Ebay Shipping Question

[boffo]

Someone told me if you buy something from the States on ebay you have to pay customs duties for clearing it over the border if you use DHL or UPS or one of the courier companies.
But is you have it shipped United States Postal Service there is no extra charge for clearing it through customs over the border.

Does anyone know if this is true or not? The item I want to buy is about $250.00 US dollars.
Thanks for any input.

 

[registrar1]

Someone told me if you buy something from the States on ebay you have to pay customs duties for clearing it over the border if you use DHL or UPS or one of the courier companies.
But is you have it shipped United States Postal Service there is no extra charge for clearing it through customs over the border.

Does anyone know if this is true or not? The item I want to buy is about $250.00 US dollars.
Thanks for any input.

That is correct on the duties for shipping with a courier company. That is independant of any brokerage fees the company may charge (with Fedex overnight the brokerage is included but not the duties).

With USPS the duties are still applicable and collected at the post office when you pickup your package. I don't recall if there was a brokerage/handling fee by Canada Post on pickup.

Depending on how the item is consigned to USPS (or courier) the item may be snuck past the duty requirement.

 

[boffo]

Ok, thanks. What I meant was brokerage fees. USPS doesn't charge them; but Purolator etc do charge them from what I've been led to believe.

 

[islandman4567]

never ,ever ,ever use UPS. they're a ripoff, slap you with huge brokerage fees when it arrives. By then they've got you over a barrel.

I know someone that does use them and they offer better rates for people with bulk shipping accounts. but for the guy that wants to buy something from ebay and have it sent up by UPS, you're gonna end up getting hosed.

whatever you saved by buying on ebay will be outweighed by the charges UPS tacks on.

ask around, you'll hear similar stories about UPS.

 

[cruzin_62]

As stated above, only USPS does not add an additional brokerage fee, above and beyond any customs and duty charges that may apply. If not stated on the auction page as an option, I will send the seller a question asking if USPS shipping is offered to Canada. If not, I don't bid. Burned once to often by that one!

 

[islandman4567]

yep. its like they just pull the number out of the air, items could cost $50 and they could just say the brokerage fee is $75 and you don't have any choice but to pay.

Tony Soprano couldn't extort money from people any better than UPS.

 

[jimace]

never ,ever ,ever use UPS. they're a ripoff, slap you with huge brokerage fees when it arrives. By then they've got you over a barrel.

I know someone that does use them and they offer better rates for people with bulk shipping accounts. but for the guy that wants to buy something from ebay and have it sent up by UPS, you're gonna end up getting hosed.

whatever you saved by buying on ebay will be outweighed by the charges UPS tacks on.

ask around, you'll hear similar stories about UPS.

I agree with you 100%. I once purchased something from the US and they shipped it using UPS. The item that I purchased cost around $60US and the brokerage fee was around $20US which accounted to 1/3 of the cost of the item. That doesn't include the taxes (GST & PST) and the customs/duties that I had to pay. When the bill was finally tallied up, I paid almost if not over 2x the actual cost of the item because it was shipped via UPS.

Now, when I purchase something from ebay (or where-ever) and the item is coming from the US, I always make sure that they send it via USPS where they don't tack on a huge brokerage fee (you still sometimes have to pay taxes and customs/duties but that is "normal").

 

[to-guy69]

Always have them ship US Postal Postal Service and

1) if the item is new, have them declare it as a "gift"

or

2) if the item is used new, have them declare it as "warranty repair"

 

[tboy]

I agree with all the posts 1000%...UPS FedEx and Purolator are bandits when it comes to individual's shipments. ALWAYS ship USPS and for the record, no matter what the cost of the item, listed as a gift, or new, I've never paid taxes or duties or brokerage via USPS. (one item was over $250.00 cdn, dewalt power tools)....

I've told this story before but I was visiting a friend in the US and forgot my cellphone on his kitchen table. He sent it via UPS via his company to my work address. UPS charged me $50.00 brokerage to clear MY personal cellphone and I had to pay it because the fee was charged to the company's account. I called them to tell them that the item was a personal cellphone and they basically said "tough shit, pay the fee". I didn't want to get into trouble with the company I worked for (they wouldn't remove the charge to the company!!!???!!!) and they wouldn't transfer the fee to my name so I was screwed. Otherwise I would have told them to keep the phone.....

 

[monkeychan]

if you use UPS EXPRESS (which sometimes cheaper than USPS, plus the fact that it's superfast) you WILL NOT have to pay brokerage fee.

USPS have brokerage fee but it's charged ONLY IF you have to pay the taxes. The brokerage fee for USPS/Canada Post is $6.95 plus taxes.

 

[tboy]

if you use UPS EXPRESS (which sometimes cheaper than USPS, plus the fact that it's superfast) you WILL NOT have to pay brokerage fee.

USPS have brokerage fee but it's charged ONLY IF you have to pay the taxes. The brokerage fee for USPS/Canada Post is $6.95 plus taxes.

WRONG.....brokerage fees and taxes have NOTHING in common. They are totally independant of each other. To reiterate, I have never paid brokerage fees on any shipment via USPS and with every shipment of UPS. EOS dude.

 

[skypilot]

if you use UPS EXPRESS (which sometimes cheaper than USPS, plus the fact that it's superfast) you WILL NOT have to pay brokerage fee.

USPS have brokerage fee but it's charged ONLY IF you have to pay the taxes. The brokerage fee for USPS/Canada Post is $6.95 plus taxes.

You will never pay brokerage fees with USPS, they don't use brokers because they are a governmental agency.
The most you will get hit for are duties and if they collect duties the post office tacks on a $5 user fee for collecting it.
However, anything made in Canada or Mexico comes in free of duty because of NAFTA. Alcohol is free of duty and they only collect internal revenue tax, however you aren't supposed to mail alcoholic bevs.
Also I was told by a Customs Officer that they never collect duty if it is less than $20 because it isn't cost effective. That means if the duty rate is 5% your stuff has to be worth $400 and come from a non-NAFTA country before they will collect duty.