Canada Friendly Online Stores

Ranx

What with the recent rise in the value of the Canuck dollar, I am thinking of shopping online more. What are some good electronic/book/whatever sites that ship to Canada, charge American prices, and have a cheap shipping fees?

LBD_Nytetrayn

Now that's a good question. I'd like to find a good place where maybe I can get my money's worth, instead of the constant gouging that happens up here.

Quintile

I'm also interested in some answers.. get to the answering!

SwashbucklerXX

Ranx wrote: »

What with the recent rise in the value of the Canuck dollar, I am thinking of shopping online more. What are some good electronic/book/whatever sites that ship to Canada, charge American prices, and have a cheap shipping fees?

Cheap shipping fees to Canada? You say funny thing!

I use amazon.ca fairly frequently. They seem to lower prices on older games faster than the brick 'n' mortar stores (and their associated websites), and you get free shipping if you spend enough.

I have tried ordering on-line from the States, but even with the high dollar I rarely save any money. The Canadian government always tacks on the GST+PST, shipping prices are almost universally Not Worth It, and sometimes the government tacks on extra duty because they didn't like the looks of your package or something. Oh, the joys of ordering a $35 product and having the postal delivery person demand $20 in duty or it goes back where it came from.

Oh, and I avoid anyplace that ships FedEx or UPS to Canada. The stores that really know their shit use Canada Post. FedEx in particular likes to charge you a "brokerage fee" for "negotiating" customs. My mom sent me a gift once, worth about $30. The government charged $5 in GST/PST, and Fedex tacked on an $18 brokerage fee. Took my mom and I two weeks of back and forth on the phone with Fedex to get them to allow us to just send the damn $5 directly to the government and drop the $18.

Sorry to be a downer, I've just had a lot of lousy experiences trying to order stuff from the States. Moving up here really cured me of my addiction to mail order.

Pheezer

Monarch Computer used to be good, but they seem to have shut down.

I was thinking the same thing lately, parity is an exciting thought.

The best deals aren't even on electronics though, you'll find that only fairly niche items like gaming video cards offer decent deals. Hard drives already cost about the same both sides of the border, same for RAM.

Flash memory likewise is mostly the same price.


The best deals are on cars (if you're shopping, seriously, look at going across the border) and appliances.
For instance, a Subaru Tribeca that runs $46,000 here runs $32,000 in the USA and the paperwork and fees add up to $300 or so to import. Most cars offer similar headroom on the conversion, around the 20%-30% mark.

Appliances are less mind boggling but still a good deal. Driving over to a Wal-Mart could be pretty handy if you live near the border.

Digital cameras and lenses are pretty close. SLR lenses can occasionally be a good deal cheaper, but not all the time.

What else. uhh. Oh, Apple hardware is a deal. $200 savings on a MacBook Pro, or $40 on a 160 GB iPod. Again, you have to travel though.

durandal4532

Actually, this might be the place to ask the question: Does Steam function well in Canada? Is there any problem with using a US credit card while having a Canadian IP address? I still haven't bought anything on Steam here, and my friend had some problems when he made his account.

Pheezer

SwashbucklerXX wrote: »

snip

Yeah, but you don't really know what you're talking about.

Brokerage fees are standard. The company pays your duty fees, and then you pay them the duty plus a small premium for them doing you that favor. FedEx is actually by far the most reasonable with their fee structure, UPS is by far the worst.

Although if a gift is marked as such and below the maximum allowable value, it's free in that regard anyhow.

And yes you do have to pay GST & PST if you import things but frequently when you buy online you won't get charged those things at the border. This is primarily a concern when bringing things back with you in your car.


Honestly, I think the best deals right now are to be had on eBay. Maybe on higher end electronics, too.

Pheezer

durandal4532 wrote: »

Actually, this might be the place to ask the question: Does Steam function well in Canada? Is there any problem with using a US credit card while having a Canadian IP address? I still haven't bought anything on Steam here, and my friend had some problems when he made his account.

I signed up and bought HL2 over it on release day and had no problems with the purchasing of HL2 part. Steam was completely unreliable back then, but that had more to do with it being glitchy and poorly supported than the fact that I was Canadian, Americans had the same problems I had.

