Shipping Costs

[goodluckstar]

Hey everyone,

I live in Canada and love the prices online, which have turned out to be all in USD (U.S currency) usually.

For those who live in Canada that have bought from American online stores, does free shipping cover those who live in Canada, and did you have to pay Customs for your online purchases?

And what type of shipping (UPS, Ground, or etc.) doesnt go through Canadian Customs?

Sorry for any confusion, it's just I'd love to buy online, but am "iffy" on what shipping and customs are going to charge me.

Thanks

[althoma1]

Some general guidelines:

• I've never known free shipping on US based sites to include anywhere outside of the US
• Most of the online companies ship via Fedex or UPS ground and you'll be hit with additional brokerage fees, duties and tax if those are the options. The brokerage fees can be significant ($40+ depending on the value of the package).
• Apparently, UPS Express and Fedex Express Air include the brokerage fees in the cost - you just have to avoid their standard ground services. After being burned by huge brokerage fees on their ground services I still try to stay away from these providers and use USPS.
• If a company offers USPS as an option that's usually your best bet as USPS will hand it off to Canada Post at the border and the fees are much more reasonable.
• I have purchased from Inlinewarehouse before and requested shipping via USPS (it came to about $30 for the shipping if I recall correctly, but I ordered a few things at once to make it worthwhile) and had no issues with huge brokerage fees or duties. I have also ordered from other sites and they shipped via UPS or Fedex and I was faced with big fees either at my door or a few weeks later. I now avoid UPS and Fedex ground when I'm ordering anything from the US.
• Some manufacturers don't allow companies to ship their products outside of the US (Bauer and Easton are two off the top of my head).