For fellow Canadians ordering parts or other merchandise from the USA. If the orders are shipped through United States Postal Service no brokerage fees are added to your order. If shipped using any other service your package will be held hostage by brokerage fees, which I found this out the hard way to.... (Sorry Gary)
That's been my experience as well. The only caveat to that is the fact that Canada Customs will open the odd package up and assess duty as they see fit; - there don't seem to be any rules and any time I've ever phoned them it seems I've been directed to a call centre in Delhi or where ever. Bottom line, I get no resolution from those ESL rejects. Also, because of our customs people doing Yeoman duty on the front lines protecting Canadian jobs, packages can take upwards of a month to get through. This is particularly true of anything that is routed through Montreal, where again, ESL issues arise and their natural propensity to tax and collect comes into play. Any other service, courier, hotshot, whatever, gets to go through the brokerage route which tends to be punitive and expensive, as these people tend to think the rest of us owe them a living. Oh, and I'm not bitter...
When the box gets opened at Canada Customs You run the risk of someone with sticky fingers deciding if you need everything or not....just saying I could happen, not bitter either
I have ordered quite a few small parts and an A/C condenser through Rock Auto this past summer and while the shipping was expensive (typically 50% of the order) there were no extra brokerage charges. They seem to have it all figured out. luckily I’m also close to the border with an American brother in law who works for USPS (Essential service apparently) so he’s picked up some other items for me that I didn’t need right away and brought them over.
I have noticed on some sites shipping from the U.S charge an additional fee of $16.50 for international shipping. Anyone know why?
May be due to the fact that they have to fill out customs forms. 16.50 is a lot for 5 minutes to fill out the form though.
Back in 2005 I bought a throttle cable for my 72 GS. Postage to the U.S. was $6.00, but to ship to me in Canada it was $12.00. When I received the package the actual postage was $2 bucks and change. I find that as soon as you want a package to cross the border, it is best to just bend over and accept the reaming, because that is the way it is. I wanted two paper detail tags from Year One. The tags cost $16.00 in total and Year One wanted $28.00 to mail what could easily go in a plain letter envelope for a couple of bucks. Thanks to Lucas for helping me out on that purchase. It costs us in Canada a $hitload more to do our cars than it does for you guys south of the 49th parallel. I really feel for any overseas customers, who have it worse than we do. Cheers
Because they can. That's how Pitney-Bowes rips off foreigners and makes money, they charge duty, extra taxes and other fees on crap that according to Canada Customs is not liable to duty. Ever notice how shipping and handling to sites in the US is dirt cheap and pretty much triples when you factor in a border? That's how they clear extra cash, pure old fashioned extortion, and it's legal; - you want the item, be prepared to pay. They can charge whatever the hell they want if you agree to it and pay it. Lost a good many otherwise good deals because I knew what they were doing was illegal, but there was always someone else who would be just a little more desperate and pony up, likely a poor schmuck from Europe who's used to getting hammered even harder than we do. Also ever notice that it costs less to import something out of Europe than it costs to get something out of the States? I used to buy Mercedes parts and they came in a week duty free and for a lot less than what the USPS ever levied. I still send watches back and forth and it's cheaper to send to Germany than it is to the US for some reason and vice-versa. The other thing that is interesting is how the USPS has shuffled off it's spam and subscription mailouts to a foreign postal service; the magazines I was getting from the US came with either the Deutsche Bundespost or the Austrian one.
product coming from China comes in with no extra fees because China is a "developing country". I purchase a power cable form my stereo receiver from China & no extra fees.