AlienCowThatMoos

DrDizaster wrote: »

SwashbucklerXX wrote: »

snip

Yeah, but you don't really know what you're talking about.

Brokerage fees are standard. The company pays your duty fees, and then you pay them the duty plus a small premium for them doing you that favor. FedEx is actually by far the most reasonable with their fee structure, UPS is by far the worst.

Although if a gift is marked as such and below the maximum allowable value, it's free in that regard anyhow.

And yes you do have to pay GST & PST if you import things but frequently when you buy online you won't get charged those things at the border. This is primarily a concern when bringing things back with you in your car.

I'm sorry, but you don't know what you're talking about. UPS, Fedex, Purolator. Every single time anyone has ever shipped me anything from that States via one of those three, they tack on an insane fee for the "favor" of paying the duty for me. They start at $20 and go up from there.

And what favor is that? How about the government sends me a bill and cuts UPS out of the deal altogether? Or even call me and make me pay before it gets across the border. That's fine with me.

My worst experience ever was when I bought Bloodrayne 2 on ebay. Cost: $7.15. Shipping: $4. I didn't even thing to ask how they were shipping it; how could they use a courier for $4? They put the value of the item at $50 and UPS charged me $40 in brokerage fees. Fourty-fucking-dollars on a $7 game. I'd have told them to fuck themselves, but my roommate got the package when I was out and paid the fee on my behalf. GRAAAAH!

taliosfalcon

amazon.com usually ships orders to their canadian warehouses then ships it to the customer from there. Which means you don't get hit with any customs fees. and the US prices are much cheaper

SwashbucklerXX

DrDizaster wrote: »

SwashbucklerXX wrote: »

snip

Yeah, but you don't really know what you're talking about.

Brokerage fees are standard. The company pays your duty fees, and then you pay them the duty plus a small premium for them doing you that favor. FedEx is actually by far the most reasonable with their fee structure, UPS is by far the worst.

Although if a gift is marked as such and below the maximum allowable value, it's free in that regard anyhow.

And yes you do have to pay GST & PST if you import things but frequently when you buy online you won't get charged those things at the border. This is primarily a concern when bringing things back with you in your car.

I don't care if brokerage fees are standard. For small ticket items, they're a ripoff. Canada Post (edit: unless you use Puralator) doesn't charge the brokerage fee, which is why I avoid the companies that charge it. Why should I pay Fedex to "negotiate" with the Customs officials, when a package sent through the regular post gets the exact same duty stamped on it, and I can pay the damn thing myself without the extra fee?

As for GST and PST, I've had them tacked onto my purchase by the US companies themselves, and I've had them tacked on to stuff I picked up at the post office. I've had a lot better luck avoiding charges when crossing by car than I've had doing mail order, actually. At least by car they give me a clear idea of how much I can spend duty free per the amount of time I was in the US.

Pheezer

SwashbucklerXX wrote: »

DrDizaster wrote: »

SwashbucklerXX wrote: »

snip

Yeah, but you don't really know what you're talking about.

Brokerage fees are standard. The company pays your duty fees, and then you pay them the duty plus a small premium for them doing you that favor. FedEx is actually by far the most reasonable with their fee structure, UPS is by far the worst.

Although if a gift is marked as such and below the maximum allowable value, it's free in that regard anyhow.

And yes you do have to pay GST & PST if you import things but frequently when you buy online you won't get charged those things at the border. This is primarily a concern when bringing things back with you in your car.

I don't care if brokerage fees are standard. For small ticket items, they're a ripoff. Canada Post (edit: unless you use Puralator) doesn't charge the brokerage fee, which is why I avoid the companies that charge it. Why should I pay Fedex to "negotiate" with the Customs officials, when a package sent through the regular post gets the exact same duty stamped on it, and I can pay the damn thing myself without the extra fee?

Well, yeah, it's sort of bullshit. But you CAN clear your own packages, which is a huge pain in the ass, or you can hire a third party broker, which isn't worth it unless you have a high volume of shipments and can leverage a good rate that way.

