Odering from Ecotech?

[intarsiabox]

Originally Posted by asylumdown

There was one other thing I got from the states a while back, I can't even remember what it was. I remember the shipping being almost as much as the product, and then two weeks later those little gremlins at Fedex sent me a second bill for the brokerage. All told, shipping, customs, and brokerage cost 115% of the thing I ordered (I don't remember the product, but I do remember the outrage at that number).

The trick to buying from the states is make sure the seller will ship via USPS. The shipping charges are about the same as they are shipping within Canada, no brokerage fees and I've only been charged twice for a $5 handling fee and GST from Canada Customs, usually I pay neither. I haven't bought a lot of aquarium related stuff from the US but my other hobbies usually come in at around 25% cheaper to my door than buying Canadian. I find some of the Canadian LFS have done a pretty good job at keeping their prices lower than others and fairly close to par with the US given the exchange rate.