Has anyone in the States bought from MEC?

[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/cus...shipcanada.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. (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...

[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.