

Sample item was valued at 80.00 USD

Personally I would highly recommend USPS to CP whenever possible vs a courier. May give you an inkling as to why I have refused to defend GSP in the past and eIS going forward.

marnotom! · ‎04-24-2025

@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

Personally I would highly recommend USPS to CP whenever possible vs a courier. May give you an inkling as to why I have refused to defend GSP in the past and eIS going forward.

As the GSP charged all import charges upfront and its customs clearance charges seemed to be lower than Canada Post's charge for collecting taxes and duties on behalf of CRA, I would have thought this would have jived with your philosophy of "the best surprise is no surprise."

eIS's workings still seem to be a bit mysterious, but so far I'm going with the hypothesis that when DHL is used, it's one of their mail consolidation services, i.e. DHL GlobalPost or DHL eCommerce, so not a purely courier-based shipment.

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎04-24-2025

@marnotom! wrote:
@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:

Personally I would highly recommend USPS to CP whenever possible vs a courier. May give you an inkling as to why I have refused to defend GSP in the past and eIS going forward.
As the GSP charged all import charges upfront and its customs clearance charges seemed to be lower than Canada Post's charge for collecting taxes and duties on behalf of CRA, I would have thought this would have jived with your philosophy of "the best surprise is no surprise."

eIS's workings still seem to be a bit mysterious, but so far I'm going with the hypothesis that when DHL is used, it's one of their mail consolidation services, i.e. DHL GlobalPost or DHL eCommerce, so not a purely courier-based shipment.

@marnotom!

It would be interesting to know what sort bills Canadians have started to receive for imports via usps/cp recently. What is or isn't getting charged. As for eIS it was poorly explained from the get go so describing it as "mysterious" is very accurate as to what to expect for charges etc and along with an itemized bill documenting those charges. Not gonna go into insane delivery time allowance.

In the USA with USPS from my research when a customer is charged processing they are looking at 6.95 USD. It's been that amount for years for a up to 4 line transaction. 39.69 CAD via UPS is a little whackadoodle for basic even formal entry. CBA quotes 20 minutes to several days for super easy to very complex, nature of items and volume.

PS. In the past it was very important to realize when it arrived many lowish valued shipments the charges we usually waived. Are duties and taxes going forward being charged 100 % of the time where applicable. Probably not.

john_koenig99 · ‎04-25-2025

Yeah, UPS is the worst in terms of duty/brokerage upcharges. FedEx and DHL are not far behind.

Recently, an order sent via UPS (from the Middle East), with a declared value of $50USD, came with duty and GST/HST charges of a $9.42, and a whooping $19.94 brokerage fees, for a total of $29.36CAD. Almost 43% of the item value, after exchange rates.

Meanwhile, an order from the US, shipped via USPS/CP, with a declared value of $250.98CAD, was charged $12.55 duties, $34.26 GST/HST and $9.95 handling, for a total $56.76. Less than 23%.