So today I bought my second item ever from the states, and I got a$$-raped by Canada again… To the tune of $55.49 on something that I only paid $119 including shipping. Now… there’s gotta be something, some way… to avoid this. Or atleast some way to calculate beforehand, how badly I’m gonna get my a$$-raped, so I’ll know whether to even bother ordering it, or just buy it localy.
Please, if anyone knows… I think this is a really helpful thing to get out there to all our users.
find someone in the united statses and get it shipped there.
or buy a u.s p.o box. they have them in buffalo that you can have set up for you.
then go and get it, and perhaps take the risk of trying to smuggle it over.
but if you get pinched ,watch out. its a hefty fine.
i grabbed a clutch kit once (400 dollars) and didnt declare it.
they foud out after inspecting my car and the fine was 120 dollars.
The only possible way is to have the seller/store mark the item value down to under 20 bucks. That’s the limit before customs steps in and starts the raping process. I’m sure customs officials have some idea of what things cost so I’m not sure what would happen if they figure it’s worth more than that. This method works better if the item is used and sent as a gift. New stuff? Good luck since most stores will insist on stating the actual value of the item for insurance purposes.
I ordered an Item from Japan (which was used) and had the seller mark it as a gift. I was surprised to find that I had to pay duty and service fees on the “item value” which was $180 bucks. When it was all said and done the duty and service fees were nearly 50 bucks!! Thats total ass rape!
I’ve been burned so many times that I’ve completely given up on buying stuff outside of Canada.
Always try ship using USPS, even fedex can be pretty good with duty sometimes. I’ve never had a problem with USPS and sometimes its even faster than fedex or ups.
Avoid UPS, I’ve had enough problems with their customer service and their fees. I had to pay $44.50 brokerage on something that cost me $40 , then they lost my package twice.
If you have to ship UPS ship with the more expensive expidited rate, the fee’s are usually waived.
Not using UPS is a great way to help things.
They always charge about 400-500% of what I pay to get an item shipped via USPS. So I never buy stuff from American places that only ship UPS. Typically, they call them “brokerage fees” or similar.
upsfeesneedtocrawlinaholeanddieorsomething
What about predicting it then? Cause on my clutch kit, I paid 100 bucks extra on a $500 item. Now I paid 55 bucks on a $120 which is way way worse imo. So what the hell, can you know somehow?
if you want to avoid these fees you can buy through me…lol… i thought you knew that already antonio.
thing is i wouldnt really do it on a $100 item…lol…unless it came in with other stuff
the problem with setting up a US P.O. box is that firstly that most places in the US will not accept credit card and ship to an address that isnt the billing address… meaning you would have to change your billing address to that P.O. box.
secondly, many places will simply not ship to a P.O. box… UPS wont do it, and neither will FEDEX i beleive.
if you have a friend over the border you can do it that way.
also… never smuggle stuff over the border, the fines far out-weigh the benefit.
i always declare everything that i bring across and now many of the customs officers remember me and often just let me go right through. i recall one specific instance where the initial customs agent checked the SEL box of the yellow customs tab. this SEL box means that he is requesting a search of my vehicle.
i paid the taxes and then when you go back out to your car they take the yellow tab and search your car… after you paid the taxes so that if they find anything they also have your money… but instead this particular time the girl simply remembered that i always have invoices and declare everything so she just let me go. this is only when i have smaller orderes, usually personal stuff.
it helps when you live near the border… half the agents there i know personally anyways… worked with some, went to school with others, many of them know my brothers.
problem is for any GTA guy the travel time and costs also have to be factored in. If you are ordering a couple hundred bucks worth of parts then a 2-3 hour trip both ways, plus gas and inconvenience is not worth it… unless you are REALLY saving tons of dough or organizing a large group buy which i know many people here have done.
i also suspect that in the past some people have just smuggled the stuff over when organizing things like that, i cant imagine what would happen if they were caught.
there is one instance i can recall where a major company shipped items across the border with significantly reduced values. problem was that teh company logo was on the packaging and the prices for the items were on their website… cant really get away with anything in that case… and customs called them up and chewed them out.
you cannot ship international with reduced values and still insure a package for the full value…
if for example you have a $1200 set of coilovers and you declare it for $400 to save on taxes… if the pacakge is lost you can only insure it for the declared $400 value… not worth the risk.
shipping as a gift means nothing… a canadian citizen can only bring in $50 worth of goods before being taxed on it… so if you get a gift that is $500 usd you will have to pay teh following taxes.
$500 x 1.15 to bring it to CDN $ = $575 cdn x 0.15 = $86.25 + brokerage fees which are entirely arbitrary i find.
without naming names i know one guy on SON got dinged for over $300 in customs on a recent coilover purchase.
Fair nuff… So large stuff, buy from Bing, small stuff USPS, NOT UPS. Sticky maybe? I think this is useful as hell.
Just buy from Canadian companies and support your country.
there you go… buy your gear from Phil or Greg or Battle Endless or oen of our other proud supporters here on son240sx.ca
*thumbs up, big smile… teeth shining.
Haha… fair nuff. Well, I also bought a 2 gig memory card from my psp from China, so I’ll see how that works out in like 2-3 weeks 
Edit: It’s going with China Post as a registered air parcel, so it should be cool I think.
Next time I bring stuff across the border, i’m just gonna mention Bing’s name, and have them bow to my every request!
Since we are taklking about price differential and getting a$$raped by CAnada customs, here’s an interesting article about car prices in Canada vs. the US.
http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/dd/canada-usa_price_differential.htm
only at the Queenston - Lewiston border…lol
i am thinking of filling out for a Nexus card and seeing how that affects things.
also, there are many border tricks to help you with wait times.
the Whirlpool bridge is closed to everyone except Nexus card holders so you cant use that one. The queenston and Peace bridge are both major truck routes and major highway routes meaning that at peak times they will always be busier.
this past long weekend i went over teh border with my fiance and my sister, it was monday evening. the line up coming back over the Queenston Lewiston bridge was over 1.5 hours… it was lined up past several highway exits on the US side.
so instead we took teh Rainbow bridge because it is primarily a tourist bridge and is literally 5 minutes from the Queenston bridge… 15 minute total wait time too… ah tricks.
for border wait times go here:
good article… kind of gives you an idea about why the whole Ontario vs. importing japanese cars crap went down.
- Mark item with low value (under $50)
- Mark item as GIFT
- Ship via USPS
- ???
- Profit
That is all.
I’ve had tonne of stuff delivered (largest being my intercooler from
Hawaii) and I paid $0 on customs/duty.
^ exactly, I ship all my turbos and fabrication products this way
if you really need to ship FAST from the US then UPS air express is precleared at departure side. so you don’t pay any of the canadian side fees except the tax.
From overseas ECI is the best from Aus. and EMS. is the best from Japan.
Sugoi ne! This should be stickified 
usps is the worst, i had a bmx frame shipped from detroit to brampton and it took 4 weeks.
Not necessarily the best idea actually.
For example if your item(s) are lost in the mail, all you can claim thru insurance is the $50 value.
So if your item actually cost you $1500, then you are shit out of luck.