[KUU]

Hi milhouse6, I am from London too.

Anyway, to answer your question, I only have experience with USPS, Canada post, DHL, and Purolator. I mostly got my stuff from the US and Japan, and every time, the most I got charge is $5 CAD plus tax from USPS and Canada post, and either $5 or $10 from DHL and Purolator which I don't remember now.

My advice is use USPS/Canada post for shipping from the US, since they are cheap and I have never lost a package from them yet.

 

[milhouse6]

Thanks for all the insightful replies, folks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KenW "It's the shippers poor packaging" or "we got it this way". Yeah. Right. <snip> I considered doing the USPS and using the "gift" option but that's dishonest and I just couldn't do it.

Yeah, see unitedpackagesmashers.com. A great repository of nightmares.

Besides the dishonesty, the question still stands -- what are the penalties for falsifying a customs form, and has anyone ever heard of someone actually getting nailed for it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by gloco milhouse6, good job in pursuing this matter. Glad to hear you got some sort of refund.

Cheers gloco! I took a gleeful pic with the cheque and mass mailed it. Firmly reestablishing my crackpot status.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KUU Hi milhouse6, I am from London too.

Hey! Nice to meet you. Have you found any decent headphone retailers in London? London Audio maybe? I swing by Bay/Bloor Radio when in TO, but it's rare I get downtown like that. My clients are all out in industrial parks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lmilhan Too many international laws, taxes, forms, customs, hidden/added fees, etc.

This surprises me. I always got the impression it was just a little checkbox sticker. And any time there's a problem, I thought that the recipient dealt with outstanding fees.

When shipping to the US from Canada, I find the postal rep usually fills everything in for me anyway. I hardly notice a difference (except the expense). Hell, one of them even wrote 'gift' in for me without even asking me a single question.

 

[milhouse6]

Quote:

Originally Posted by warpdriver ... or Fedex Express is ok ($7 flat)

Is this true? My reading took me to the FedEx brokerage fee chart I originally attached. If it is in fact a flat $7 then that's very reasonable. Though FedEx certainly has its problems, I've almost always been very pleased with the actual delivery service. They aren't lazy on the first attempt and will often re-dispatch on the same day.

 

[AlanY]

Marking "gift" on an item isn't worth insisting on. It only saves you PST/GST on the first $50 CDN of the item's declared value. Having the sender mark a fraudulently low value is never worth it, because it will cause insurance headaches if the item gets lost. And neither of those techniques saves you from getting sodomized by UPS Canada's ridiculous fees.

Just get the sender to send via USPS and don't worry about it.

 

[KUU]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milhouse6 Hey! Nice to meet you. Have you found any decent headphone retailers in London? London Audio maybe? I swing by Bay/Bloor Radio when in TO, but it's rare I get downtown like that. My clients are all out in industrial parks.

We are kind of lucky in London, we have all the major brands; AKG, Beyerdynamic and Sennheiser from Target Hi-Fi, Sennheiser from London Audio, Grado from Sounds and Space (I don't remember the name of the store since it just open about 6 months ago), and all 3 stores are very close to each other in the downtown area.

 

[milhouse6]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlanY It only saves you PST/GST on the first $50 CDN of the item's declared value.

Raises the question -- Does customs ever reassess an item's value?

 

[warpdriver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milhouse6 Is this true? My reading took me to the FedEx brokerage fee chart I originally attached. If it is in fact a flat $7 then that's very reasonable. Though FedEx certainly has its problems, I've almost always been very pleased with the actual delivery service. They aren't lazy on the first attempt and will often re-dispatch on the same day.

It's true every single time I've ordered from Headroom (5 times over the last two years) which uses Fedex Next Day to ship to Canada.

Here's my last purchase from Headroom. This is a $300 USD item from Headroom.



However, if you do use Fedex Ground, you will be indeed be REAMED with the brokerage fees you posted.

The Ground service of both UPS and Fedex is evil, but both UPS and Fedex's 2 day or Next Day service, the brokerage fees are included in the (high) shipping fees. You just pay GST/PST. But the bonus is that you get it FAST. Literally next day in the case of Fedex.

 

[warpdriver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by milhouse6 Raises the question -- Does customs ever reassess an item's value?

You can use this form for any adjustments that you may need. If you have proof that they made a mistake, you can use this form. I've used this form to get a refund for taxes I paid (not brokerage fees though) when I return an item to the US

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/E/pbg/cf/b2g/README.html

 

[2426]

Quote:

Originally Posted by warpdriver The Ground service of both UPS and Fedex is evil, but both UPS and Fedex's 2 day or Next Day service, the brokerage fees are included in the (high) shipping fees. You just pay GST/PST. But the bonus is that you get it FAST. Literally next day in the case of Fedex.

Thats good to know. I thought UPS always charged brokerage fees, no matter what. Also, does Fedex 2 day/Next day always not charge brokerage or is that only for HeadRoom? Thanks

 

[jjcha]

It disheartens me to see people say it's too much of a pain to ship internationaly.

I've probably shipped and received at least 50 ~ 100 parcels to and from the United States, Canada, Japan, UK, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc., etc., etc. I wouldn't have a HE90 or much of my collection if not for international shipping.

Actually, now that I think about it, I think I'm easily over 100 international parcels...

Anyway, I always use the post office and EMS. As for customs declarations - it's extremely bad form for a buyer to demand a seller misrepresent the contents of a package and violate their national laws. Just pay the darned taxes. Sheesh.

Best,

-Jason

 

[warpdriver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2426 Thats good to know. I thought UPS always charged brokerage fees, no matter what. Also, does Fedex 2 day/Next day always not charge brokerage or is that only for HeadRoom? Thanks

No, the brokerage is only on ground service, regardless of who sends it. Fedex still charges $7 though on Express, but that's a flat fee

 

[AlanY]

Quote:

Originally Posted by warpdriver The Ground service of both UPS and Fedex is evil, but both UPS and Fedex's 2 day or Next Day service, the brokerage fees are included in the (high) shipping fees. You just pay GST/PST. But the bonus is that you get it FAST. Literally next day in the case of Fedex.

This is basically true, but there are details that are not totally accurate. With UPS Express (i.e. non-ground) services, you pay no brokerage fees. However, the UPS "disbursement fee" (2.7% or a $5.85 minimum, whichever is more) and "COD fee" ($4.25 flat fee) are applied on any GST/PST that you owe. In my experience UPS is inconsistent about applying their own rules here; they typically only add these two fees if the GST/PST is above a certain threshold.

I've had good experience with FedEx Express services, but I haven't received enough shipments that way to comment on whether they consistently apply a $7 fee. Usually they don't charge it for me.

 

[warpdriver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlanY This is basically true, but there are details that are not totally accurate. With UPS Express (i.e. non-ground) services, you pay no brokerage fees. However, the UPS "disbursement fee" (2.7% or a $5.85 minimum, whichever is more) and "COD fee" ($4.25 flat fee) are applied on any GST/PST that you owe. In my experience UPS is inconsistent about applying their own rules here; they typically only add these two fees if the GST/PST is above a certain threshold.

Good to know, thanks for filling in the details.

I actually refuse to use UPS just because it's my way of saying: you suck. Not only their brokerage fees, but their service in general. I have more than one story to tell about why I don't like them, but the bottom line is: I do not like to support them and take every measure possible to avoid them