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In Reply to: Re: And Don't Forget ... posted by efc on April 14, 2007 at 07:03:16:
Do you have a friend in the USA who can buy it and ship it to you? What would be involved and would that save you lots of money?
Follow Ups:
Doesn't work that way. You'd still have to pay taxes, import fees, something other fee I can't remember what its called... it's a Goddamn mess shipping something to Canada.So the trick is we can buy stuff from Canada, no problem. Need service, want to ship it back? Want to return it? You're SCREWED.
So much for Nafta.
"Brokerage" and "disbursement" fees are what you're thinking of. And you are correct that having a buddy in the U.S. ship the item to you won't avoid any of these charges. Contrary to what some people think, marking it "Gift" doesn't help at all.UPS and FedEx charge exhorbitant brokerage and disbursement fees on top of which you have to pay GST, (the Canadian VAT); Canada Post charges a minimal brokerage and handling of $5 plus GST in most cases.
BTW, the "disbursement" fee per FedEx is charged because they have to remit the duty and taxes to the Canadian authorities before they collect it from you. In effect it is an interest charge.
Bill Bailey
___________________________________________
See my stereo config
The import hassle and the damage risk are indeed the major reasons why manufacturers can set such high (some would say gouging) prices here in Canada. For items that are easier to ship and have low or no import duties such as digital cameras, manufacturers maintain their high prices by not honoring out-of-country warranties. Now, I know that we all have to make a living somehow and no one puts a gun to my head to force me to buy these products. But where is the line between reasoanable and greed?
Canadian distributors of all types of equipment manufactured in other countries are the principal reason Canadians pay more. The expressed reason is that they have to obtain the electrical certifications, etc., for Canadian sale, and they must set up service facilities and the like. While there is some truth to these things, the bigger fact is the distributor has monopoly in Canada on an internationally know product and they work this for all its worth.A current example of gouging is Parasound products. Parasound will not permit a US dealer, e.g. Audio Advisor, to sell their products into Canada. Instead a Canadian distributor has exclusive rights: the consequence that the Cdn$ price of Parasound products is almost twice the US$ price -- a fact that cannot be justified by currency exchange, certifications, taxes or anything except the greed of the Canadian distributor.
It seems to me that if the non-Canadian manufacturer handles their own distribution here, or if the have multiple distributors in Canada, the price difference tends to be smaller, though not always.
Bill Bailey
___________________________________________
See my stereo config
Hi Bill...Thanks for your input. Your last sentence reminded of a study that I and my colleagues did on mutual fund fees. As you know, the management fees charged by Canadian mutual funds are significantly higher than the American counterparts. One would think that with competition, the fees would become smaller. In Canada, we have thousands of funds (i.e., more than enough). Still, the fees are kept high, and investors don't seem bothered. I guess we Canadians must be financially masochistic.
It is not necessary greed that make the Canadian price higher. Even if the basic item costs (sometimes different because of volume discount) are the same, actual cost of bringing in the same item into different countries are different. Say if you consider shipping the whole container compare to shipping a few cases, the shipping cost will be different. Then you need to maintain the same level of customer service with far smaller sale volume, everything add up to the cost.Paul Lam
P.L.C.Lam Consulting Inc.
The price you pay for free health care? We Americans are screwed unless we have health insurance. Our drugs are over priced too. ;-)
No...AbeCollins...These are two different issues. Our free healthcare is financed by taxes that we all pay. What annoys me is the fact that manufacturers/distributers seem to be able to charge unreasonable prices. By the way, "free" doesn't necessarily mean "good". When something is free, it will be expensive in some non-monetary way.
Pssstttt...efc...I'll meet you at the border in a remote area of Saskatchewan with the 9555. Will trade for Canadian prescription drugs.PS: don't tell the RCMP 8-)
PPS: If you're listening Alberto...it's a joke...honest...it's just a joke...please don't send me to Syria to be tortured...I'm not even Canadian :-O
Ha! Ha! That's a good one, radknee. I really hope that there is a mail-order house here in Canada who is willing to import grey-market stuffs to sell to us. It's not illegal as all duties and taxes will be paid. But it will cut down the greediness of the manufacturers/distributors.
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