Shipping to Canada

Tdog · Feb 28, 2006

Our daughter moved to Calgary last fall. We just tried to send her a gift by having the item shipped directly to her. However, so far, we are finding that vendors will not ship to Canada. Is there a trick here that we need to learn? I assume she could order something for herself & have it shipped to herself?
I was trying to order her a flash drive. First I tried newegg.com, then I tried Dell. No luck.

Any suggestions?

thanks,

Jack

California · Feb 28, 2006

Maybe order it off a Canadian website?

my Ebay auctions several years ago were sometimes won by Canadians. About half of those screamed that I hadn't warned them that import duties imposed by their government, plus UPS's fee for getting the item through Customs, made the auction item cost far more than if they had bought the same thing new locally.

I soon went to 'will ship ony within the 48 states' on items under $150.

I think it is important that you learn the details of Canadian Customs before sending her anything.

slowzuki · Feb 28, 2006

dell.ca
www.tigerdirect.ca

hmmm, there are others, they are in the US but have bonded warehouses to ship without duties or surprise fees.

Ken

PILOON · Mar 1, 2006

Best shipping to Canada is USPS.

All items for personal use under $20 cdn enter for free as well as gifts under $75.00.

USPS (Canada customs) adds a $5.00 'collection' fee when there is GST or Cdn prov taxes to collect. (fair enough deal)

UPS charges $25.00 'brokerage fee' to clear goods plus another 'lending fee' to advance the taxes.
Lending fee or cash advancement fee is in my opinion essentially 'loansharking'! ($5.00+tax fee to pay $3.20 of taxes??)
Then they also tax the fees as well and also generally ignore the $20 and $75 exemptions.

FedEx is somewhat better than UPS but USPS is still the best.

With UPS I have had (more than once) $10.00 PREPAID items arrive with an almost $40. COD charge at the door.
And I am not alone!

That all being said, I consider it reasonable that we pay our local taxes just the same as if we purchased it here.
However to be 'hosed' by cariers is another thing.

I am a Canadian and EBay a lot.

hwp · Mar 1, 2006

All items other than first class mail crossing the US - Canada border in either direction have to be cleared through the Customs offices of the destination country. Many suppliers in both countries can't be bothered with the hastle of preparing shipments for Customs so only ship to addresses in their own country. I buy quite a few items from US suppliers and I have made arrangements with a friend with a nearby US address (usually no more than 20 minutes door-to-door) to have items shipped there. I then pick them up and process them through Canadian Customs myself - no brokerage or processing fees. Thanks to NAFTA most duty charges have been eliminated but federal and provincial taxes must be paid on the Canadian value of the items entering the country. Amongst other things, shippers must state the value of the shipments. So as stated earlier, many companies choose not to ship to foreign destinations. Others are willing to do so but there is usually a charge, sometimes significant, for doing so which presumably reflects their additinal costs of providing the service.

As has been said in posts by others, if you are sending something to Canada, the best way is via USPS. Canada Post charges a $5 processing for collecting Customs assessments but that is minimal compared to the $25-$50 brokerage fees charged by couriers. Sometimes Canada Customs will decide that the value isn't high enough to bother collecting the taxes. BTW, gifts are subject to the same rules as purchases. What can be really irritating is when someone sends you a gift of minimal value via a courier and you have to pay $25 - $50 brokerage and processing fees to the courier to receive it, even there were no taxes levied!

tom30519 · Mar 1, 2006

I order lots of stuff from the US, and I heartily agree that USPS is the best way to ship it, unless it HAS to get there within two or three days, but couriers charge through the roof for handling and brokerage fees.

Ken mentioned tigerdirect.ca, and I have successfully bought computer parts and gear from them. However, they ship from a US warehouse, prepaying all the fees, so from the recipient's point of view it originated in Canada.

Dell has a Canadian operation, as do many US companies like HP, IBM and others. Usually their websites will have a link to the Canadian side... that would probably be the least expensive answer, if it fits your situation.

Tom.

canoetrpr · Mar 2, 2006

I love shopping in the US. Your market is just so much bigger than ours. Competition is better, prices are really good now with the exchange rate as it is.

I absolutely hate the customs hassle though and the fact that brokerage fees have to be paid. I"ve ordered stuff before that I had to return due to damage and since the sales taxes were charged at customs and not at the vendor I had to apply separately for a refund of those taxes which took weeks- and pay the taxes on the replacement and the customs brokerage fees twice. What a pain!

I looked at getting a tractor shipped from the US. Shipping cost wasn't the problem - customs fees, regulations etc. were.

NAFTA seems to work for everybody but the average Joe like me.

As a result unless it is something I absolutely cannot buy in Canada, I look for Canadian websites to buy stuff from.

slowzuki · Mar 3, 2006

I bought our tractor in the US and it wasn't bad but we do have an importers account on our business number so we could fill in all the forms ourselves.

Tdog · Mar 3, 2006

Thanx everyone. I'm hopeful that tigerdirect will do the trick - - however, no success yet. I've tried their website, but when I try to register, it assumed I was in Canada. On a 2nd attempt, it let me register at my home address, but then would not let me choose Canada [although the rest of the world was on the drop-down menu] as the shipping destination. I may break down & call their 1-800 #. Guess I don't HAVE to order on-line.

Jack