|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I've been a subscriber for a looooong time. On a couple of occasions I've had to pay customs when adding some miniatures/games/cards to my order, but I've never had to pay customs on my regular AP subscription (even when other books have been included in the order).
I've just received AP #122 (the only item in this shipment - order #4481716). Total value was $17.49 USD. When it arrived at my door I was required to pay $12.64 CAD to receive my package.
Was there some sort of error here? Or is customs in Canada treating goods differently now? Between the shipping, exchange and customs, I have paid about $45 CAD for this one item. If this were to happen again I'm afraid I'd need to cancel my subscriptions as it crosses the tipping point where it makes sense to keep subscribing.
Any insight you can provide would be great.
Thank you!
Jim
Hi Jim,
We'd need to see a picture of your shipping label to determine if there was an error with how something was entered. (Best to send that in an email).
As for if customs in Canada is treating anything differently, you'd want to check on that with your customs office/website, to find out if they have any more information for you.
If you decide you need to cancel your subscription, please let us know.
Thanks!
~Sharaya
|
|
Thanks Sharaya. I'll take pics and send an email. I would loathe having to cancel my subscriptions!
SR - interesting. I wonder if any other Canadians have been stung. I had thought that books/periodicals were generally exempt from customs (at least under $50) - but I am no expert on these things. I was also charged the $9.95 handling fee. Like you, I am more inclined to think this is customs driven vs. something on Paizo's end.
|
Not NAFTA, I did some further digging.
Packages like this are randomly assessed (for now). If it gets flagged, any book over C$20 has taxes on it assessed by Customs. The $10 service fee is actually for Canada Post collecting that tax.
Price on the item was US$17.49, which they converted to C$20.73, so we got randomly hosed.
We may or may not see this regularly, depending on how the sorting works, changes in technology (they may start hitting every package), exchange rate, price, etc.
Best to take it up with Canada Post/your MP.
|
|
For now I'm going to chalk it up to coincidence/bad luck. I'll be curious to see what happens with the next AP shipment. Generally I've been able to count on packages from the U.S. under $50 USD sliding through without a customs charge. If customs starts aggressively enforcing the $20 CAN limit, it will unfortunately push many purchases that are shipped from the U.S. past the point where it makes sense for me (and possibly others) :(
If it becomes a pattern, definitely worth following up with Canada Post/MP.
Not NAFTA, I did some further digging.
Packages like this are randomly assessed (for now). If it gets flagged, any book over C$20 has taxes on it assessed by Customs. The $10 service fee is actually for Canada Post collecting that tax.
Price on the item was US$17.49, which they converted to C$20.73, so we got randomly hosed.
We may or may not see this regularly, depending on how the sorting works, changes in technology (they may start hitting every package), exchange rate, price, etc.
Best to take it up with Canada Post/your MP.
Add me to the list. Seems more than just random if enough of us got hit.
Customer Service Manager
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Interesting thought. I wonder how Paizo orders arrive in Canada? Individually, together as a shipment, or in a wave?
Maybe it was on a random shipment, rather than just a random package?
Depends a bit on the method. Our standard international shipping goes through UPS Mail Innovations International. They pick up from us in large batches which go to a processing center here in Washington. From there they are sorted into groups based on the next regional distribution level and so on until it hits the country of destination. Then it's handed over to the local postal system for further processing and final delivery.
While Paizo packages going to similar destinations may travel together for much of the transit times, it of course depends on destination, package size, weight, method, how many other packages are going to the same place from other shippers, etc. Even two packages going to the same address might have different delivery dates. One manages to get sorted onto an almost full truck while the other just misses the cut off and has to wait an additional day(s).
Saskatchewan.
They also got the PST wrong. They charged it but books are SK PST exempt. Unrelated to Paizo of course, just customs grumbling, but if they're gonna charge a handling fee they should do things correctly at least.
As an update on this, my latest subscription has arrived with no such issue. So indeed some unlucky picks or exchange rate at the time.
|
|
Unfortunately, I got hit again. The postal worker where I picked up my order told me that far more packages are getting flagged now for duties and the corresponding collection fee.
I'm quite sure this is not Paizo's fault. However, if it continues I will probably have to cancel, as an extra $10 per order for 1 or 2 AP volumes is crazy.
My problem is with Canada Post. I've got no problem with paying the taxes I'm supposed to on the products, as that's only a couple of bucks. It's the $10 fee to collect that small amount that's ridiculous.
I know Paizo is always looking at shipping methods, but could you please look again at alternatives for your northern neighbours? Bypassing Canada Post eliminates the problem.
|
|
I agree - it's not the extra tax, it's the 'service charge' that would make a subscription unsustainable. I hope some solution can be found for Canadian subscribers/customers.
Thanks for your pursuit of the post office.
Apologies.
After chasing Canada Post on this, they tell me the collection fee is actually coming from USPS.
Still, an evaluation of shipping methods may be needed.
|
|
It's interesting that it's the USPS collecting the fee (unless it's at the request of Canada Post). That kind of policy would seem to work against U.S. retail businesses and the postal service as it would reduce the amount that Canadians spend with those business and reduce the number of postal shipments.
