Importing a used saw form Canada to the US

[PASS_AUF]

Hey guys,
I'm hoping someone here may be able to shed a little light on this subject for me. A couple of weeks ago I was able to find a used Stihl clearing saw up in Canada, it looked to have been used hard and put away wet, but the price was right so I snagged it up for a winter resto project. I wasn't thrilled to get a bill for $160.00 USD for UPS to ship it to me, but the price was right on the saw so I ponied up on that too. Today, I checked out the tracking information only to find out that I'm also going to have to pay an additional customs/tax fee on delivery. These taxes, duty fees, or whatever they are can be payed as COD only, and I cannot find any information on how much the taxes will be. I've looked around online to try and find out how much this stuff costs, but all the info I've found says is in regards to importing items from the US in to Canada, not the other way around. From what I've found people bringing things in to Canada vis the US do so at a significant expense, paying up to $60.00 USD on a $40.00 USD item. Has anyone here dealt with the fee's coming in from Canada? If so how expensive are they and how did you pay them? UPS's website says they only accept cashiers checks and money orders, but that will be hard for me to obtain when I don't know how much I'm going to owe them. Any advise would be greatly appreciated!

[snowshoveler]

UPS is a definate no no. They have nasty fees that are not a tax.
Got an injection pump for my truck  450 bucks after I paid the taxes and duties.
Will never deal with anyone that uses only ups.
Regards Chris

[Ozarker]

UPS has their own brokerage for customs, and charges a fee for that. Even if an item isn't taxable, the fee is built into the shipping cost.

OP, call UPS, give them the tracking number, and find out what the charges will be for the COD.

[Stuart Caruk]

If you are paying the shipping, UPS absolutely sucks (so does FedEx) for shipments between the US and Canada. Getting dinged with $80 fees for a free catalogue is the norm.

The only (semi) inexpensive route is to use the good old USPS. We sell hundreds of paragliding related items to Canada every year and ONLY ship via the USPS. Same thing when we buy from Canada.

[PASS_AUF]

Thank you all for the advise! I placed a call to UPS today and found I'll be getting off quite easy on this one, $25.00 USD, which I was able to pay over the phone.

[SwampDonkey]

Yes, sounds like a brokerage fee. Any time you ship across the border the brokers take your money. I know someone who moved a mobile trailer that cost $10,000 on his end and by the the time he got it up here to Canada the broker added another $6000. Legalized extortion.

[beenthere]

Along these lines, a close friend was helping out a family in Jamaica by sending them a pumping system (8hp engine on pump) to transfer water up a hill rather than carrying it. Shipping FedEX was paid for here in the US with the understanding the pump would be delivered without any more additional charges (about $250 ).

Pump ended up in a warehouse, and the family had to come up with an additional $250 to get the pump delivered. Apparently a lot of extra tax and graft on that end, even tho they supposedly had already been paid off.

[ehp]

do lots of cross border shipping , use the post office and send regular mail not rush , alot cheaper and far less problems with stuff getting lost. Any of the shipping companies charge huge just to cross the border and it doesnot matter which way it crosses , they cost big time

[cbla]

I had a similar problem the first time I dealt with ups getting something from the US. It was a leason learned for sure, now its just USPS for me.

[Grizzly]

If you are paying the shipping, UPS absolutely sucks (so does FedEx) for shipments between the US and Canada. Getting dinged with $80 fees for a free catalogue is the norm.

The only (semi) inexpensive route is to use the good old USPS. We sell hundreds of paragliding related items to Canada every year and ONLY ship via the USPS. Same thing when we buy from Canada.

This is my experience as well. Any vendor I work with I try to convince them to ship by US Post. The other tool I've used with success is uship. I got my sharpening equipment shipped from MN to here for less than $300 (no Poston did not carry it!) all inclusive which was about $400 less than any other carrier was offering. This could be useful for items too large for postal service.

Lyle

[PASS_AUF]

Yes, sounds like a brokerage fee. Any time you ship across the border the brokers take your money. I know someone who moved a mobile trailer that cost $10,000 on his end and by the the time he got it up here to Canada the broker added another $6000. Legalized extortion.

That is insane! After reading around a bit more tonight I found that a lot of Canadians "self clear" items and are able to save quite a bit of money doing so, was your friend not able to self clear his trailer?

[PASS_AUF]

Along these lines, a close friend was helping out a family in Jamaica by sending them a pumping system (8hp engine on pump) to transfer water up a hill rather than carrying it. Shipping FedEX was paid for here in the US with the understanding the pump would be delivered without any more additional charges (about $250 ).

Pump ended up in a warehouse, and the family had to come up with an additional $250 to get the pump delivered. Apparently a lot of extra tax and graft on that end, even tho they supposedly had already been paid off.

During my research tonight I also learned that if an item sits in a warehouse that "storage fee's" are added and can get extremely spendy. Perhaps that was a factor in the pump you are describing?