Re: Canadian Customs (was Re: Zip Chapter 11 ... Not anymore)

[glyn@cs.UAlberta.CA (Reade Glyn Devin)]

In article <1993Jan13.185834.29129@freenet.carleton.ca>, aa382@Freenet.carleton.ca (Marc Sira) writes:
> 
> In a previous article, neufeld@helios.physics.utoronto.ca (Christopher Neufeld) says:
> 
> >   There's surely a way around this. If Big Red gets a GST billing number
> >they can charge it to my credit card, mark it GST paid, and ship it
> >directly to me, I won't have to walk to the mall to pick up the package,
> >and pay outrageous money to get my software. I'm planning to notify Big
> >Red of this soon, because until then I really can't afford to buy things
> >from them. If I'd known about this wonderful customs rule I would have
> >asked them to hold my other purchases until PL2.0 came in, then I would
> >only have had to pay the $5.00 once.
> 
> Well, the wonderful customs rule is quite new. Yes, it does stink. I've
> been dinged a couple of times now. You can at least minimise the charge by
> using Canada Post rather than UPS. UPS is rather money-grubbing...they
> charge a "handling fee" for calling you up and taking your card # that
> generally exceeds the tariff.

Under the new customs rules, Canada Post also charges a handling fee.
If I remember correctly, it's about $5.00.

Keep in mind that if you send stuff back to the States (refund, exchange,
repairs, etc) that you should register it with Customs (Canada Post
will usually do it) so that you don't have to pay any more when it
comes back (or so that you can get reimbursed, as appropriate).  I can't
remember what the form is called, but it's green, if that helps any :)

Finally, if you have a disagreement on how much they're charging you
(such as charging you twice), you can appeal this by letter.  Make
sure you have all your facts and that they have actually made a mistake,
rather than just disagreeing with policy.  I don't know how the situation
with two handling fees will be considered.

--Devin Reade		glyn@cs.ualberta.ca