Buying from Canada a hassle for you too?

Actually, I have had no bad experiences buying from Canada, but I have had a couple problems shipping to Canada. The problem is with Fed Ex Ground, which is seperate for the Fed Ex Air. The problem I had was Canadians not paying the import tax, which Fed Ex Ground would then force me to pay. There is no duty/import taxes with gear coming into the USA, only when going into Canada. So buying has not been an issue. UPS, Fed Ex Air, and USPS do not release the package to the buyer until duties/taxes are collected. Fed Ex Ground will deliver w/o collecting, therein lies the problem. If the buyer chooses to ignore the bill from Fed Ex Ground, Fed Ex Ground will just pass the bill on back to the shipper. Needless to say it can be quite a pain to receive this bill 3 months after you've shipped the item. Live and learn.

Once you learn to avoid Fed Ex Ground when shipping to Canada, the problems dissappear. Either UPS, Fed Ex Air, or USPS works fine, though I'd recommend USPS. Even USPS has told me that it is tougher to ship to Canada then anywhere else in the world. This has only been since 9/11. Customs, paperwork, etc. I guess it's better to be safe than sorry though.

Cheers,
John

I live in British Columbia and ship to the US often and have not had complaints from any buyers at all.I live close to the border and small items such as tone arms I hand carry over the border and ship from Washington state.I find your comments about Canadians to be offensive.The only unhappy audiogon transaction so far for me was with an American but I know way too many fine Yanks to tar you all with the same paintbrush.Use the feedback system and leave negative comments if you are unhappy it will help us all.

I ship the same day I receive payment, my feedback here and on eBay is flawless. Your generalization is flawed at best, and reading between the lines it seems the U.S. customs agents are causing you grief, not Canadians. You're certainly entitled to restrict where you buy your gear but you'll be missing out on some cool gear from some nice people.

As for the currency thing, for the first time in thirty years the Canuck dollar is stonger than the U.S., making buying a treat for us and selling means a few percent difference at this point, not enough to worry about.

In closing you have every right to gripe about Canadian hockey winning hands down over the other nations, but not buying & selling with your cousins from the north.

I purchased goods from Canada twice. There was no issue with the seller but always got hit by UPS on the processing fee. The first time it was a $400 cable and UPS sent me a bill of $22 one month later. I thought it was custom duty so I paid it. The 2nd time was July/2007 and the bill stated no import duty but there was a $24 paper preparation fee and a $24 FDA fee for a total of about $48. Do you all get that kind of bill or was it UPS gouging on consumers?

Guys, If you ship across the boarder next time, please note on the courier waybill under the column "DUTIES"

"bill customs duties to"

You will have 2 choices:

A. Sender
B. Receiver

Pls check RECEIVER and you will not be responsible for the duties. Let the buyer deal with it. If he does not pay, they will not release the goods. It's just that simple. If you choose to skip/ignore the "DUTIES" part, I guess the duties will come back to you.

If doing cross boarder shopping, please make sure your SELLER knows what he is doing. There are documents he has to fill up in order for the shipment to go thru customs smoothly. If you're missing docs, the shipment will be delayed forever.