Additiona Fees (help)

[PostScript]

Hi everyone,

I have come within inches of pre-ordering today (on multiple occasions) but I am facing a slight quandary. Specifically involving hidden fees.

I was hoping someone may be able to shed some light on duty fees and brokerage charges that may be expected. I have done a search and found some rather scary information about shipping to Canada, but nothing about shipping to the US.

I am a Canadian, but I do have an American shipping address which I can have the Pandora sent to. It seems that Canadian shipping may be more likely to get dung by taxes, duty and brokerage fees. Anyone have any clue what is to be expected for the US?

PS This is a Christmas gift for someone so I would like to keep the costs within reason.

Thanks in advance for any help!!

Edit: slight grammatical error.

 

[Tom`]

Hi everyone,

I have come within inches of pre-ordering today (on multiple occasions) but I am facing a slight quandary. Specifically involving hidden fees.

I was hoping someone may be able to shed some light on duty fees and brokerage charges that may be expected. I have done a search and found some rather scary information about shipping to Canada, but nothing about shipping to the US.

I am a Canadian, but I do have an American shipping address which I can have the Pandora sent to. It seems that Canadian shipping may be more likely to get dung by taxes, duty and brokerage fees. Anyone have any clue what is to be expected for the US?

PS This is a Christmas gift for someone so I would like to keep the costs within reason.

Thanks in advance for any help!!

Edit: slight grammatical error.

Shipping to America is $26 for me, there are no other fees. I don't know if that shipping rate applies to everywhere in America, but I suspect it does.

 

[mechanizeddeath]

$26 here too in the US, for the Pandora itself and the TV cable.

 

[Prophet]

$26 here too in the US, for the Pandora itself and the TV cable.

Ditto.

 

[icurafu]

You're credit card company may charge a small fee for international credit payments, but that's all.

 

[PostScript]

Thanks for the quick replies.

So from what I gather. If I have it shipped to the US, I will not be charged duty, taxes or broker fees once it is shipped?

(Sorry if the original question was not very well articulated).

 

[Tobriand]

Well... unless your address is in a state which has an electronic goods tax of some sort. I think California is the only one to do that, though, based on comments earlier this week (i.e. that's only the case if those comments are correct).

One thing is certain, though: it will be much less complex to get it shipped to US address than the Canadian one...

 

[TrevorBradley]

Thanks for the quick replies.

So from what I gather. If I have it shipped to the US, I will not be charged duty, taxes or broker fees once it is shipped?

(Sorry if the original question was not very well articulated).

I know you get dinged with customs charges if you order by UPS. I got such a letter about a month after I got my GP2X F200.

If you order to a US address, remember there are time restrictions for how long you can stay in the states if you want to declare your purchase at the border.

 

[EmuGuy]

Hi all. Like many Canadians on this forum, I pre-ordered my Pandora today at gbax.com/pandorax.html

I didn't think much of it until I started reading the various posts about duty/shipping/importing fees etc to Canada and other countries.

My question: What's the deal? I was under the impression (from the Pandora homepage) that "we have special distribution arrangements for USA, Canada, Spain, UK, Ireland, Germany & Turkey."

I assumed that means they'll total up the Canadian pre-orders, ship 'em to their Canadian distributor, and then they'll ship them within Canada, thus avoiding outrageous fees for the consumer.

Anyone know what the actual situation is? Cause if my Pandora will end up costing me $200 more than what I forked over this morning, then I'll cancel my pre-order and wait for Canada-based options to appear next year.

Thanks for any info! I did a search on "Canada" and found other people wondering the same thing, but nothing concrete thus far. Thanks.

 

[Tom`]

Thanks for the quick replies.

So from what I gather. If I have it shipped to the US, I will not be charged duty, taxes or broker fees once it is shipped?

(Sorry if the original question was not very well articulated).

Well, I certainly hope not.

I don't see how they could, I've bought stuff on eBay from everywhere and there hasn't been a problem. Not from the UK, though, but stuff from other places in Europe was fine.

 

[quadomatic]

Ooof, $26? That's a big chunk of change.

Oh well. Small price to pay.

 

[MWeston]

When Craig sends me things from England by UPS, it usually gets a generic invoice claiming to be a GP2X at $199.99CDN, even though it's usually parts worth much less. Craig's staff just gets it in the mail for him without really checking what it is.

