Has anyone in the States bought from MEC?

[owlice]

I'm looking for lights, and see that Mountain Equipment Co-op in Canada has really excellent prices on the Planet Bike lights I want and on a pump I'd like to have, too. Even with the high shipping, the cost of these products is better than Amazon's or other online retailers.

But having never ordered from a Canadian company before, I don't know what the duty situation is. Would there be customs duty due? If so, how is it calculated?

[SadieKate]

I have ordered from MEC. They were most excellent to deal with, and we had a complicated situation.

I can't answer the customs question but I will tell you you need to investigate whether MEC can send those items to the US. The reason we ordered from MEC was that they had the last known pair of a certain model and size of Salomon ski boots, the last on the planet. It took special dispensation from the Pope for a Salomon product to be shipped from Canada to the US (in order to protect distributors in each country).

I don't remember if we had to pay any extra duty or customs fees. You will have to join the co-op for $5 or whatever the current fee is.

[kelownagirl]

I'm in Canada and I have ordered stuff from the States. It just arrives like anything else - no duty paid. I'm guessing it's the same thing the other way but I don't really know for sure.

I love MEC and go in there every time I'm in Vancouver... :)

[crazycanuck]

MEC is one coolio co..:cool: :D

Reminds me i have to order some stuff....

[Grog]

What SK said is true, but you'll find out quickly if you can't get a specific item cannot be shipped to the USA from Canada by MEC.

KG is lucky never to have paid duty! I pay duty pretty regularly on packages, maybe 50% of the time. I do not know about the duty schedule in the USA though. You'd have to check with the revenue agency. You can also take a chance and experiment. It probably is not a fortune...

[kelownagirl]

What SK said is true, but you'll find out quickly if you can't get a specific item cannot be shipped to the USA from Canada by MEC.

KG is lucky never to have paid duty! I pay duty pretty regularly on packages, maybe 50% of the time. I do not know about the duty schedule in the USA though. You'd have to check with the revenue agency. You can also take a chance and experiment. It probably is not a fortune...

Wow really? When do you pay the duty? I haven't bought that much stuff, maybe only 3-4 times, but never have paid anything. Do you think it depends on the item?

[Biciclista]

I bought something from them, they were great to do business with.

[Possegal]

Yes, it depends on the item. It isn't the fact that it is shipped from the US that causes the duty, it is where it is manufactured. If it was both made and then shipped from the US, there should be no duty. But not everything being shipped from here was manufactured here.

http://canadaonline.about.com/cs/customs/a/shopshipcanada.htm

My family has had to pay taxes (I assume it was taxes) on things I've sent them, until I finally learned that if I value it at $20 or less then they are fine. Once I sent 2 T-shirts, that I paid probably 20 each for, and like an idiot put that on the forms. I think my cousins paid another 20 just to get the dang things. :)

[owlice]

I'm glad to know the company is so good to do business with; thanks! It looks like they are what REI should be. :D (As much as I like REI, I find their prices are generally high.)

Possegal, I'm in the US. MEC is in Canada, and would be shipping things from Canada to the US.

Grog:

You'd have to check with the revenue agency. You can also take a chance and experiment. It probably is not a fortune...

I haven't found anything online, though I've looked. (Obviously I'm not using the right search terms; surely such information is online somewhere!)

It's probably not a fortune, but if the duty increases the total cost of the transaction to make it more expensive than buying from Amazon, I'll buy from Amazon.

MEC has soooo many things that look good! I have to stop myself from browsing their website -- too many temptations!

[Possegal]

I was responding to kelownagirl. :) Though the same holds true shipping the other way as well, since this is all due to NAFTA, which should keep people from having to pay duty on goods manufactured in north america. So duty charges would likely apply if what you are buying from Canada is not manufactured in Canada. Then there is likely a cutoff below which they wouldn't charge you a duty I would think, though not certain.

