[barjohn]

To save many of you some of the problems I have experienced I am providing this warning. While most Canadian companies are fair and fine to deal with, Canadian Cusomts is not. Should you need or desire to return an item you will discover that Canadians Cosutoms will charge an import duty even though the item originated in Canada and is being returned to Canada. Putting a low value (and increaing your risk if the shipment is lost) does not seem to stop them from placing an exhorbatant duty on the item. You must either pay the duty or they will not allow it in the country. Further, you must include an invoice and description with the shipment.

For example, when I shipped back the Flamingo headset sent to me by Impact Wireless as a review unit the shipping costs were $35.00 but the Duty made the total price for shipping $90.00. If you purchase a $90.00 item and go to return it you will pay almost as much as the purchase price to return it. It takes a real bargain for a U.S. customer to make a buy from Cannda and have a chance to come out ahead. By the way, I put a value of $10CAD on the invoice and clearly marked it as a return item. I used DHS for this shipment but had even bigger problems returning an item via UPS.

I asked Chris at Impact Wireless if there was any trick to handling returns and his reponse was to place a low value of $10CAD on the invoice. I hope this information helps other save some money and headaches. I have never experienced this prolem with other countries on returns. Final word of caution...besure you don't plan to return it if you order it from Canada and don't live there.

If anyone knows of a real working solution to this issue, please post it.

[Jase88]

Wirelessly posted (7250: BlackBerry7250/4.0.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1)

Put the value as zero, and mark the item as "unworking". I do this all of the time and I've never had an issue.

[barjohn]

Do you use UPS or DHL? Do you include an invoice? Thanks.

[jbriggs]

Such puerile and utter drivel!! This sort of idiotic rantings shouldn't be allowed on the board. That you've had a bad experience with a purchase you made from Canada doesn't mean it's the status quo. I have been making purchases from Canadians on eBay and many other sites for years and have yet to come across the issue you describe above. Don't blame your stupidity on anyone. And you call yourself a 'reviewer'? I wonder how many people take your moronic assessments seriously.

[barjohn]

How many items have you ever shipped back? It isn't the purchase part that is a problem it is making anytype of return. If it only happened once I would have written it off to bad luck. I don't think it has anything to do with the compay from which the purchase is made, although it could. It has to do with the intractibility of canadian customs. If you follow the tracking on my first UPS return you can see that it took 30 days to get that item returned through customs despite having a clearly marked invoice showing that the dollar amount was $0 and that it was a return item and a copy of the original invoice from the company. The second return, which was an evaluation unit marked with a $10CAD value and marked as an evaluation loaner being returned to the company and shipped via DHL (an item weighing only a few onces and in a DHL envelope) cost me $36 for shipping and $54.00 in duty for a total of $90.00. I guess I could go for three times but I think I'll leave that for you to experience since you seem so certain that it won't happen to you and yet you provide no evidence to back up your claim. You will notice that I posted on another thread the UPS tracking information and I would be happy to post the DHL tracking data if it would help you.

[NJBlackBerry]

barjohn - unfortunately the tracking information doesn't help anyone. It makes you feel better to show that you are right - which you are - but it doesn't help you or anyone else. We all see that you had a problem with this company. And you have bumped it enough, IMHO.

[barjohn]

Please don't mix the two issues. While I do hold the company accountable for a refund that is due and honest dealings including keeping ones word, I don't hold the company responsible for the problems of Canadian Customs on returns. Canadian Customs is the point of this thread. The tracking infromation shows the delay casued by customs which wasn't half of the story because it took a considerable amount of my time, phone calls and faxes to get the issue resolved. I put this thread up as a warning hoping to spare others the problem or better yet having someone that was savy in the wasy of getting around Canadian Customs post the information for all of us to use. I have nothing against Canada or its companies in general (after all I own of have owned several RIM devices) but I do have a problem with a customs organization that can't accept that a return to their country of an item clearly marked as having been sold by a Canadian company is held up for duty and the duty is made to be paid before it is allowed in the country no matter what proof is sent to them.

[NJBlackBerry]

barjohn - I have to ship equipment all over the world. The local saying is that the longest walk in the country is from one side of the Customs Hall to the other side. It happens all the time. I am sorry - seriously - that it bit you, but Canada is hardly the only country with customs issues. Trying getting equipment into Malaysia or Libya

Local Customs has their own rules, unfortunately for us.

