cross border shopping help and advice????

[lynx0069]

hey all, i am seriously considering buying the lens i want (100f/2.8L) this weekend over the net, from either b&h or adorama. does anyone have experience ordering thru either from canada?? the reason i want to order from the states is the american lens rebates, and the high canadian dollar. right now, according to photoprice.ca with all applicable taxes, shipping, dollar conversion, etc.....at b&h, the lensis $1086.17, and at adorama it is $1096.83.......and thats in canadian dollars, while at henry's it is $1468.99, and vistek it is $1411.37. i'd like to hear your thoughts on ordering from either on those stores, as in, how long did the shipping take, did you get hit with brokerage fees, customs fees (even though lens are duty free) and what is the best way for shipping??


thanks in advance


james

[EdN]

I've never purchased a "big-ticket" item from either, only a flash from B&H. For that item, they shipped by the US Postal Service which transfers the parcel to Canada Post, who collect $5 for brokerage fees. For larger items, like lenses, I believe both Adorama and B&H use a courier and couriers charge big $ for shipping to Canada and bigger $ for brokerage. Brokerage could be up to $65 for a smaller item and much higher for larger items. This is something you have to check. Before you order, it would be worth your time to research this part in some detail to avoid surprises. I've been hit by courier brokerage fees for software and if you don't see it coming, it's a big shock.

[DavidEccleston]

I've done two > $1000 orders from Adorama, with no issues. One for a T1i+18-55mm, along with a 85mm f/1.8, a 50mm f/1.8, an SD reader, and an extra battery. The other recently for a 24-105mm f/4L. I used their cheapest (UPS) shipping option.Shipping was 1-2 days (order Sunday night, arrived Tuesday 11AM, I think). The UPS option has no brokerage (see here)for up to 5 items. There are no customs fees due on lenses or cameras (though there is something like 2.5% on filters). I've heard of people getting hit with customs fees from B&H, as they sometimes use the wrong customs code. That was a message online from years ago, so it may be sorted out now.


While making the order, check for other things you may need. I got a SanDisk Extreme III 8GB card for $20 on sale, while they were $130 locally. A spare Canon battery was $40, rather than the $90 they wanted locally.





For the benefit of other Canadians on here, I'll point out something Helen Oster recently said on a thread on RedFlagDeals regarding their Canon refurb 1-year warranty... apparently they cover the return shipping on warranty repairs from wherever it was shipped originally, so as long as you haven't moved, your Adorama cross-border refurb warranty repairs will be free to you!


edit: Note UPS will generally want to collect taxes at the door before they'll give you your package. My first order was during December, and so they were understandably busy. Nobody was home, and so they just dropped off this $1300 package in my shed, and placed a sticker on my door telling the entire world that a package was in the shed. I'm not particularly thrilled about that, but everything turned out fine. They finally got around to sending me a bill for the taxes nearly a month later.

[jcrowe87]

Be sure to check out photoprice.ca for price comparisons from Canada to the US. This site compiles data and takes shipping and other costs into effect to see what options yield the cheapest product. It has the potential to save some serious dough.

[scalesusa]

You will have to pay GST no matter what.





To avoid Brokerage, use a premium shipping method. The seemingly high shipping rate includes brokerage fees.


You can also use eft to pay the taxes, if not, a charge will be levied because UPS has to advance the taxes for you.


Rather than rely on uninformed advice, read it for yourself. http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shipping/cost/zones/customs_clearance.html


If you understand what is happening, you can avoid the fees. This is the UPS info, but its similar for Fedex and DHL.


I have a online store, and make lots of shipments to Canada. I just do not ship UPS Standard to Canada. Call the 800 number and make your arrangements to pay taxes in advance so you can avoid fees.

[DavidEccleston]

To avoid Brokerage, use a premium shipping method. The seemingly high shipping rate includes brokerage fees.


You can also use eft to pay the taxes, if not, a charge will be levied because UPS has to advance the taxes for you.


Rather than rely on uninformed advice, read it for yourself. http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shipping/cost/zones/customs_clearance.html

All of Adorama's shipping options to Canada include brokerage, just FedEx is $20-$30 more than UPS, and doesn't ship any faster. I provided that same UPS link earlier in the thread to show that brokerage was included (for up to 5 items).


The fee for advancing money is covered in that link too, but I chose to ignore it. It's not like it's major for most purchases, as it's 2.7% of your taxes. To pay more than the minimum $5.85, you'd need to order more than $1666 (or $4333 for Alberta), and the fee is $0.35 ($0.14 for Alberta) for each $100 your order is over that. As someone who hates the phone, I'll gladly add a couple bucks to my order to not worry about it. After wasting my time phoning them to find what I'd owe, what their account is, and paying EFT fees, I'd have saved well under $5. If you're ordering several thousands of dollars of stuff, or ordering often, I can see it being worth the effort to pre-pay UPS. Sure, I ordered from the US to save money. After saving $500 on my initial camera purchase, the amount of effort required on my part to save another $4 seemed excessive.