Canada's DeMinimis Threshold Petition
 

For those who find it very frustrating and unfair that the level for importation of mail order goods in Canada is at $25.00 when taxes and duties kick in(US just raised from $200 to $800) here is a petition that Ebay has started. Who know where it will go it goes, but EBay's voice does have more sway than I do. Bet the courier's like FedEx and UPS will fight it tooth and nail because I am sure a lot of their revenue comes from ripping off people on the brokerage fees.

http://www.ebaymainstreet.com/petiti...imis-threshold

Very little revenue at FedEx comes from brokerage fees. For non-commercial orders, FedEx has a flat $10 brokerage fee, and only about 10% of residential packages have import duties on them. You can avoid the $10 fee by hiring your own broker to clear your package, or you can even clear it yourself.

UPS is a different story... :lol:

I like import duties, it helps to encourage shopping within Canada.

I find FedEx the absolute worst followed by Canada Post when it comes to all these bullshit handling charges along with duties.

I do a lot of orders out of the country, so having the minimum limit raised would be great. I signed it yesterday when I got the email myself.

I urge everyone to do the same :)

The brokerage fees are annoying. I sent a pump in to ecotech to trouble shoot, they replaced a part of the controller and I had to pay 40$ for the new part. I paid shipping there and for shipping back yet I get hit with 45 dollars in duties for a product I already owned and sent in myself. I signed .

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They must have changed this over the last couple years, I ordered an AIO tank from the US (which FedEx smashed to bits) and they tried mailing me a bill for 50% of the value in brokerage fees. I haven't used them since and won't buy from a seller who insists on using them.

I don't have a problem paxing taxes and duty, but get really ****ed at the brokerage charges. How much work do you think that these carriers actually do when clearing a personal shipment from someone doing mail order. They do absolutely nothing, I bet if you asked for the clearing paperwork they couldn't provide it.

That would be fine if there were a reasonable difference between US and Canadian pricing, and I would agree. But Calgary, for example, is no more remote than any place in Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota or Montana and has more people than each individual state, if not any two of them.

So to hear that 'remoteness' or 'population' is a reason for having to pay 50% more in some cases (even after exchange) makes me start looking at the US Amazon site, the US ebay site, freight forwarders and the rest of the ways to avoid paying a tax on being Canadian.

Charles

+1... I agree that allowing the items in to Canada will result in more purchases within Canada :biggrin: