Crate Engine Depot vs Canada
most american based companies are completely unaware of customs fees;
most american based companies use couriers exclusively becasue of convenience, and them often quoting cheaper shipping than USPS (United States Postal Service ~ their version of Canada Post);
as much as getting exhorted by couriers for customs/brokerage fees, the GMS1 for our cars has a retail somewhere a smidge north of $1100 - I tried to get a break on the kit by having the selling dealer give me their best price on the kit (posed as a "make it or break it" part of my purchase);
long and short, the best they could sell it to me for was a smidge over $900 ~ that's about a $200 price break.
The GMS1 from CED was $520 incl shipping - under half of the Canadian retail of the kit.
btw, I ordered my kit last night.
most american based companies use couriers exclusively becasue of convenience, and them often quoting cheaper shipping than USPS (United States Postal Service ~ their version of Canada Post);
as much as getting exhorted by couriers for customs/brokerage fees, the GMS1 for our cars has a retail somewhere a smidge north of $1100 - I tried to get a break on the kit by having the selling dealer give me their best price on the kit (posed as a "make it or break it" part of my purchase);
long and short, the best they could sell it to me for was a smidge over $900 ~ that's about a $200 price break.
The GMS1 from CED was $520 incl shipping - under half of the Canadian retail of the kit.
btw, I ordered my kit last night.
I have used UPS in the past and everyone complained about the brokerage fees etc, so I try to use USPS to help save on the fees. If anyone knows a better way I'm here to listen.
Thank you for your support.
Thank you for your support.
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Joined: 09-16-09
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From: south west of GTA
No. At least it hasn't for me. As soon as you declared the value of the item, gift or not, they will taxed and applied brokerage fees accordingly. BTW, thanks for using USPS Tom..One other cheaper method is to shipped by standard using USPS but I may not be comfortable because of the lack of tracking. The pkg may not come at all.
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Joined: 11-28-09
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From: Okotoks, AB
USPS is great, $5 handling fee + duty, no way of really getting around paying it, even if you declare the value as really low (ie $20) customs can (and sometimes will) revalue the parts for duty purposes. As a customer/receiver you can dispute the charges with customs and sometimes you can get some of your money back.
A word of caution, if you declare the value of the item as $20 and it gets lost/damaged, that's all USPS (or other couriers) will reimburse you for.
If this is so, I think I have found the first source to look for parts for my Cobalt from here on in.
UPS (or an courier for that much) sucks... and it's almost entierly due to the broker that the courier uses ~ they're supposed to charge a brokerage fee relattive to the value of the package, but that's baloney - I've been charged, and know other people who have been charged an amount nearly equal to, or in excess of the packages value... but when you're already into something for a couple hundred what can you do other than drop your drawers and expose the ole corn hole...
my brother bought a couple parts for his Caliber SRT4 through some other site (almost SRT4 exclusive, but carry's some Cobalt stuff) and although they don't offer USPS, they have some kind of deal worked out where they pay purolator the brokerage fees ahead of time so that the customer doesn't get screwed...
It might do something, but what is unavoidable is the Gov't wanting to collect tax revenue on items coming over the border - if the item is shipped via USPS, Canada Post recieves it, and collects ONLY tax...
Tax isn't generally charged on items oh, lets say 10% if the "sale" price of the GMS1...
If a courier is used, tax is ALWAYS charged, and the broker essentially pays our tax up front, and charges for their serives...
yup, I might have some experience shipping across our border
i always ask the place i buy something from to ship usps, even if they dont have it as an option, i explain why and they always do it for me, just email them and ask.
but I liked that I didn't have to use PP - I could directly have my credit card charged...
look in the upper right cornor on their main page, says contact us. thats how i do it. first i ask em, then the tell me what to write in the order so they will know. im sure ced would do it to.
the 800 number is all over the site, I spend most of my day talking to customers. and yes just about everything we ship to Canada is via USPS unless its too big or if the customer requests UPS etc.
(I had no idea you were here actually - then again I haven't been here too long; I've been monitoring posts on GMTS for much longer...)
all u gotta do is put the value at like $5 and put that its auto parts. we dont have to pay duty on auto parts. and with usps out of the many many orders iv made iv paid gst/pst and duty like one time. 99.9% of the time u dont pay anything at all with usps, and i get stuff from all over. USPS FTW to canada. its by far the best
How much extra would i have to pay extra at the border for SS/TC shocks & struts?
all u gotta do is put the value at like $5 and put that its auto parts. we dont have to pay duty on auto parts. and with usps out of the many many orders iv made iv paid gst/pst and duty like one time. 99.9% of the time u dont pay anything at all with usps, and i get stuff from all over. USPS FTW to canada. its by far the best
just be honest what you paid, when you go through USPS, Canada post gets it at the border, and all you have to worry about is the GST (actually since you're in ON, you might also have to pay PST, but on that I am not sure)....