That the post office doesn't charge brokerage is a little different. It's of little consequence to them if you refuse to or are unable to pay to clear your package. I'm not sure what would happen but I suspect they'd just bill you to ship it back to the sender. Either way it's unlikely that your package will be large enough to disrupt normal shipping operations and they're not exactly making extra or special trips based on it except for under absurdly rare circumstances.

As for GST and PST, I've had them tacked onto my purchase by the US companies themselves, and I've had them tacked on to stuff I picked up at the post office. I've had a lot better luck avoiding charges when crossing by car than I've had doing mail order, actually. At least by car they give me a clear idea of how much I can spend duty free per the amount of time I was in the US.

Yeah, that's one of those read the fine print things when you're online. With the semi-recent changes to cross-border allowances you can get away with more in a car than you used to, too.

Which is why I'm crossing for 11/23

Dareth Ram

Amazon.com. So much saved this week.

DolbyDigital

so...can i order an xbox360 from amazon.com and ship it to Canada and avoid using amazon.ca? i was reading their shipping info, and it says that they can only ship books, cds, dvds, etc. to canada...is this for real?

LewieP

play-asia is great for anything that is import friendly.

SwashbucklerXX

DolbyDigital wrote: »

so...can i order an xbox360 from amazon.com and ship it to Canada and avoid using amazon.ca? i was reading their shipping info, and it says that they can only ship books, cds, dvds, etc. to canada...is this for real?

Well... I doubt they are lying. The "Canada" page is pretty specific.

I don't know if it's the case here, but some companies specifically forbid US companies to ship things to Canada so they can price-gouge here. F'rinstance, I tried to order Mario Kart from EBGames and I think Amazon.com as well, when it was $40 in the US and $60-70 in Canada. I was politely informed by the web page that Nintendo would not allow this product to be shipped to Canada. Damn Nintendo bastiges (though I got around it by having the game shipped to my parents and picking it up when we visited for Christmas).

Lothars

NCIX for computer equipment

Amazon.com for everything else

Senjutsu

durandal4532 wrote: »

Actually, this might be the place to ask the question: Does Steam function well in Canada? Is there any problem with using a US credit card while having a Canadian IP address? I still haven't bought anything on Steam here, and my friend had some problems when he made his account.

It works perfectly fine

Edit: Incidentally guys, the deal with the brokerage fees is this: All a broker does is pay duty to Customs & Revenue on your behalf and then send you a bill for Duty + Service charges (usually retardedly inflated, in some cases more than the value of the thing you imported). UPS and FedEx Ground will act as a brokerage agent, and ding you with a bill. FedEx Air and Canada Post/Purolator will all simply present you with the customs bill, which is almost always cheaper than the brokerage route because of the lack of service charges.

edit 2: Sorry, UPS Air doesn't charge a brokerage fee either. Brokerage is purely a ground shipping phenomenon.

DolbyDigital

hmm....looks like you can't ship a console internationally... I tried at Amazon.com and ebgames.com.

Anybody have a solution?

Zetx

I was wondering, if you're living close to the border, couldn't you say rent a PO box ship things there and pick it up yourself? Or does customs/immigration screw you over anyway? (I was thinking of possibly moving up north and I have absolutely no idea how any of this works.)

DolbyDigital

well, i do live close to the border...we do go down every so often for shopping trips, but you have to stay for 48 hours to be eligible for $400 of goods being brought back. that would offset any savings i get due to gas and hotel and food, etc.

what if i went for the day and bought one and brought it back. how would the duty work for that? also, i read that you can apply to have the taxes you pay get refunded since you arent a resident there.

how does this all work?

LewieP

if you open the box of anything, customs can't touch it. How can they know you didn't take it with you?

Hell, if you are worried, post the box and receipt from the USA, and just take the console with you.

apotheos

UPS does have cargo depots at most every crossing. They will charge less than five bucks to hold a package shipped to them unless its ridiculously sized.

Everyone should remember that credit cards do not offer the same exchange rate as banks/the market, and many cards have a 2-5% surcharge for purchases made in foreign currency. Just FYI - its still probably a deal.

