Problems with shipping to Canada

To stop some of the rumours and to clarify some of the things for shipping to Canada:

1) Educate yourself about shipping costs and customs charges with the shipping company:

- basic freight costs
- import taxes (in Canada: between 7% and 15 dependent on the state the item is shipped to)
- import duty (none for items made in North America following NAFTA rules)
- brokerage charges (anywhere between $20 to $200+)

2) The important and difficult charges are the brokerage charges: Usually FEDEX Ground and UPS Ground charge fairly high brokarage charges for their own highly paid lawyer (anywhere between $20 to $200+). Air shipping (FEDEX Air, UPS expedited, UPS Express) are usually free of brokerage charges.

See for example:

UPS Brokerage rates

3) Of course the distribution of all these different costs should be agreed on beforehand and usually the receiver in Canada will pay for it. Just don't sell to any zero feedback members in Canada if you are afraid of being stuck with customs charges.

All cross-border transactions would be so much easier if people on both sides would be aware of the costs and possible problems.

Certainly there is no need for an irrational fear of shipping internationally!

Good luck,

Rene

Dean (Gunbei), nice that all of us nice, friendly "Canadians" were able to convince you to keep shipping things north of the border. I would be a true loss to Canadian Hifi if the access to the US market would be closed due to couple of bad experiences. Pre-living in Canada I have always shipped things cross borders if people were interested. One can have bad experiences on either side of the border, and of course many more good ones on both sides as well.