For several months now I’ve been searching for a very specific style of skirt that I know a friend of mine would love. And I have found it on Ebay, in the exact style and size I am looking for. The only problem is, the seller refuses to ship to Canada. This is even though they are in Washington State somewhere. This is even though I am the only person in the world who seems to want this skirt (they’ve had it listed for a long time and keep cutting the price on it).
Is there a service I can use so they can mail it within the US and it can be mailed to me from there? Or some other way to get it here?
how close do you live to the border? in some border towns in the US there are businesses that act as accommodation addresses for Canadians, who then cross the border to pick up their shipment and declare it at Customs as they go back.
That’s kind of nuts. I ship USPS to Canada all the time for ebay sales and have had no issues. I have run across some Canadian buyers who expect the same shipping price to Canada as for the US when it fact it’s generally around 1.5X to 2x US shipping cost.
Just have it shipped to a US friend then re-shipped to you.
There’s also this company. I’ve never used them myself so I don’t know whether it’s worth it for a single package, but I’ve seen them recommended elsewhere and they do ship to Canada.
When I was selling a lot of eBay, I had no problem shipping to Canada, unless the buyer insisted I declare the contents as a “gift” on the customs declaration so they could avoid the duty. I won’t do that, and they can fight with Canadian customs to get their package. Not my problem.
No, but understand theirs. Canada Customs has an extremely low duty-free value on online-purchased and imported-by-mail goods (I believe it is CAD$40.00), and tagging a package as “gift” means that there can be a little more leeway to that cutoff point. If the item is not a gift, the Canadian purchaser will be charged on delivery for whatever the import duties are on the specified goods, as well as federal sales tax and provincial sales tax. There will also be Canada Post charges for customs fees on dutiable items; and if a courier is used, there will be customs brokerage fees. In the end, for normally-purchased goods, the taxes and fees can be more than the cost of the item, depending on the item’s original price. For gifts, not so much.
I am currently not allowed to enter Canada, and one day I may want to rehabilitate my visitor status. The last thing I need is some beef with falsifying a customs document to gum up the works. No thank you, not my problem.
Note that if you’d prefer not to discuss it openly, you can PM me. Regardless, to the best of my knowledge, Canada Customs (as an agency of the Canada Revenue Agency) deals mainly with taxes Canadians owe their governments; other departments deal with such matters as who may enter the country. I would doubt that you shipping goods as gifts to Canada would prejudice your chances from being allowed to ever enter Canada, regardless of your background. Drop me a PM; maybe we can sort this out.
No worries on this end, I’m willing to give customs their due. The skirt is worth about $5US so I don’t think there would be much duty on it if any. Even if it did cost more than the item itself it would be worth it in this case.
Well, if anyone wishes to volunteer, I’d be most pleased. Would it normally be that I would buy the item and use my USA Doper friend’s address as ship to? Or do they buy them item and ship it to me when I Paypal them the $$?
I’m in the GVRD and have stuff sent to this place in Point Roberts. If you are within screaming distance of the border, there is likely a similar service in the adjacent state.
Because 13 years ago, I was convicted of DUI. That makes me persona non grata in Canada, and to rehabilitate my visitor status, I have to pay a non-refundable $800 fee, and I may or may not be granted rehabilitation.
As a Canadian, I buy stuff from Ebay USA all the time; in fact 99% of my purchases come from America.
Since I live in Ontario, our tax rate is 13%, therefor anything I purchase from the USA is taxed at the 13% rate.
I never ask sellers to falsify the documents, but for small items $50 or less, I rarely have to pay any taxes, but always insist the seller use USPS because UPS and FED-EX is a rip for us Canadians (brokerage fees)
Last month I purchased a ring on Ebay for $5,000 USD, so the $5k US was converted to Canadian ($5,200), and then 13% was calculated on the $5,200 resulting in my taxes being $676.
I’ve also run into the occassional closed-minded seller who refuses to ship here, but screw them, lots of other folks will be glad for the business.
I’ve also found that sometimes writing the seller, introducing yourself and asking him to reconsider sometimes works to change their mind.
I still don’t understand why some sellers won’t ship here, it’s not like they risk anything.
It’s not just eBay sellers refusing to ship to Canada, it’s a large number of American businesses refusing to ship overseas at all, or- just as badly- charging exorbitant “Shipping & Handling Fees” (Amazon, I’m looking at you) to send stuff to civilised foreign countries. I’ve never understood it myself, either.
Have you attempted to just ask the seller if they’ll ship to Canada in a private message? I’ve had very good success with that; often times, a seller will put “U.S. only” on the assumption that they’ll have to deal with a barrage of complex international orders that require courier mail and the like (though I have bought video games from Japan before shipped surface mail - do NOT recommend it). I’ve found at least a dozen sellers responsive to this; at worst, they’ll charge you more than it actually costs to ship said skirt with USPS, but they will still do it.
