Mabye some of your other Canadaian customers can relate to my problem. I live in Newfoundland and as it is a small place we have no local stores which sell the products that you sell. As such I spend thousands each year on your site. I regularly get hit for customs charges, but not every time. I never know which orders will get a customs charge and which will not. Just today I had to pay an extra 64.00$ more than I was expecting. I talked to the post mistress in my community and she said that the cost occurs on the American side.
Can anyone explain to me why some orders get hit with hefty customs charges and others sail through with barely a stamp? I find it really frustrating, and I will love some information to help me understand this process.
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Mabye some of your other Canadaian customers can relate to my problem. I live in Newfoundland and as it is a small place we have no local stores which sell the products that you sell. As such I spend thousands each year on your site. I regularly get hit for customs charges, but not every time. I never know which orders will get a customs charge and which will not. Just today I had to pay an extra 64.00$ more than I was expecting. I talked to the post mistress in my community and she said that the cost occurs on the American side.
Can anyone explain to me why some orders get hit with hefty customs charges and others sail through with barely a stamp? I find it really frustrating, and I will love some information to help me understand this process.
I feel your pain, having been hit with customs charges a couple times.
I find it depends on order value... with orders less than $50 (like my existing Pathfinder subs) getting to me without having to pay duty, but orders over $50 being hit with the charge. Since then, I try to keep my orders below $50 (unless there's a huge shipping advantage).
Mabye some of your other Canadaian customers can relate to my problem. I live in Newfoundland and as it is a small place we have no local stores which sell the products that you sell. As such I spend thousands each year on your site. I regularly get hit for customs charges, but not every time. I never know which orders will get a customs charge and which will not. Just today I had to pay an extra 64.00$ more than I was expecting. I talked to the post mistress in my community and she said that the cost occurs on the American side.
Can anyone explain to me why some orders get hit with hefty customs charges and others sail through with barely a stamp? I find it really frustrating, and I will love some information to help me understand this process.
From what I understand, both as someone who ships Ebay to Canada and someone whose company has tried to do business in Canada, it has to do with the host country, not the sending country.
When I make an ebay sale to Canada, it gets inspected and "customed" much more often than packages coming from Canada to me in the US. (Only once coming in, about 25% sending out).
And shipping from the US to canada as a business (let alone doing business in Canada with US materials and employees) is just as difficult. (Paperwork always seems to get "delayed" or "lost").
I don;t know how it is for other countries (I know shipping to France and rural UK have had issues with customs as well). But from my experience, this is something to take up with your local post/ govt, as it is their call, not Paizo or USPS...
From what I understand, both as someone who ships Ebay to Canada and someone whose company has tried to do business in Canada, it has to do with the host country, not the sending country.
The postmistress here looked into it as we have been discussing this for years. Her superiors said it was not on the Canadian side. Then again, maybe it depends on where it is coming across the border.
It was not my intention to implicate Paizo. I know it is not their fault. I just needed to vent.
However, I have opened up my order and several items are heavily damaged. (Confrontation miniatures). Perhaps Paizo could look into how their warehouse personnel are handling our orders. As it is, I have alot of gluing to do.
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From what I know, customs duties and charges are always billed by the Host country (Canada in your case) not the sending country. While your post mistress may be saying it isn't from the Canadian side, it really is. I'll see if I. An find any customs duties for books etc from US to Canada, but from what I've seen Canada has some pretty strict customs, duties, and foreign competition laws.
CEO
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However, I have opened up my order and several items are heavily damaged. (Confrontation miniatures). Perhaps Paizo could look into how their warehouse personnel are handling our orders. As it is, I have alot of gluing to do.
Just curious about the damaged Confrontation minis. Are you talking about the boxes being damaged, or were the prepainted minis inside the boxes damaged? The reason I ask is that we got the Confrontation minis from Fantasy Flight and most of the boxes were damaged in some way, sometimes pretty heavily. But the minis were just fine. Since we figured that people were just going to take the minis out of the boxes anyways, we didn't worry too much about box conditions when we sent them out. However, the minis should have been in good shape hopefully. I know that they are a bit loose in the box with lots of room to flop around if they come out of their slots in the box.
