I've been PM'd by some newbies wishing to order from US. I've decided to post my answer and may give insight to those wishing to do the same. The following is just my experience and preferences and realize other opinions may be different.
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"I personally don't like B&H but everyone has their own preferences...
They don't like to negotiate which irks me because everyone on 17th street/New York will match or go below them. BTW, 17th street is where all these stores are - B&H, Adorama, 17th street photo, etc.
...man, I wish I lived in NY. Go in purchase what you want, pay state 8% tx. and walk out!
I have ordered over about 8K usd goods from US and from Adorama specifically... Here's the deal.
1. Photo equipment are not subject to brokerage fees and are an excluded item. You must use intl. air as a delivery option. Do not use surface as UPS will chg. you a fee. UPS expedited 2-4 day shipping is OK. Don't choose the more expensive option as it's just 1 day and you pay like 20usd more...
2. You are correct. Total cost is Product+exchg. rate+shipping+cdn. tax when crossing customs....and that's it! Example 1000usd+40usd shipping+gst/pst(customs will calc. this) = 1383cad + 199.5cad(customs gst/pst) = 1582cad The shipping chg in usd is NOT part of calc. for customs purposes in determining gst/pst! (I use 1.33 as an example exchg. rate. Customs will determine rate at time of entry into Canada. If you live in Ontario, it will be Mississauga Terminal for Fedex airlines)
3. Fedex is better carrier. Offer automatic $16000usd insurance on ANY package. Tracking system much better, also 24-7 customer service - very helpful. B&H doesn't offer Fedex - ha! UPS does suck as they don't take of packages as well as Fedex. Many have said UPS has damaged their goods upon delivery - see threads on dpreview.com!
4. Also, you MUST open an account with courier you choose before you order!!! This account is for billing customs/taxes. The reason is that without this account, it will take much longer to pass customs. You will have to wait for customs agents to call you and ask how you want to pay b4 releasing the package. Often it may take 3 days and your goods are sitting in the inventory room with thousands of other packages. With this account, you have your credit card attached and any taxes are chg. automatically. B&H will attach this account # to your packing slip so it's visible to be scanned by customs in Canada. You must give this number to B&H when ordering. They will save it in your customer file. They call it "Bill to customs". The account is FREE to open online at Fedex and UPS. You will see this chg on credit card as FEDEX customs or UPS customs.
5.ALWAYS, ALWAYS DO THE ORDER OVER THE PHONE - NOT ONLINE!!!! MY ADVICE. Just call the 800# on the web site and speak to an agent. Why? Get a direct line, agents name, customer#, etc. much faster - and especially when something goes wrong! And...the order gets processed faster. Also, do the order on a Sunday. Most open on Sunday for like 5 hrs...Jewish owned stores. Why? Order on Sunday guarantees the delivery on a weekday so if you have problems you can always get an agent to help. You don't have to wait over the weekend. Usually, I order on Sunday get it by Wed. in Toronto!
6. Do not use a business address!!!!! Only use residential as it will cause problems since they will ONLY deliver to verified address unless your firm has a company account with B&H and the like. Make sure someone is there to pick up the package. These guys love to deliver b4 12noon on weekdays. If you're at work and no one answers, it may result in delayed delivery. I used to use my grandmother's house!
Hope that helps! Make sure you didn't fall asleep reading... Hehe."
It's due to their compensation system... I found out that Adorama/17th street photo are mainly commissioned sales staff and give bigger discretionary discounts to get the sale. Made an order with Adorama and mentioned I didn't like the price. Salesguy looked up my profile and saw I was repeat customer. Just gave me 10% discount like that - on FILTERS!!!
I can tell you of my experiences.
I always ask for USPS (United States Postal Service) if available.
I have gotten it almost as fast and many times have not been charged anything for the importation (no taxes etc). They also only charge $5 for fees when there are charges to collect and the shipping rates are much cheaper as well. I have ordered many items thru eBay or from some companies in the U.S. and have never had a problem.
mkaplan, can you clarify what value you claimed and what the actual value of your goods when you ship them through USPS?
I never had a single luck to avoid tax through many of my purchases except a couple of times when sellers claimed as gift and 0 value on small items.
IMHO, IT WILL BE VERY RISKY to avoid tax in such a way (claim 0 value over a expensive item). Not only the action invites thief (Stealing a item marked as camera lens but valued as 0 is indeed a low risk job for a thief, such a case even won't triger a investigation becuae USPS loss nothing), but also the risk caught by Canada Customs. I still remember the 1st time I bought of US2500 goods on the internet through different on-line stores. I have them ship to a frined of mine. He collected them and ship to me in one box. When the box was delivered to me, I noticed the box was re-taped with the yellow tape from Canada Customs. Yeah, they opened and checked! Foutunately I did ask my friend to put fair value so they released my package quickly. I received the shipping in 5 days.
My $0.02.
mkaplan wrote:
I can tell you of my experiences.
I always ask for USPS (United States Postal Service) if available.
I have gotten it almost as fast and many times have not been charged anything for the importation (no taxes etc). They also only charge $5 for fees when there are charges to collect and the shipping rates are much cheaper as well. I have ordered many items thru eBay or from some companies in the U.S. and have never had a problem.
I have no luck with Canada Customs, as most of my goodies stay at Vancouver for weeks waiting for "Customs Clearance" .
The only few incidents that I got my stuffs fast (without delay at Canada Customs) were smaller, less expnsive package (<$200USD) that I could just paid COD at Post Office or Purolator office. I always asked to ship USPS too, as there will be only a $5 chrage (In addition to GST) most of the time. But, Purolator, that is the Canadian agent for shipment coming in with USPS, do chrages more than the $5 by Canada Post.
Mike Chan, thank you for your tips. You mentioned that "you MUST open an account with courier you choose before you order. I have tried just but failed to locate where to open a new account with either UPS or Purolator. If you have a link....... Thanks.
One wrong thing you mentioned about not shipping to a Business. I always ship to my business in BC as it saves the PST, customs for some reason does not collect PST from Businesses. Also USPS Global express is a very good method for shipping as well, cheaper than UPS and Fedex but just as fast.
Sorry about that... You have to call the 1800# to their customer service centre and they will open for you - takes like 5 minutes. They will give you your Acct# right away! All you need is a credit card ready.
I deal exclusively with Fedex. Their tel# is 1800 463 3339.
Any other carriers, contact 1800# on that web site.
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