Shipping Cost

[kolias]

I buy a lot of items from eBay/China and various vendors in USA.

The worst carrier from USA is UPS who they charge a min customs clearance fee of about USA$50. I had a fight with them once and eventually they dropped that cost to half. I never use UPS but some vendors use only UPS and therefore there is no choice.

DHL from China also charge customs clearance but they are the fastest, about 4 days from China to Montreal

From China the best for me is FEDEX. It takes a bit longer, about 7 days but there is no customs clearance fee

And from USA I always choose USPS

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[cyclestart]

UPS can be a real pain.
I've had some problems with the Post Office including lost items, For smaller parcels it can be low cost and lax on collecting duties and taxes.

My biggest frustration is the vendors themselves. I live minutes away from an independent parcel depot on the American side but most vendors
are suspicious of mismatched billing/shipping addresses.

And what's up with the seller gouging on international shipping ? High marks to vendors like littlemachineshop for doing this the right way,

[ger21]

DHL from China also charge customs clearance but they are the fastest, about 4 days from China to Montreal

Are you sure this isn't due to Canada customs?
I've had items shipped DHL from China, and there are no customs fees here in the US.

[Al_The_Man]

I have been importing/exporting for a few years now and my recommendation to Canadian importers is to find out if you can clear your own through a local CRA office, if I get a parcel from UPS with charges I tell them to return it to the depot an I will clear my own, then I pick the paper work up from UPS and clear it with CRA for UPS to deliver.
US importers seem to get off alot more than us Canadians, even the minimum allowed before duties is much higher allowance in the US than Canada.
My biggest beef is the Global Shipping Program (GSP) used and encouraged by ebay, It is ran by Pitney Bowes and is an effort for Canadians etc to know up front what the charges are when shipped USPS, the irony is that 99.9% of imports via USPS/CanPost is duty free or no charges..
I refuse to purchase from a US seller that uses the GSP and I let them know I am not bidding because they use GSP instead of direct USPS.
In some cases the GSP charge is way higher than the price of the item.
Maybe if enough people do this Ebay will come to realize they are losing sales.
I know I am not alone in hating this method, just go to one of the eaby feedback sites.
Al.

[kolias]

My mistake Gerry, looking at both DHL and FedEx invoices, DHL charges an extra $4.25 called “Transaction Fee”. Not a big deal considering they are much faster than FedEx

Al, I’m not familiar with the GSP program but definitely when I order small items from China / Hong Kong I always take the free shipping they offer except for large items I take FedEx

It’s true that a lot of vendors try to take advantage on the shipping cost and I don’t know how they survive.

[Al_The_Man]

The GSP only applies to Ebay purchases, check out some of the charges on a some US seller items, I think P.B. have toned down the charges somewhat due to neg. feed back, but if the item is sent USPS, there are no charges.
It works like this, when you buy from a seller using the GSP, the freight charge goes direct to Pitney Bowes and the seller sends the item down to Kentucky for processing and re-sending on the purchaser, the result is a guarantee of no extra import charges.

Using the Global Shipping Program
Al.

[hanermo]

Most info above given is incorrect, legally.. but true, practically.
I have been shipping for 25+ years globally, and almost all was "real stuff", ie expensive, containers, etc.

Implementations vary, greatly, but mostly everyone must pay duty, on stuff imported, after some small value.
Limit 10-50-200$.

Mostly, You may need to use an agent aka customs broker, sometimes not.
Depends on country.

The "agents", mostly, just collect money.
Mostly, it´s just a racket.
Shipping itself as such is cheap.

On small items, the mickey mouse "minimum charges" of say 20$ here and 30$ there add up to 50$ minimum plus tolls plus VAT etc..
So a small 30$ precision screw, x3, ends up at 200$ for 3, with 120€ in "charges" from the broker, mostly fluff.

Advice on using "china post" etc. is not a "savings" - it is in fact customs fraud, with typically zero problems, but it is useful to know that declaring wrong customs values is not a game.

The problems are 3-fold:
1. Old entrenched biz tries to game new guys with silly mandatory minimum charges. Silly, wrong, un-needed, as we are not bringing in, here, 20.000 $ cars et al.
2. Minimums are meant to game small people with extra $ with no basis in fact,
3. New entrants like china with fake paperwork, tries to avoid this for small tiny shipments, like a 5$ iphone cover, charger, etc.
Morally correct.

Often legally correct.
If the value is below legal minimum in your country, its ok.
But, often/mostly, the china shippers falsify the value to 5$ on a semi valuable article say 300$ DRO with glass scales.

Note YOU are guilty unless Your declaration is the right one on bought value.

[Al_The_Man]

Most info above given is incorrect, legally.. but true, practically.
I have been shipping for 25+ years globally, and almost all was "real stuff", ie expensive, containers, etc.

Implementations vary, greatly, but mostly everyone must pay duty, on stuff imported, after some small value.
Limit 10-50-200$.

Mostly, You may need to use an agent aka customs broker, sometimes not.
Depends on country.

The "agents", mostly, just collect money.
Mostly, it´s just a racket.

.

That is why I always clear my own, as in post #4 this is if you have a customs office in your city or for large machinery I get the shipper to bring it in in bond, I then clear it and either pick it up or get them to deliver from their bonded warehouse.
Al.