Info at the customs site, in lots of confusing government speak :)
http://www.cbp.gov/

[teawoman]

I've had stuff shipped from the States and had to pay duty too. (I'm Canuck as well) Not every time, but sometimes. I always thought it depended on how much you paid for the goods themselves.

I go to MEC regularly...their stuff is pretty good!

Sorry, I guess I'm not really answering the question...:p

[Possegal]

Yeah, I speak only from the experience of mailing things from my US home to that of my Canadian cousins. And I can say I often find no rhyme or reason to how things happen. :) But that now that I always value what I ship at $20 or less, no one has had to pay anything on their end.

I also did a little googling for answers, but make no claim that things won't still have no rhyme or reason to them. :)

[Grog]

To the Original Poster:

If your items are made in Canada, there should be no duty (although read below for caveat). If they are made elsewhere, you'll have to find the info on the USA gov. web site, good luck! And then again there's a good chance that you won't pay duty at all.

You can also call MEC, maybe they know?


Re: KelownaGirl's question:

Normally I have had to pay the carrier, although I've had a package shipped through FedEx for which I received a bill later.

For clothing item made-out-of-NAFTA zone, the Canadian duty is 18%, + GST + PST (if it applies). The duty is pretty high in this case because there is a significant garment industry in Canada. On some items, however, like cameras, there is no duty (no Canadian camera industry to speak of).

However, in practice I have occasionally been taxed even if the items were made in the USA because the customs agent did not bother checking. (Ibex wool items come to mind.) You can always try to contest the charge... but the two times I did (for different reasons), I never heard back from the form I sent them.

Some merchants - including Ibex - have a GST number and take care of that when you make the purchase, and the package flies through customs. I wish TeamEstrogen did that, actually. It would take the guesswork out of ordering...

[buddha_bellies]

To the Original Poster:

If your items are made in Canada, there should be no duty (although read below for caveat). If they are made elsewhere, you'll have to find the info on the USA gov. web site, good luck! And then again there's a good chance that you won't pay duty at all.

You can also call MEC, maybe they know?


Re: KelownaGirl's question:

Normally I have had to pay the carrier, although I've had a package shipped through FedEx for which I received a bill later.

For clothing item made-out-of-NAFTA zone, the Canadian duty is 18%, + GST + PST (if it applies). The duty is pretty high in this case because there is a significant garment industry in Canada. On some items, however, like cameras, there is no duty (no Canadian camera industry to speak of).

However, in practice I have occasionally been taxed even if the items were made in the USA because the customs agent did not bother checking. (Ibex wool items come to mind.) You can always try to contest the charge... but the two times I did (for different reasons), I never heard back from the form I sent them.

Some merchants - including Ibex - have a GST number and take care of that when you make the purchase, and the package flies through customs. I wish TeamEstrogen did that, actually. It would take the guesswork out of ordering...

Grog: You might want your packages shipped via US Postal. For whatever reasons, Custom usually let pacels go w/o much hassel if it's shipped by regular post. But couriers such as FedEx has a custom brokage firm that does nothing but calulate duty. It's sad but true.

[Grog]

Grog: You might want your packages shipped via US Postal. For whatever reasons, Custom usually let pacels go w/o much hassel if it's shipped by regular post. But couriers such as FedEx has a custom brokage firm that does nothing but calulate duty. It's sad but true.

Not always, unfortunately. I've paid duty on USPS packages, FedEx packages, and the horrendous $60 fee for brokering on a UPS package (never again). I'd say it's about 50/50 for USPS packages.

I know it's weird, but I'm not opposed to paying the duty anyway. Of course, I'm happy if I don't have to, but if I do, that's life. I only buy online what I cannot find in a store, and I happily hope that those few bucks I pay as duty and tax will add up to fund public services like health and education. (My thinking is a bit less naively simple than that, but it boils down to that.) It's not like I'm buying groceries or something that responds to a very basic need. If I can't afford to pay duty/tax on an item, maybe I don't need it that much, and I should have less "stuff" anyway...