Hi there,

I saw another post someone had made asking how much you paid in duties, but I wasn't sure everyone would see it. I know that many of you have e-mailed me with the answer to how much you paid, but could you post it on here for everyone else? I get this question A LOT -- several times a week, in fact. Since the amounts have varied so greatly, it would be great to be able to refer them to f150online. Please post where you live, too, as I'm sure this is a huge factor.

Thank you in advance for your help!

 

Are you talking about for shipping the Gryphon? If so, where was it made? We don't pay duty on anything made in the States or Mexico. If you're talking about how much do we pay in general, it depends on what it is. Electronics are more than clothes for example.

 

Thanks for jumping in! We charge $35.00 to ship to Canada via USPS Express Mail. I know that all of our customers have to pay additional fees when their Gryphon arrives. I don't know what they're called, but I guess it's not duties.

 

Corey

Thanks for starting this thread. Additional fees such as taxes and yes, duties, are an important factor we Canadians have to take in to consideration when ordering from the States.

Tcal84 asks an important question as to the country in which the Gryphon/Edge is manufactured. Is it the United States or Mexico? If so then duties are nil under NAFTA. If not then the duty could be as much as 20% of the value that you place on the packaged item.

As far as taxes go we all pay the 5% federal goods & services tax (GST) as well as a provincial sales tax which will vary from province to province (8% here in Ontario).

That said, it would be good to know what the actual fees paid by your various Canadian customers have been. Shipping by the postal services in each country is probably the best way to avoid the hidden and often unfairly imposed brokerage fees that courier services charge the end recipient before they will deliver the parcel.

Looking forward to hearing the experiences of those that have received their Gryphons.

 

gotta love alberta we only pay gst(5%) no PST
also looking forward to responses to this as i am on the edge of ordering one.

 

I paid $85.00 at the post office to pick up my Gryphon here in NB. Oddly enough I got a Brandmotion navigation system from the US the week before and there was no extra charge. The only difference, as far as I can tell, was the Gryphon was shipped by USPS and the Brandmotion was shipped by Fedex. Both were delivered via Canada Post, who had no explanation why one had the surcharge and the other did not.

 

Weird... and we rarely ship UPS to Canada to avoid their high fees! Can't win for losing...

 

I also did not have to pay any duty or tax. It also only took about 3 days to get to my house in BC. Very fast shipping. I must say this is a great product that comes from great people. Thanks PHP.

 

Wasn't UPS(United Parcel Service)....was USPS, which I assume is United States Postal Service or are they one and the same? As the delivering agency up here was the Canadian postal service in both cases, I can only presume it is something different the shipping agency (USPS vs. Fedex) is doing on their end. Truly weird

 

Steve

Assuming that you paid about $500 US for your Gryphon back in August, the $85 you paid would be just about right for the 13% HST which Canada Post is supposed to collect (usually on anything over $50 or so) along with a $20 or so service charge which is about normal for them. Beats the heck out of the $85 brokerage fee that UPS usually demands.

Your other item which started out via Fedex may have been sent expedited which is supposed to cover off additional charges. Just a guess on this one. Fedex Canada may be working an arrangement with Canada Post to deliver to areas of Canada where they don't go.

So far it appears that Canada Post may or may not charge the taxes but that no duty is involved.

Let's see what others have to say.

 

You are correct. The breakdown was $76.42 in GST plus $8.00 Canada Post "handling" charge.....must be for them to "handle" my GST money to the government.....other than that I thought that handling mail items is what postage was for *L*

In any event, if Fedex can get it to the customer without nailing the customer for GST and is relatively the same shipping cost, it may be something Corey and Bill might want to look into. Certainly having a customer not have to pay another charge on receipt of a product would make it that much more attractive.

 

Steve

Yeah, the $8 is an accounting fee essentially. Could be worse.

As I said, the Fedex shipment was probably expedited, which costs extra and Corey and Bill would have to pass that along. Having bought a lot of camera gear from US suppliers, I know that expedited is usually $20 or $30 more at least and probably more paperwork on their end. I don't think the postal service is a bad deal.

I've just been trying to figure out if duty was involved and apparently it is not.

Thanks for your help with this.

 

What the heck is an HST?

 

Harmonized Sales Tax

Sugar coated combination of the federal GST and the provincial sales tax. Several of the eastern provinces work it that way rather than collecting their PST separately. Works out to the same total, at least if we compare Ontario 8% PST + 5% GST to New Brunswick 13% HST. Other provinces are different.

 

I don't know what level the Fedex delivery was (expedited or not). All they say on their site (Brandmotion) is "Standard Delivery (5-7 Business Days): $14.95". Also "Express Delivery (2-3 Business Days): $39.95" is available. If it is costing them more than that, they are probably building it into the cost of their products. Both orders were in the $500 range, PHP from GA and Brandmotion from Michigan(which was 2 packages actually).

Just relaying this info for Corey as she may be able to find a more economical way to ship to Canada, as well as being able to save her customers a few dollars.