Apologies.
After chasing Canada Post on this, they tell me the collection fee is actually coming from USPS.
Still, an evaluation of shipping methods may be needed.
Chief Technical Officer
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I've been in touch with our reps at Mail Innovations (most of our shipments to Canada are handled by them).
First, they verified that it is indeed Canada Post, not the USPS, that is charging the service fee. The following quote is from the Canada Post website:
A handling fee of $9.95CAD per dutiable or taxable mail item is applied. This fee is in line with the government’s efforts to help recover costs from those who benefit from services, and is similar to arrangements in the United States and other countries.
...
Customers with questions regarding the collection of these taxes should call the CBSA Border Information Service (BIS) line:
• within Canada 1-800-461-9999
• from outside Canada 1-204-983-3500 or 1-506-636-5064 (long distance charges will apply).
There's really nothing that MI can do about it, but they did add this:
...it’s VERY RARE I’ve heard of this happening. I called a few additional customers this morning and none of them are experiencing this issue.
|
Chief Technical Officer
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Mail Innovations also tells me that all of our MI parcels bound for Canada enter through Vancouver, and at the point that Canada Post would inspect them, they have already been blended with parcels from other Mail Innovations clients. Which means that if Vancouver suddenly decided to ramp up their inspections and assessments as a matter of policy, it *should* affect MI's other customers. The available evidence therefore suggests that it's just the luck of the draw working against us, and that should even out over time.
For Canadians getting hit with duty, Contact your MP and complain! That $20 exemption is the lowest of all the G20 nations and hasn't changed since the 90's. For comparison the reverse, an American buying from Canada, they have a $800 exemption at the border.
Now if the new NAFTA negotiation get passed there is a US requirement that our exemption would be increased and I believe they amount requested is $600.
Who knows what is going to happen to duties if NAFTA ends.
I am in contact with Canada customs and border agencies that performs the actual assessments. They made a mistake in applying SK PST to my previously reported order and my recently received copy of FGG's The Blight. This is a mistake as SK PST does not apply to books, so partly to be a pain to them for being a pain to be, I'm chasing my $1.20 refund.
I have discovered that while they don't deny making a mistake, their minimum refund is $2. This seems unfair as they pursue values that will result in assessments below that and they are capable of making mistakes that should be refunded.
Mostly unrelated to the actual concern here but, if I'm lucky and somehow impactful in my follow up, I hope at least their policy will ignore values below $40 so that their refund policy is in line with the minimum mistake they are capable of making.
|
|
Received my latest AP today, along with about $100 in miniatures - and no customs fees at all this time! A pleasant surprise. So hopefully things have started to even out.
Thanks Vic
Mail Innovations also tells me that all of our MI parcels bound for Canada enter through Vancouver, and at the point that Canada Post would inspect them, they have already been blended with parcels from other Mail Innovations clients. Which means that if Vancouver suddenly decided to ramp up their inspections and assessments as a matter of policy, it *should* affect MI's other customers. The available evidence therefore suggests that it's just the luck of the draw working against us, and that should even out over time.
|
Chief Technical Officer
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
For Canadians getting hit with duty, Contact your MP and complain! That $20 exemption is the lowest of all the G20 nations and hasn't changed since the 90's. For comparison the reverse, an American buying from Canada, they have a $800 exemption at the border.
Now if the new NAFTA negotiation get passed there is a US requirement that our exemption would be increased and I believe they amount requested is $600.
Who knows what is going to happen to duties if NAFTA ends.
If you're looking to change the system, there's one other thing you might want to be aware of. I'm not an expert on Canada tax by any means, but I have been looking around a bit on this topic, and found this troubling.
The section of the mail manual I quoted before also says this: "Any item mailed into Canada is potentially subject to duty and/or taxes with few exceptions. Visit the CBSA website at cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/postal-postale/menu-eng.html for more information on mail imports. The CBSA collects provincial sales taxes (PST) on most taxable imports valued at over $20CAD entering Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. The CBSA also collects Harmonized Sales Taxes (HST) on most taxable imports entering Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Ontario."
If you go to that CBSA website, you'll find a sidebar linking to Determining duty and taxes owed. That page describes the $20 exemption: "Under the provisions of the Postal Imports Remission Order, if someone mails you an item worth CAN$20 or less, there is no duty or tax payable." It then goes on to provide a list of "Items that do not qualify for the CAN$20 exemption":
• tobacco;
• books;
• periodicals;
• magazines;
• alcoholic beverages; and
• goods ordered through a Canadian post office box or a Canadian intermediary.
If I'm understanding all that correctly, that means that they can tax you on all books regardless of value and then ping you with a $9.95 handling fee.
|
Thanks for the information, everyone.
I live in Québec and I was also charged the handling fee twice in the past 4 months. I'm surprised that the fee is being applied in such a seemingly random manner, and I wonder why it's happening at what seems like an increased frequency lately (just a rhetorical question). I hope we won't reach a point where the fee gets applied to every single shipment.
<---- If it does, this will definitely be the face that I'll make.