Re: The GZG Digest V2 #652

>Hi Tom,
>
>I feel your pain.
>
>I did an order to Jon a couple of weeks ago for around the same amount
of
>money. Total order value was about $110 Cdn or so.  The order arrived
in a
>week (Kudos, Jon!  Nice quick service, again, though it doesn't beat
your 5
>day arrival time for one order that included shipping over a weekend),
but
>the customs people hit me with a $20-ish set of fees.

That's why it took longer this time - Customs sat on it for a couple of
days!!	;-)

  I had to pay
>provincial sales tax, federal sales tax, and a $5 "handling fee" for
the
>privilege of paying these taxes.  That's what gets me...  I don't mind
>(well, not *too* much) paying a tax if it's fair.  I certainly mind
being
>charged a fee for the honour of paying the tax....
>
>Heh.  I'd probably still be annoyed if they re-titled it a "customs
>surcharge" or something, but actually *telling* me it is a "handling
fee"
>while I'm paying taxes is just insulting.  Ah well.

Yep, we suffer the same thing on stuff coming the other way - if it's
unlucky enough to get stopped, there is a fee charged by the postal
service
for giving it to Customs to look at and charge duty on; as you say,
they're
charging you for their time in determining what to charge you; it's
nearly
as good as being a Lawyer!  :-/

That said, don't forget that you're getting nearly 15% off the list
prices
in the first place because you don't have to pay the UK/EU tax (VAT), so
this goes some way to offsetting whatever you get levied at your end
(which
is exactly why it works this way) - and thus on any parcel that DOESN'T
get
stopped you're getting a real good deal!  ;-)

In the end, taxes, like death, are pretty unavoidable one way or
another....

Jon (GZG)
>
>On another note, I just bought some FT books from B.R.Snasis Games
>(http://www.brsnasis.com/) and I would highly recommend their mailorder
>service in North America.  I'm sure they'd do just fine overseas too,
but
>I'm not there so I can't comment on it.  But shipping from the US up
here
>to Canada, he got me the shipment in a week, it came packaged well, and
his
>prices are at %20 under the manufacturers suggested retail price. 
Check
>them out.
>
>Oh, by the way, in case anyone was looking, someone on-list mentioned
that
>BRSnasis's website was advertising "More Thrust" recently.  The site
was,
>but when I ordered, they didn't have any more.  It's now off the site.
>
>And on the topic of ordering, KR at GeoHex is having a "Giant End of
>Summer" sale, on Stargrunt stuff and some terrain items.
>
>http://www.geohex.com
>
>
>
>>Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 19:09:53 -0400
>>From: "Tomb" <kaladorn@fox.nstn.ca>
>>Subject: [OT] The vagarities of international shipping to Canada
>>
>>Jon ships me one order (for me and some other folks) worth $500 Cdn. I
>>get charged no duties, tarrifs or taxes. A second package arrives (a
>>fill in order for $100 or so), and the government decides I need to
then
>>pay $17 duty/tarrif/tax on that one.
>>
>>Sometimes they nail me at the border, other times they don't bother.
>>
>
>
>********************************************
>
>Adrian Johnson
>adrian.johnson@sympatico.ca