All I end up paying is 5% GST which would be $10. Sometimes I get charged brokerage fees on things (usually FedEx) but my experience with stuff coming from Craig's office has always been 5% GST and nothing more. I hope that is reasonable. You would pay that if you purchased a Pandora from a Canadian distributor. There's no way around the tax man.

 

[CronoTrig]

When Craig sends me things from England by UPS, it usually gets a generic invoice claiming to be a GP2X at $199.99CDN, even though it's usually parts worth much less. Craig's staff just gets it in the mail for him without really checking what it is.

All I end up paying is 5% GST which would be $10. Sometimes I get charged brokerage fees on things (usually FedEx) but my experience with stuff coming from Craig's office has always been 5% GST and nothing more. I hope that is reasonable. You would pay that if you purchased a Pandora from a Canadian distributor. There's no way around the tax man.

That's good to know, since otherwise us Canadians would end up paying at least 30% for stupid customs fees, which is pretty ridiculous. The recent US market crash pretty much caused the CDN > US > EURO conversion to cost me ~$20 more than I expected (pretty bad luck, I guess), and I don't expect to be paying more than the ~$380 that it's already costing me. Another 30% of that would really suck.

 

[EmuGuy]

When Craig sends me things from England by UPS, it usually gets a generic invoice claiming to be a GP2X at $199.99CDN, even though it's usually parts worth much less. Craig's staff just gets it in the mail for him without really checking what it is.

All I end up paying is 5% GST which would be $10. Sometimes I get charged brokerage fees on things (usually FedEx) but my experience with stuff coming from Craig's office has always been 5% GST and nothing more. I hope that is reasonable. You would pay that if you purchased a Pandora from a Canadian distributor. There's no way around the tax man.

B) Thanks a lot for that info and explanation. 5 to 10% isn't a bother to me...bring on November!

 

[MWeston]

... for stupid customs fees...

Don't get me started on Canadian customs!

I swear, some days they spin a wheel and say "this is what you pay today". :angry:


...but as I said before, a package labeled 'Gaming Handheld' from GBAX has only been charged 5% so I really hope customs doesn't let you all down.

 

[PoisonedV]

my credit card company charged me 10 dollars flat rate percent for converting currencies, just fyi

 

[Elanzer]

I live in Canada, and a few years back I bought a cheap used laptop off ebay for ~$300, and I got dung with a ~$110 customs fee (which really didn't make the purchase worth it).

But that's only 1 of 2 times I've ever actually been charged border fees ordering things from US -> Canada, the other time I was buying some clothing online (which also took a big 30% fee). These were atleast 4 years ago though, ever since I haven't gotten any fees. Just this month I bought some $100 headphones from the states and didn't get charged a customs fee either, but it was clearly labeled as $100 valued goods on the package and not a gift or anything.

Hopefully it's not a problem with the Pandora, or I'll end up paying ~$530 CAD for this thing.

 

[EmuGuy]

Yeah I've previously only ordered small items from the USA, and three tiny joystick nubs from PlayAsia, so I haven't had the pleasure of Canadian customs gouging before. Here's hoping my number isn't up!

 

[PostScript]

Hi all. Like many Canadians on this forum, I pre-ordered my Pandora today at gbax.com/pandorax.html

I didn't think much of it until I started reading the various posts about duty/shipping/importing fees etc to Canada and other countries.

My question: What's the deal? I was under the impression (from the Pandora homepage) that "we have special distribution arrangements for USA, Canada, Spain, UK, Ireland, Germany & Turkey."

I assumed that means they'll total up the Canadian pre-orders, ship 'em to their Canadian distributor, and then they'll ship them within Canada, thus avoiding outrageous fees for the consumer.

Anyone know what the actual situation is? Cause if my Pandora will end up costing me $200 more than what I forked over this morning, then I'll cancel my pre-order and wait for Canada-based options to appear next year.

Thanks for any info! I did a search on "Canada" and found other people wondering the same thing, but nothing concrete thus far. Thanks.



I would love to hear an official response to this as well. If that is the case (i.e. shipment from Canadian distributors), it would make me feel much better about the whole situation.

Also, good luck with the refund. From what I gather (as a lurker for quite some time), that is not a possibility. It seems if you paid for it you are stuck with it. Hopefully someone could also comment on this. Again if that is a possibility (to get a refund), that too would ease my tension.

(Now I am sure I will be barraged with comments akin to -- "if you aren't sure don't do it". Sounds like a good business practice to me...)

 

[CronoTrig]

Can we get a definitive official verdict on this please?