Customs for shipments into Canada?

Soaria

I decided to go for an s88mk2 with the sale being on, but Long & McQuade are all out of stock, and the NI web store is back in stock. I didn't realize they were shipping from the US, which... the lack of HST should've been a hint. I'm wondering if anyone knows what sort of tariff hit it's going to be, if I should maybe even be trying to cancel it and get it from one of the other local shops (AVShop or whatever).

Jeremy_NI

Maybe our order support agents can help answer your questions: https://bit.ly/NISupport_OP

LostInFoundation

I don’t know exactly the situation between US and Canada, but once I ordered something from NI webshop and being Switzerland not part of the UE, even if the shipping was done not far away from here being NI HQ in Germany, I had to pay a crazy amount of border taxes (which made the offer I was trying to take advantage of not favorable anymore).

So…try to have all the informations in advance, to avoid bad surprises.

Have a look at this article to see if you can find informations useful for you:

https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/articles/210290905-Do-I-Have-to-Pay-Shipping-Fees-and-Will-the-Shipment-be-Subject-to-Import-Taxes-or-Customs-Duties-

Soaria

Yeah, unfortunately there is neither free shipping to Canada, nor any information about how it might be classified for import. Could be anywhere from $0 to $150 CAD of extra costs past the already expensive shipping =_= (Plus probably $150 of sales tax.) Also the shipping charges don't match up to the FAQ list (cheaper) so I'm really not sure what's going on there. I think I'm about to get one of those expensive lessons :(

And yeah, in spite of the US and Canada always talking about their dear neighbours and close allies, there are some moderately adversarial economic things like that.

Jeremy_NI

Maybe our order support agents can help answer your questions: https://bit.ly/NISupport_OP

Vocalpoint

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/66028#Comment_66028

You will get killed on this if anyone but USPS or Canada Post is involved.

If its UPS (or any of their custom/brokerage fee gouging brethren) get ready to be really disappointed.

The one and only time I ever experienced this with UPS - the guy came to the door with some doodad I ordered years ago for my home audio/turntable setup - I think it was an alignment tool - and proceeded to tell me that brokerage fees were more than the item itself (which was about 80 USD IIRC)

I told him to have a nice day and that I was declining the delivery. He squawked and balked but I simply told him to take it back to California and closed the door. That was 10 years ago. Never again.

If you want to avoid this completely - you know what you need to do. Buy in Canada as soon as you feel the urge.

VP

Soaria

@Jeremy_NI Thanks for the reply. The keyboard came, and so far there hasn't been any sign of further tax or customs invoices. I'm still waiting for the other UPS shoe to drop, because the big carriers love these days to send a big invoice after the fact, but nothing so far.

@Vocalpoint Yeah, I absolutely got this treatment with FedEx a few years ago. I ordered a water bottle from Seattle ("free shipping", haha). At checkout, $20 of shipping charges. After it arrived, I got a letter from FedEx a while later that had an invoice for import duties plus like another $20 of broker fees. They are ridiculous.

Vocalpoint

@Soaria

Hmm. UPS and no hassle factor? Wow - maybe the stars have aligned?

Enjoy your new board.

VP

LandonD

@Soaria

Have you had any fees since? I'm tempted to buy a keyboard from NI during this sale, since the bundle with Komplete 14 is so good.

Soaria

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/79774#Comment_79774

I haven't! It's kind of wild.