-Lisa
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Ok. After research:
1. NAFTA doesn't apply to most items because they are manufactures outside of the US or Mexico.
2. Customs processing fee is about $5.00
3. On top of this you need to pay provincial etc sales taxes (Newfoundland is 13%) and you need to pay a 5% customs fee. In total this is an additional 18% onto cost. These are on top of the customs processing fee, so the fee gets the 18% too.
I don't know what your shipment was that cost $64.00. But that still seems high. I'd audit the customs charges yourself and seenif you come up with the same charges as they do using those percentages. Here's a link for your benefit:
However, I have opened up my order and several items are heavily damaged. (Confrontation miniatures). Perhaps Paizo could look into how their warehouse personnel are handling our orders. As it is, I have alot of gluing to do.Just curious about the damaged Confrontation minis. Are you talking about the boxes being damaged, or were the prepainted minis inside the boxes damaged? The reason I ask is that we got the Confrontation minis from Fantasy Flight and most of the boxes were damaged in some way, sometimes pretty heavily. But the minis were just fine. Since we figured that people were just going to take the minis out of the boxes anyways, we didn't worry too much about box conditions when we sent them out. However, the minis should have been in good shape hopefully. I know that they are a bit loose in the box with lots of room to flop around if they come out of their slots in the box.
-Lisa
No, not the boxes really. There are some miniatures inside that are broken apart, not just rolling around loose. I orderd several boxes and sure, some are just loose but some (three I think) have models that are broken. Of the broken ones, I opened one box (it was a Temple of the North Hero box) and all three models in that box had pieces broken off.
I am not much of a hobbyist so for me three boxes or so of damaged minis is alot of gluing. Sorry if I gave a more severe impression. It is not my intention to insult the company or the employees. I was upset before and probably should have waited to write these posts.As for the damaged models, I could take pictures if you like.
Ok. After research:
1. NAFTA doesn't apply to most items because they are manufactures outside of the US or Mexico.
2. Customs processing fee is about $5.00
3. On top of this you need to pay provincial etc sales taxes (Newfoundland is 13%) and you need to pay a 5% customs fee. In total this is an additional 18% onto cost. These are on top of the customs processing fee, so the fee gets the 18% too.I don't know what your shipment was that cost $64.00. But that still seems high. I'd audit the customs charges yourself and seenif you come up with the same charges as they do using those percentages. Here's a link for your benefit:
Thanks alot for your help.
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Like rokeca I keep my subscriptions down so that they don't trigger customs fees - also try to stay under $50.
As others have said, the fees that are being collected are on our side. When you pay them you should get a receipt, or at least you should get a notice of the fees owed. 5% of it will be the GST. The feds want their money on any goods bought outside the country and shipped in. The big variable that you find on all the packaging is brokerage fees. This is pretty much a service charge that is being charged on top of the taxes just because they had to collect the tax money.
I assume that you are getting the packages sent to you by USPS since you were talking about your post mistress. This is definitely better than receiving anything by UPS across the border. UPS's brokerage fees are high, and vary depending on the value of the package being shipped. I believe you can find their brokerage fees on the UPS website. If you are receiving your packages UPS you can switch delivery to USPS and it will take longer to receive your package but border costs will be cheaper (as will the regular shipping costs). However you also lose the tracking of your package.
No, not the boxes really. There are some miniatures inside that are broken apart, not just rolling around loose. I orderd several boxes and sure, some are just loose but some (three I think) have models that are broken. Of the broken ones, I opened one box (it was a Temple of the North Hero box) and all three models in that box had pieces broken off.
I am not much of a hobbyist so for me three boxes or so of damaged minis is alot of gluing. Sorry if I gave a more severe impression. It is not my intention to insult the company or the employees. I was upset before and probably should have waited to write these posts.As for the damaged models, I could take pictures if you like.
Hey just to let you know Patrick.... a year ago me and my brother ordered three armies worth of confrontation figures directly from Fantasy Flight Games and experienced the same problem. Guys broken loose from their mounts....there was one Witch Hunter that was missing an arm that couldn't be located even after I scoured the depths of the box. We dubbed him Jonas One-Arm. He was always the first lad in the unit cut down....
yeah that's great to know. I find the ones I have very brittle. Some broke before I opened them, and I had one break when I was taking it off the plastic base. They look good, but I think the glue used in manufacture isn't best.