akansaskid

Made my first international (Canada) Internet order: a pair of lithium ion batteries. I noted on the Canada Post tracking site that the order arrived at U.S. Customs. If there are any customs to be paid is it collected from me? I'm assuming the order will be transferred to the US Postal system since it was sent via Canada Post. Will the postman collect any customs fees when he delivers? Will I instead be sent a customs bill that I then pay before the package is released from Customs and sent on to me? Someone please enlighten this international newbie. Thanks!

Nachoman

yes.

obiwan kenobi

I bought a set of wheels from a seller in Canada, no fees were collected by UPS when they delivered.

KDC1956

You will be fine.I have order from Canada a lot of times and I live in the good old USA.When you order and pay you have done it all.All that you have to do is wait on your order.Hopes this helps.

veloboy971

They factor it in to the cost of shipping, you don't get nothin' for free.

coydog13

Any duties or taxes will be paid by the shipper at the post office prior to shipping. However, if the item in question was made in North America, it is free of any duties due to NAFTA.

200miler

This is patently incorrect! All duties and taxes on international transactions are for the account of the buyer. Tariff systems in WTO countries are based on FOB pricing, duty amounts to be collected are then determined by that country's harmonized tariff schedules; for US destines shipments refer to https://hts.usitc.gov/

An additional point of interest/extended conversation; UPS and Fedex are freight companies and are subject to close examination of all cargo manifests, especially in todays environment. ICE will examine ALL such manifests and mandate duty collection. Freight companies, by their freight haulage tariffs [price lists] can mitigate their out of pocket admin costs by charging the receiver a brokerage fee. Mail service operate under the same set of rules but owning to the subcontracting environment most of them operate in, 3rd party employees are apt to "over look" the collection of duty owed. That's a crap shoot as far as the buyer is concerned; you never know.

Anticipating what you might owe the US government is based entirely on that items classification in the Harmonized Tariff - see above.

I spent 44 years working in international logistics. Take this advice FWIW.
YMMV
-dg

MegaTom

Wow. Wrong, wrong and wrong!

botto 

incorrect.

StanSeven

It all sounded pretty good except CBP and not ICE examines manifests and collects duties

Nerull

From what I've heard, it's a bit of a crap shoot. You can have 4 orders that are overlooked, and then one that gets the fee slapped on. They'll collect on delivery, and will require payment before handing over the package.

jrobe

I haven't had much problem with inexpensive items but have been charged for items over $100 or so on occasion. It is definitely a crapshoot but you need to factor this in and not be surprised if you are charged duty.

achoo

Maybe.

Psimet2001 

I ship internationally all the time. I only have to declare what the items are and what their approximate value is. The duties or tariffs are the responsibility of the receiving party. If your postal worker does not collect from you at the time of delivery a few things could still happen:

1. You will receive a bill from the shipper who paid the tariff at entry - this happens to me on international shipments I get on raw materials/component parts.
2. You were not assessed a tariff
3. What you imported was not subject to tariff

StanSeven

A lot has to do with the declared vaue of the merchandise as well. If it's less than $200, no problem. Occassionally an Import Specialist may decide to inspect if the declared value is low and that adds delays to you getting the package.

Here's some good info

https://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/trade/bas..._purchases.xml

akansaskid

Cool. So far we've got: maybe...depends.

Seriously, I appreciate all the experiences shared here. I'm still stuck with uncertainty, but since it sounds like a crap shoot, that's to be expected, I guess.

Nachoman

And a "yes". Many of us have bought tons of stuff from overseas vendors and never had problems. But personally I semi-recently bought a compact crank from Ribble for about $400.00, and got hit with a $40.00 customs fee, a $5.35 postal fee and a $5.50 customs processing fee, all of which was payable directly to the mailman upon delivery.

coydog13

Eh...guess I was incorrect. I had always thought anytime I filled out the Customs dec. at the post office, I had paid more to collect anything that was due, but I don't ship or receive many things internationally. Oh well....

superflylondon

It is hit or miss that you'll be charged any additional duty/taxes at the door. Depends on your state and how much the item costs and what it was listed as at the time of shipping.

I am just surprised you were able to find something cheaper online in Canada than in U.S. Thanks for bring your money north of the border!

What site did you order off of?

oilman_15106

I bet the list of bike parts made in North America is a really long one?

coydog13

As is a list of battery manufacturers apparently. Reading comprehension is win.

akansaskid

Ordered a pair of (Chinese) batteries from "Gemini" (see the lighting forum), which is really someone's apartment in Canada, it now seems. I didn't order them because they were cheaper, but because they were a convenient turn-key replacement for my fading Magicshine batteries and got some props over on the mtbr forum. Unfortunately I had them shipped to my office, and we're closed until Jan 3, so I'm waiting to see how the mailman handles this.