[barjohn]

What you are saying reinforces my point. Most of the readers of thsi forum are not in the import/export business and when they want to make a return on a purchase they don't want to have to spend more than the item cost in money not to mention untold hours of their time to make a return. Even within the U.S. my policy has always been to give preference to companies that make returns easy over those that mkae it difficult. In electronics/computers in my area that is Micro Center is much preferred by me over Fry's even thoug on occasion Fry's is less expensive. Companies like Nordstrum made their reputation on their outstanding customer service. I digress. If you know of a means of resolving the issue as it relates to Canada please share it with the rest of us.

[NJBlackBerry]

I guess my point is we are beating a dead horse. Caveat emptor. If you buy from another country - even one sharing a REALLY long border, beware.

[arche3]

While it does seem barjohn has it in for impact wireless i personally find no fault with barjohn posting this info. If the company screwed him AND the customs issue was a huge burden he has the right to complain all day every day about it. The readers of this forum can choose to not read barjohns posts regarding this matter.
I was also considering buying from impact wireless. But I will definitly NOT do so now. Bad customer service AND potential customs issues. Ill stay away thank you.
I just went to the cingular store and bought 5 different headsets. I have 30 days to evaluate and return. The store is right down from my residence. I already returned 3 of them. Now if I had not read about barjohns issues I would of most likely bought 5 headsets from the same place he did in canada to try out because they had the flamingo. If it costs me $90x5=$$$450 bucks to get those items returned AND I had issues with the store??? I would have been ready to go and burn the place down. So in my instance barjohns complaints helped me.

arche

[Mark Rejhon]

I frequently buy stuff from the states and import both ways (depending on which side of the border I had been at the time)...

Broken gadgets can be an issue, although I've often used the "RETURN - BROKEN UNIT" labelling. Usually I put down a value of $10, although I've put down a value of $0. I find that quoting anything higher than $10 may slap the receiver with some annoying custom charges (duties/taxes/border clearance charges) As long as I used both the word "return" and "broken", it usually just breezes through.

There's a formal procedure to go through for returning broken stuff, but when it's just a one-way return of a relatively inexpensive item (2 figure or low 3 figure), I usually don't bother and just do the "RETURN - BROKEN" above, unless it is a really valuable item (4 figure). Including documentation of the problem is useful, since if the package is opened for inspection, it gives some credibility...

[barjohn]

Thanks Mark, that is helpful to know. What do you do if it isn't broken but you are just not satisfied with the way it works for you?

[Rancor]

Canadian Customs' strange ways inspired Miles Davis to write This Story

[Snapdragon]

I find that using USPS instead of couriers gets items through much easier.

You can get tracking if you require it, but if speed is your main factor then I guess the courier game is your only hope.

[morser]

Large companies like HP that have divisions on both sides of the border can do an internal company transfer of goods, and the accounting is handled by their accounting departments. The product then gets across the border, and only makes one stop at the company on the other side before delivering it. No duty. No extra charges. Maybe shipping to the end user is 20% to 40% more but still cheaper and makes more items bargins. HP does this I think.
There is no reason a small company on one side of the border can team up with a company on the other side of the border and cross ship. They may have to become joined somehow on paper, but anything can be said and done these days without affecting each others normal way of business.
BTW, did you know that the Blackberry accessory site off of www.rim.com is handled by an American company. Canadian's buying and wanting to ship to canada may pay close to the actual product price just for SHIPPING if they want it in 2-3 days, and no, it won't show up in 2-3 days because they can't control customs. So let me get this clear, the offical RIM accessories, that are made in Canada, are shipped to the U.S to this company, who then sells them back to a Canadian after shipping at a HUGE cost to the end user.

[rcg]

Some of the points mentioned above are a real concern for a seller/buyer. We get asked almost everyday to ship to Canada and we have declined because of these types of issues. Money aside it can suck up a lot of hours to resolve something for a customer when customs is involved.

[barjohn]

In my personal experience, I have found it easier to deal with European companies than Canadian because of their tight customs issues. I guess NAFTA doesn't mean much when you get down to our level.

[SnDmN]

Here's a link I found regarding Canadian Customs. A low dollar amount as mention in the posts, along with marking the invoice "sample" or "gift" will do the trick as well.

Hope this helps
http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/co...ty_free-e.html