Canadian on-line shoppers
 

Is there a way to not have to pay duty on my on-line orders. I've only ordered twice before once I ordered a pkg. of ten rotary blades had to pay $20 at my door. A couple months ago I ordered a bobbin casing and a pkg. of 6 plastic bobbins that cost me $30 at the door. I'm almost scared to buy fabric. Is there a site you can recommend, is one better than the others. I'm interested in yardage only no pre-cuts.

I lived in Canada for a few years after I retired. Paying duty on packages from the U.S. seemed to be hit or miss. I never could figure out what the rules were. We ordered the same exact thing twice from the same company, identically packaged and declared, had to pay duty on one but not the other.

I'm in Canada, and started buying online from the U.S. about 10 years ago. At that time, I almost never paid duty. As time went on, I started being charged occasionally with duty. At this point in time, it's really a "hit or miss" situation, as Dunster noted. I have now found Canadian online stores, and although prices "per yard" are higher, I no longer have to worry about duty charges. Also shipping charges are lower. It's also nice to be encouraging Canadian sellers.

If a package is delivered by UPS you will be charged a huge brokerage fee, plus duty, plus GST on most things that come up from the US. If it is shipped via USPS (the US Post Office) generally there is no duty, on occasion there is a Canada Post fee, plus GST.

Connecting Threads brokers packages across the border and you will pay nothing at the door.

I will not order from a US company that only use UPS. I once ordered from Fabric.com and requested USPS, but they sent my packaged UPS. I refused it and complained to Fabric.com, they refunded my money as it was their mistake.

Earlier this year I bought quite a bit of fabric ($165.00 US) in one order and paid no duty. I have never paid duty on a MSQC order either.

I don’t think whether you pay customs fees or not has anything to do with where you buy from. I agree with those who say it is hit or miss.

I ordered fabric from fabric.com last Thursday morning and it was at my door the next day at 1pm. I have no idea how it got here that quickly. It had to have been processed by customs. I’m in central Alberta and the parcel came from Georgia!

edited to add. I don’t shop from ConnectingThreads because they process the pst and gst. We don’t have pst in AB and the employee I was dealing with wouldn’t waive that. I asked her how much pst she was going to charge me and where was it going to go after she collected it. She couldn’t answer so I don’t order from them. Frustrating as I like what they have to offer.

It's been mostly hit or miss for me but recently I've been nabbed
twice out of four packages.

JanieW, fabric.com belongs to Amazon so I wouldn't be surprised
if they use the same delivery service.

MSQC has good shipping rates but sometimes they can be very
slow at shipping your order and if the fabric is not available
they don't even notify you.

In my experiences, the shipping costs from most shops outside of Canada do not make it worthwhile to me to shop on line. I do order from Connecting Threads, often in conjunction with friends so we get free shipping. I have not had any of their parcels charged duty and paying the HST while not pleasant, is no different than buying at a local shop.
I do support the local brick and mortar stores with more than 1/2 of my quilting dollars, and that is tipping more in their favour as time goes on.
In the non -quilting context, I will not order unless the item is shipped USPS because for most things, the brokerage fee is too exorbitant for me/us.
I also feel we need to support the postal services (USPS/CPS) as there is a need for a postal service.IMHO.

EasyPeezy,

Your probably onto something with the Amazon connection. I used AmazonPay to pay. I’m still boggled because I have ordered things through Amazon that came from Calgary or Edmonton . Both cities are 1.5 hours from me and that took two days. The parcel from fabric.com had Georgia as the return address and it got here in 24 hours.

As for the customs fees being charged on orders over $ 60 , that has not been the case in my experience. I think it’s a crap shoot . My recent purchase was well over that and it didn’t even have a customs sticker on it. Still scratching my head.

I order from Amazon.ca and those packages are shipped within Canada. I have not ordered from Fabric.com since it was sold to Amazon.

Janie I am surprized Connecting Threads was going to charge you PST, I have not been charged it only GST and I live in BC where we have PST. On their website, they show which taxes will be charged based on which province the parcel is being delivered to. AB says 5%. I know not everyone likes their thread, but me and my machines (Kenmore, Janome and Handiquilter) like it and the price is very reasonable, even better during their sales. I like the wide backings too.

https://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/m...-e.asp#1393887 Section 2 is how Canada Post applies Customs Duty, GST and handling to imports. But it does not explain why there can be a huge variation in the application of the rules.

Sometimes the delivery carrier charges a "brokerage fee" to get it through customs so you aren't actually paying duty, you're paying this.

Watson