STP purchases by Canadians

I think that I have seen a post or two of us Canuks requesting if a member can ship a STP purchase to us for a small fee. That IMO is the best route you can do as the UPS fees are nuts and near criminal I think.

I bought something from STP but it hasn't yet arrived. I had them ship by USPS to my wife's parents house (who have a PO Box in a somewhat rural area). It's been about a week now and we're still waiting. The shipping charge was the same $35 they charged for UPS shipping. Where I'm going to save is on the customs brokerage.

Consumer goods entering Canada must be assessed for duty and taxes. Courier companies assess and remit duty and taxes under the Low Value Shipment program. Under the LVS program, the couriers are bonded ($10 million bond) and the Canada Border Services Agency lets them deliver the goods and then assess and remit duties and taxes afterwards. Fedex, DHL and UPS all charge their customers a brokerage fee, and a fee for advancing the duty and taxes, for handling the paperwork etc. for the LVS system. I don't know the exact formulas for the brokerage fees, but its pretty steep (like $35 on a $200 item). UPS will phone you ahead of delivery, inform you of the charge and require you to pay it before delivery. Fedex delivers your package, then invoices you for the brokerage, duty and taxes a week later.

Canada Post has an entirely different system for assessing and collecting duty and taxes. Canada Post assesses and collects duty and taxes on behalf of CBSA a under a contract, and remits the money it collects to CBSA under this contract. My understanding is that CBSA only sees the cheques, and, unlike the courier program, doesn't see or monitor the import manifests. Canada Post charges its customers a $5 flat fee for assessing and collecting duty and taxes. You still get charged the same duty and taxes, but the brokerage fee is a lot lower and Canada Post doesn't charge to advance money on your behalf.

If you really want USPS delivery, the only sure way to get STP to play ball is to specify delivery to a PO Box.

There are in fact civil class action lawsuits (not yet certified) underway that allege that the courier companies collect interest at a criminal rate when they charge fees for advancing duty and taxes to CBSA.

Sorry, but what is "STP"?

Sierra Trading Post.

http://www.sierratradingpost.com

Uh, no.

STP ships to Canada using UPS Worldwide Express. This includes all brokerage charges in STPs $35 S&H fee. You wouldn't have been charged anything more.

It also would have been delivered to most major Canadian cities by the next day.

Where is this "Canadia" people are speaking of?

Gee, I wished I'd known that a week ago. I asked STP if they were a non-resident importer, and they said no. I guess the UPS Worldwide express fee is inflated to cover brokerage.

Off topic but needs to be stated.

I just purchased an item from a fellow SF member who delivered this item to me via UPS. The item consisted of one sweater, marked "used", and declared at a value of $100. I was charged $55 in fees to collect this item: about $30 in brokerage fees, 25 in duty and taxes, highway robbery.

Apparently he didn't know that it mattered which service he used to send the goods. In earlier correspondence with this seller I had mentioned USPS as the way to go, suggesting I would give him information on the most inexpensive method to ship to Canada. He never responded to this suggestion, so I assumed he already looked into it and figured something out. He was amazingly considerate and we have resolved the issue now; hopefully this doesn't leave a sour taste in his mouth vis-a-vis Canadian shipping.

I post this primarily for the SF members Stateside who haven't yet shipped to Canada - do NOT go through UPS.

On topic, as for STP, the most I have been charged is GST (goods and services tax of 6% for all non-Canucks) on the item. This is even when I probably should have paid duty also (ie: NAFTA only allows duty free goods so long as the origin of the goods is from North America).

Yes AE are duty free, as is any item manufactured in N. America.

That said, I have bought numerous Italian made goods from STP and have never been charged duty, only GST.

I have come to expect that this is standard, for some reason. Keep in mind, Canada Customs might not be tracking the "under the radar" goods, such as a few clothing items all that closley. Perhaps they assume that the goods are indeed made in N. America? Who knows? I find it a mystery.

That's because you live in a province with no sales tax. The rest of us have to pay another 8% on top of everything else.