I just received my first order and last on-line order. The cost of blades was $20 + $20 for express shipping. Took a month. At my door delivery man charged me $3.50 tax + $5 service fee. Is this normal.
Trudy

Whoa!!! That is crazy!!! Did you order from the States?

Yes, this is normal but usually not on items under $20.00. This is hit and miss. I bought a cutting mat for $85.00 and no extra charge. I've bought a lot of cotton on line and so far, touch wood, I have not been charged taxes or surcharge. - We're talking up to $150.00

The shipping seems really high. Any time I order anything from the States, I have it sent regular mail and I usually get in 2-3 weeks. Most vendors will use the type of envelope that you can get up to 7 yards of fabric for $12.00.

I have probably had 10-12 online orders over the last 6 months and twice I have been charged taxes and/or brokerage, but no rhyme or reason to which orders. At first I thought it was because an order contained notions or supplies not necessary made in the USA and therefore free trade does not apply, but that is not always the case and the values of orders have been anywhere from $50 to $250 and that did not seem to be the difference either. The twice that there were additonal charges the orders did come through Canada Post, but so do my orders from Connecting Threads and I have never had additional charges on them and that is where I have ordered quilt batts so some of those parcels are very large, not heavy but definately oversized. Maybe someone can enlighten us as to what the rules in fact are.

These were rotary blades (from states),so maybe they were dangerous goods. LOL. I had wanted to try Marshell Dry Goods, maybe I'll give on-line shopping a miss till we go snowbirding.

Have placed a number of orders in the last couple of years, and my experience has been like MamaBear's - sometimes get charged duty, most times not.

Have even had two packages arrive from different shops on the same day, one got duty charged the other didn't.

No idea what the rules really are - glad when there aren't additional charges but am always prepared to pay the import duty taxes.

I have no idea what the $5 service fee would be from the delivery person!

It also depends on who is doing the delivery. Where I use to work if FedEx handled the shipment we found they ALWAYS charges taxes, duties and whatever else. if it went thru the post office no extra fees. So our customers learned quickly to ask for Mail as opposed to FedEx .

My advice is find a company that you like , build a relationship with them and they will work with you to keep costs down :thumbup:

To the best of my knowledge, here is how it works:

USPS (US Postal Service) does not charge brokerage fees, but UPS/FedEx do. (So we always ship to Canada via USPS!)

CanadaPost charges a flat $5-per-package administrative fee when they deliver the package. They also charges sales tax at that point.

I think, though, that packages valued at less than $20 CAD are just delivered with no fees collected. So if your package was valued at exactly $20 USD ... that could be over or under $20 CAD, depending on whatever the current exchange rate is.

Some countries, such as the UK, do an exchange rate determination once a year. I don't know if Canada does that too.

Canadian quilters, here is a "definitive" link to follow: http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/po...roits-eng.html ... it's a government site, so I would expect it to be up-to-date and correct. Here's another link too: http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/po.../menu-eng.html

(We post these links on our own website, to help our Canadian customers.)

Thanks Favorite Fabrics for the info. Everything you have said makes complete sense, but still some of the shipments I have received don't seem to have followed these guidelines (orders for $50-$100 sent Canada post with no additonal fees, and orders in this same range or slightly higher and I was charged additonal fees). I have just been keeping track of which orders due incur the additional fees and take this into consideration when determining final price per yard or meter. As you say I am more apt to order from the suppliers that are able to ship orders in such a way that these additonal fees are not required and therefore not part of my final cost. I also pay close attention to what companies are charging for shipping as some are using "flat rate" and I pay approx. $12 to receive 6-7 yds of fabric and others have rates well over $20 to ship the same amount of product (I bet you can guess who gets my order).

Sometimes we hear from our customers, either in Canada or the UK, that the occasional package slips right through with no fees. And there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.

So if you DO get a package and CanadaPost doesn't ask for a fee... consider it your lucky day!