Canadian shopping online in USA

Any Canadian's out there ever buy online from American businesses. How has this experience been for you? Do you save a lot of $? What about paying duty and tax. Would you pay the american sales tax and Ontario sales tax? How much is duty anyway?

Looking at buying the Canon 30D soon and it is about $400 cheaper buy buying it online but is it really worth it?

Thanks

The only thing that I ever buy cross border is normally things that we can't get here or is very hard to find here. I have bought some things from the US only to find them later. I am very much a "buy at home" person even if it is going to cost me a few dollars. It is going to save me several hundred then I might consider it.

Cameras and lenses are not supposed to be subject to duty. You will not be charged the sales tax of the state of where you are purchasing from but you will be charged the appropriate level of GST. I can't speak to the provincial sales tax though I do remember reading some conflicting reports about this. In Alberta we don't have a provincial sales tax. You have to make sure that the declarations are done right on the shipping end so that it is clearly defined as a body or lens so that you don't get charged duty.

This is one of the more important points. Find out who they are going to ship with and then find out from them (in writing) what they are going to charge for brokerage fees. This is a charge that the shipping company will asses for handling of the cross border paper work. Some of them charge downright outrageous amounts.

I've always been cautious about cross border due to any warranty issues. It would be worth you while to verify these with the manufacturer.

There is money to be saved by doing this, providing you do it right. In a recent purchase I had considered buying from B&H but by the time I added all the various charges it was only going to save me around 100.00 so I bought from a Canadian vendor. The firms that I have dealt with cross border, B&H, Kirk heads and Wimberly have all been very good. All were very knowledgeable on shipping to here.

I've also found that even though one of the currency conversion website might show the exchange rate at 14% the credit card companies seem to tack a premium on this of a couple of points. On a higher priced item this can make a significant difference.

I've made quite a few purchases through B&H with no problems whatsoever. It may just be my local market here but prices are substatially more expensive for me to buy locally. By the time I purchase from B&H and convert to Canadian funds, pay for shipping, pay taxes and a $5 handling fee I'm usually below the list retail price before taxes that I could get here. So that saves me more than 15% usually.

The important thing to remember when ordering from the states is there are no duties if you have USPS as your shipping method (if you use a courier like UPS or Fedex you'll get dinged). I usually get my gear in a week or a little more using this method.

B&H gets me my gear in just a little longer than Henry's out of TO could, and in the end they are cheaper than Henrys is even before tax. For me it's a no brainer. I'd love to support Canadian businesses and local retailers especially but saving $100 or more it's hard to justify.

I have found buying from The Camera Store and Robinson's eBay store, both from Calgary to be very competitive with U.S. prices. In Ontario that saves 8% PST for me by buying from Alberta and I don't have to worry about any hassles with the border. I would recommend both retailers highly.

Gerhard

http://www.thecamerast​ore.com/

http://stores.ebay.com​/Robinsons-Online-Centre

A $400 savings is quite a lot. Be sure to check the reputation of the online vendor at: http://www.resellerrat​ings.com/ before you make your purchase. There are a lot of shady online merchants out there.

There is no American sales tax on a shipment out of the country.

Canada Revenue Agency has a collection agreement with the provinces, so it collects PST and GST, but there are no import duties on camera equipment.

Dorman is not correct in stating that there are no duties if you use USPS (US Postal Service). Most of the time you get charged PST and GST plus a $5 handling fee in addition to postage. Occasionally something gets mailed directly without going through customs, but I have never been so lucky with anything worth very much.

I usually have my packages shipped by UPS Expedited Service. You know at the time you place an order with firms like B&H or Adorama what the shipping charge will be. The UPS driver collects the GST and PST when he makes the delivery. The reason I use a courier rather than the postal service is that a courier service almost always delivers your purchase within two or three days of the time it is shipped and they provide a tracking service so you can follow the progress of the package as it crosses the US, clears customs and travels through Canada. (My last purchase spent a day an Vacouver due to "weather delays". I guess they can't drive in snow down there.) With USPS/Canada Post I have waited up to 6 weeks for a package to travel from New York to Kelowna and no one could tell where it was after it left the warehouse. You just have to wait and hope it shows up. I am willing to pay a little more for courier service that seems more reliable.

PixelChick78 wrote in post #2358729
Any Canadian's out there ever buy online from American businesses. How has this experience been for you? Do you save a lot of $? What about paying duty and tax. Would you pay the american sales tax and Ontario sales tax? How much is duty anyway?

Looking at buying the Canon 30D soon and it is about $400 cheaper buy buying it online but is it really worth it?

Thanks

I'm in Edmonton and have made many purchases from B&H. All items arrived in perfect shape, so I have no clue how they are with returns

I only use UPS Expedited. The goods always arrive within one day of expected and there are zero "hidden" charges. For camera equipment and most electronics there is no import duty ... you only pay GST and PST if outside of Alberta.

In addition to camera gear I've also purchased a couple of sets of Sennheiser headphones from B&H ... no import duty as expected.

some items are cheaper from the US but some are about the same, so I only buy from down south when the difference is big enough to justify the purchase

I have purchased thousands of $ worth of stuff from B&H and have never paid Duty or Brokerage, just GST. Always had the shipments sent expedited.

I returned a Sigma 70-200 and 2x Teleconverter after 10 days with no problem. They asked why I was returning the merchandise. So I told them the truth that I did not like the quality of image when the TC was used with that lens and they happily refunded my purchase price.

You can't beat B&H for customer service.

I didn't take too much time to read the above posts, but I have linked an article that I found very informative about buying camera equipment from the US. An excellent article by Cliff LeSergent that should answer many of your questions.

http://www.imageswest.​ca/cross-border.htm

Check out www.thelettercarrier.c​om in Point Roberts, WA. They do package forwarding to Canada so you can inquire there. I had my Dell laptop shipped there from Dell USA, and then I drove there (near Tsawassen, BC) to pick it up.

Here's another vote for buying things from the US. Bought from both b&H and adorama, no problems, no duty, and a payment of 6%gst and 8%pst when UPS, FedEx or Canada Post delivers the package (I tried all three just to test). Credit cards usually charge a 2-4% fee for the conversion.

US Canon warranties are good here in Canada - there was a thread about a week ago on this, do a search. Tamron and Sigma will honour the 1 year international warranty, but you lose out on the longer warranties (Sigma has a 8 year one I believe).

I *think* Canon Canada has recently adjusted their prices to account for the higher loonie, but I'm not sure. It seems like you don't get as great a deal any more, buying from the US. Check out the online stores located in Alberta. The Camera Store (linked in an above post) seems to have some good prices, and you can duck the 8% pst.

dailykimchi wrote in post #2361148
Check out www.thelettercarrier.c​om in Point Roberts, WA. They do package forwarding to Canada so you can inquire there. I had my Dell laptop shipped there from Dell USA, and then I drove there (near Tsawassen, BC) to pick it up.

Why would you do this for camera equipment? Just ship it to your home.

edit: ignore me, was posting a cross-border shopping faq but I see it's already linked above

Twitch1977 wrote in post #2361227
edit: ignore me, was posting a cross-border shopping faq but I see it's already linked above

You don't have to worry about any of the paperwork the guy mentions in his faq if you're buying from a place like B&H and you choose UPS Expedited as the shipping method. UPS Expedited includes all brokerage fees in the up front cost.

In other words, when live in Canada and buying camera equipment from the US, the on-line shopping experiience is no different that making the purchase from a Canadian store ... you just have to choose the correct shipping method.