Need some advice!

schlebrock · July 23, 2006

Canadian customs/tariffs/fees from an ebay purchase

I bought a new Titleist Scotty Cameron Studio Design #5 on ebay about a week ago. I paid $200 total (which included shipping charges) through paypal using the "buy it now" option. After sending the seller my confirmed shipping information, he started that it would take 10 days to get it. So far, no problems.

However, he later sent me an email asking for my phone number because Fedex needed it for shipping. I provided it. Several days later he emails me back saying Fedex has been trying to get a hold of me for a few days and now the putter is stuck in customs. He gives me a phone number to call and I get nothing but a voicemail so I contact him via email again. Here's where it starts going bad.

After sending him an email, I ask him why it's stuck in customs and he says I need to arrange to pay a duty or tariff before I can get the item. I was unaware that I had to pay any additional fees and he failed to disclose this in his auction listing. I'm also leery about giving someone my credit card number to a voicemail at the "supposed" customs office.

I tried working it out with him but he's been a jerk. So my questions is, should I have known about the fees or was it his responsibility to disclose that in his auction? This seller has over 1000 transactions and has a good rating but other people seem to have had the same issue I have, at least according to their comments in the feedback section.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

dfung · July 23, 2006

A US seller selling to a US buyer is pretty simple on both ends. Shipping anything out of the US isn't easy, and varies for each country. It would have been good for the seller to raise the issue of customs/tariffs and any other international issues when you sent him your address, but all that would have happened would have been that he would have asked you to tell him what special handling is required. As a non-domestic buyer, you should probably expect that shipping will cost more, take more time, and that you'll be responsible for any additional charges that come up.

FedEx express and international shipping always require a phone number for delivery problems. They may or may not have called that number about a customs issue; I think it's more likely they would have gotten back to the sender about this. I wouldn't just go calling any random number, but the seller can certainly provide you with the waybill number and you can call the FedEx phone number in your phone book and have them transfer you to the place where you can resolve the problem. That's certainly going to be safe.

The seller has to fill out a customs statement for shipments going out of the US. For many years, small fry shippers would just put "manufacturing samples" or something to that effect as the contents. Samples are not generally subject to tariffs on normal items. But, as you can guess, this loophole has been subject to widespread abuse. Used stuff on the declaration would probably also pass without being held up as it's hard on the face to determine what the value would be. But new stuff will certainly raise a flag, and many items have a tariff attached (be prepared because it could easily be 20% or more of the declared value).

FedEx takes responsibility for enforcement of the customs declaration (doing this job verifyably well keeps them from having to have government inspectors handling all their international traffic). Over the past few years, this has definitely gotten more stiffly enforced because of national security concerns.

Because this has been getting increasingly complicated recently, a lot of sellers just don't want to ship internationally. A friend of mine that runs a side business producing replacement parts for guitar hardware stopped shipping internationally last year solely because of the paperwork and constant problems with delivery. Just too many rules and too many hassles.

If other people have been giving dicey feedback to your seller around issues like this but he has an enormous positive feedback record, then I'd definitely cut him some slack. He's just lax about international issues.

yenniedn · July 23, 2006

As an international buyer, you should expect to pay customs/tariffs. . .thats why many buyers from Canada always email to ask if I'll mark the item as a "gift" and/or declare a very low (less than $50) value on the item. They are obviously aware of the regulations and are trying to get around it. So you should've done your homework a little more on this.

But again, as the other person said - this is one of the reasons ppl hate shipping internationally, even if it's just to our neighbors to the North.

schlebrock · July 23, 2006

Thanks for the feedback. Looks like I learned something new about international shipping. Unfortunately it's going to come at a price.

Speaking of price, does anybody know how much the fees will be? Is it based on the price ($200) of the declared item or size of the package, etc.

yenniedn · July 23, 2006

It'll be based on the value of the declared value of the item (i.e. $200), although I'm not sure how much the actual fee will be.

EdmontonGolfer · July 23, 2006

To give you an idea on fees being in Canada and buying from The States on more than one occasion without an issue...I bought a shaft that came to $47US and it was marked valued at $120. I paid $40 in brokerage, custoims/duties.

You ALWAYS have to figure in the customs etc. when you purchase to see if it's really a good deal or not. That being said, if you're buying from a private seller or a small time store, they should be nice enough to mark "gift" on the box. They don't lose any money by doing this and it saves you a bunch when cross border shopping.

Perhaps the economy would be better in the USA if they didn't charge such idiotic customs and brokerage fees on items being shipped out of the country. I think many out of country shoppers would be more intrigued to purchase items if they didn't have to worry about fees that amount to a good portion of the price of the item they are buying.

schlebrock · July 23, 2006

Looks like the good deal I got is not going to be such a good deal after all. It may end up being a $275 putter instead of the $200 I was hoping for........ouch!

Thanks for all the feedback and information everyone. Looks like I won't be buying from our friends from the North any time in the near future!

EdmontonGolfer · July 23, 2006

Looks like the good deal I got is not going to be such a good deal after all. It may end up being a $275 putter instead of the $200 I was hoping for........ouch!

Thanks for all the feedback and information everyone. Looks like I won't be buying from our friends from the North any time in the near future!

There's nothing wrong with buying from Canadians. All you have to do is be aware of what the extra costs are going to be. If this guy was a stand up person like most are, he'd have marked that it was a "gift" on your package for you.

schlebrock · July 23, 2006

Looks like the good deal I got is not going to be such a good deal after all. It may end up being a $275 putter instead of the $200 I was hoping for........ouch!

Thanks for all the feedback and information everyone. Looks like I won't be buying from our friends from the North any time in the near future!

There's nothing wrong with buying from Canadians. All you have to do is be aware of what the extra costs are going to be. If this guy was a stand up person like most are, he'd have marked that it was a "gift" on your package for you.

I wasn't implying that there's anything wrong with buying from Canadians. I just meant that it costs more than I orginally thought to buy mercandise from Canada. Now that I know what to expect, I can factor that into my decision making.

I apologize if you took offense, I certainly didn't mean anything by it.

EdmontonGolfer · July 23, 2006

Looks like the good deal I got is not going to be such a good deal after all. It may end up being a $275 putter instead of the $200 I was hoping for........ouch!

Thanks for all the feedback and information everyone. Looks like I won't be buying from our friends from the North any time in the near future!

There's nothing wrong with buying from Canadians. All you have to do is be aware of what the extra costs are going to be. If this guy was a stand up person like most are, he'd have marked that it was a "gift" on your package for you.
I wasn't implying that there's anything wrong with buying from Canadians. I just meant that it costs more than I orginally thought to buy mercandise from Canada. Now that I know what to expect, I can factor that into my decision making.

I apologize if you took offense, I certainly didn't mean anything by it.

No offense taken. I would figure most of the time it would be cheaper considering your dollar is a bit higher than ours right now. Even with shipping, most things will be cheaper for sure.

Gxgolfer · July 23, 2006

USPS is the most economical way to ship internationally. Problem is that it can't be tracked once it crosses US border. I've been lucky to not have much hassles using USPS. I have also had friends help me, who live near the border, and drive over and ship from within Canada to help me out...

EdmontonGolfer · July 23, 2006

USPS is okay if you want to avoid brokerage fees, but the shipping time is ridiculous. You could wait weeks on end for something via USPS. I'd never ship USPS if I was living in the States. FedEx is fine.