I'm not sure what DrD is talking about with customs, Canada Post, and brokerage. Couriers have ridiculous surcharges for clearing customs - clearing customs for commercial goods meaning showing the damn box to a customs guy who can open it if he feels like to levy tax and duty. Its the exact same thing Canada Post does, but couriers charge huge fees for it. The fees make SENSE if you are a commercial shipper and have elaborate customs forms that need to be filled out, but for small purchases and residential shipments the only form that needs filling out is that little green sticker.

apotheos

DolbyDigital wrote: »

well, i do live close to the border...we do go down every so often for shopping trips, but you have to stay for 48 hours to be eligible for $400 of goods being brought back. that would offset any savings i get due to gas and hotel and food, etc.

what if i went for the day and bought one and brought it back. how would the duty work for that? also, i read that you can apply to have the taxes you pay get refunded since you arent a resident there.

how does this all work?

How does it work legally? You declare your purchases. Anything over the exemption limit you pay tax on. Just tax. It is incredibly unlikely you would ever buy anything that requires duty due to the Free Trade Agreement.

Illegally? You lie. You lie to a man that can order a cavity search be done on you.

Dodge Aspen

Another one to try is Futureshop.ca. I haven't used anything other than Amazon for a long while, but Future Shop used to be pretty good. Also Bestbuy.ca.

SwashbucklerXX

Dodge Aspen wrote: »

Another one to try is Futureshop.ca. I haven't used anything other than Amazon for a long while, but Future Shop used to be pretty good. Also Bestbuy.ca.

Futureshop and Best Buy are ok for electronics if you wait for a sale. I like that you can order on-line and pick up at a local store. Games are overpriced and are almost never marked down.

DolbyDigital

ok so it seems like the best idea is to take a drive down, buy the 360, pay the 5% tax, get back to the border, pay the duty which will equal the gst that i would have paid? then apply to get the 5% back with the form that you get on the way in...

unless of course i stayed for 48 hours, and was eligible to take that amount back with no duty.

does this sound right?

Guibs

DolbyDigital wrote: »

ok so it seems like the best idea is to take a drive down, buy the 360, pay the 5% tax, get back to the border, pay the duty which will equal the gst that i would have paid? then apply to get the 5% back with the form that you get on the way in...

unless of course i stayed for 48 hours, and was eligible to take that amount back with no duty.

does this sound right?

Sounds like an awfull lot of trouble just to save 5%...

Lothars

SwashbucklerXX wrote: »

Dodge Aspen wrote: »

Another one to try is Futureshop.ca. I haven't used anything other than Amazon for a long while, but Future Shop used to be pretty good. Also Bestbuy.ca.

Futureshop and Best Buy are ok for electronics if you wait for a sale. I like that you can order on-line and pick up at a local store. Games are overpriced and are almost never marked down.

not always sometimes they get really good prices for games, you just have to wait but it does depend.

Guibs

taliosfalcon wrote: »

amazon.com usually ships orders to their canadian warehouses then ships it to the customer from there. Which means you don't get hit with any customs fees. and the US prices are much cheaper

Are you 100% sure about this? If so, that could be truly great for me...

DolbyDigital

Guibs wrote: »

DolbyDigital wrote: »

ok so it seems like the best idea is to take a drive down, buy the 360, pay the 5% tax, get back to the border, pay the duty which will equal the gst that i would have paid? then apply to get the 5% back with the form that you get on the way in...

unless of course i stayed for 48 hours, and was eligible to take that amount back with no duty.

does this sound right?

Sounds like an awfull lot of trouble just to save 5%...

well, its not only 5%. The price of a platinum unit here is $399. The price over there is $349. im really bad at math here but im pretty sure id be saving around $80.

Here i have to pay 399.99 plus 13% tax (pst and gst) totaling $450
there i would be paying (349.99+5% tax)+7% duty = $390 - 5% ND tax with refund form = $372

$450
-$372

---

$78

but there is still gas to consider, plus, there is a bundle here for the platinum system with forza2 for $399...and i cant find a similar bundle at US online retailers....and my costco store has a forza and play and charge kit bundle as well....