Sick and tired of missing out on deals only available in the US! Canadians what to do (1 Viewer)

[Serge Breton]

I live right across the border from Detroit, Michigan (Windsor, Ontario).
I have been looking at a HK AVR 8000 receiver and finally decided to call OneCall.com personally. The salesman gave me a very good price on the unit for let's just say less than $1400 shipped. No shipping to Canada and to have it shipped in the US you have to use a credit card with the billing address the same as shipping address so this makes things difficult to say the least. Price here on the AVR8000 is $4600 with taxes which equates to $2967US!
Second deal:
goto gotapex.com and you'll see a nice Toshiba 2805 5 disk dvd/cd changer retailing for $229 and sold for $99 shipped free. Upon check out once again no shipping to Canada.
Third deal,
on a nice highly discounted Dell computer with free upgrades/shipping but guess what only valid in the US once again! I'd have to pay 2-3 times the price for the same thing here!
What can we do about this as Canadians? Are there ways around these stupid policies?
For instance, i'm not going to pay $4600 for an AVR8000 when i can get it somewhere else for less than half price for the same darn thing. Question is, how do i do it? Certainly, there are legal ways which would make it no worse than running over to Curcuit City and bringing a product over the border. I'm not out to stir trouble, i'm 2 minutes away from the US and have no way to get these quality products to my doorstep. Having a US address at Mail Boxes, etc will not work for many of these deals since the companies verify the billing/shipping addresses.
I know i sound like a broken record but there has to be a way

 

[James Hibbert]

There sure is a way, buy Canadian products and there's a whole bunch of them that are excellent(Classe, Bryston, Anthem, Paradigm, PSB etc.)

I thought Onecall shipped to Canada.A buddy of mine had them ship out an HK 520 to Toronto about 5 months ago.

Good luck.

 

[Dan Pawlowski]

Free trade??? Someone forgot to mention the concept of free trade to US suppliers and Canadian customs.

 

[johnbr]

Classe is 7500$ for the ssp60 and the Bryston is 7100$ Anthem 20 is 4800$.

 

[Serge Breton]

yep,

too rich for my blood. Well, not really but i choose not to spend that much $ on gear.

I want the HK for it's Logic 7 and everything else. I hate wanting something that i can have at a reasonable price point. Why spend almost 3kUS when you can get it somewhere else for $1300?

i'll call Jandr and my local Future Shop (again) to see if they have an open box for sale.....

As for the other deals i don't know what to do.

For the amount that i purchase it may or may not be worthwhile getting a mail box with US address from Mailboxes, etc. $60US a year for this service. I may do it!

 

[John Garcia]

MOVE!

 

[Serge Breton]

i've thought about it John
Things cost way too much up here! Yadda Yadda Yadda......

 

[PaulJohn]

Serge,

Setting up a mailbox there is not always easy. For instance your credit card is from Canada not from the U.S. Chances are they will not add a U.S. address to the card.

PaulJohn

 

[Andrew Pratt]

I've had stuff shipped to friends in the US who turn around and ship it to me.

 

[Daryl Furkalo]

Serge,

Do you have a US mailing address that you trust? I bought a Sony 555ES SACD changer from JandR and recently one of those highly discounted Dell's from Dell USA.

 

[BenK]

I've had stuff shipped to friends in the US who turn around and ship it to me.

Serge, this might be your best bet. Incidently I live in the Detroit metro area about 20 mins from Windsor. I was just there last Saturday at a restaurant on University.

 

[PaulJohn]

You guys have to watch out for duty being charged upon possesion of the equipment. I have purchased many items in the U.S and had them shipped to Canada only to find the UPS driver asking me for payment for duty charges.

The most recent were computer parts, cpu, motherboard, etc.

Duty was $150 CDN on $500 U.S worth of parts.

If it was so easy to do than everyone would do it, ecspecially for audio equipment, computers, etc.

Shipping the product does not make you exempt from duty fees. In essence it's actually worse as you really never know what the charges are going to be until the driver is at your door. They also only take cash!

PaulJohn

 

[Peter Overduin]

Having a US address at Mail Boxes, etc will not work for many of these deals since the companies verify the billing/shipping addresses.

I have US POB and this is easily dealt with. I phone the company and give them personal info on the phone, such as phone numbers, billing address, etc. Then I fax them a copy of a recent CC statement. I only ever have to do this once, (and have only had to go through this with one company) and no problems since.

Depending on which CC you have, you may also be able to add a US POB as a valid shipping address to your account.

It is worth it. I have saved piles of money, especially on magazine subscriptions and DVD specials.

 

[BenK]

It might be different through the USPS than UPS or Fedex but when I mailed (returned) some cables back to Canada I sent it using the gift option so they wouldnt have to pay any duty charges.

 

[PaulJohn]

Understood Ben, but you cannot send everything with the gift option. Your cables are nothing that is going to alert customs. It's av equipment, big computer parts, monitors, etc.

I had a Dewalt 12 inch compound miter saw sent to me using FedEx. My friend sent it to me from California, he used the gift option and I still had to pay duty on it.

The price difference originally was $400 U.S, in Canada the same saw was $550 U.S.

After duty I only save $25 CDN. Really crappy!

PaulJohn

 

[BenK]

Man that is crappy.

 

[Levesque]

I had an Outlaw ICBM delivered at the door. US$ price, 250$. At my door, after exchange rate, and all those UPS crappy upcharges, detaxing fee, blah blah blah, went to 505$ cdn. More then double price. Made me learn alot that day.Had to pay him at the door, cash. The worst: I had call UPS the day before to know the exact price...it was impossible for them to know...it was an approximation...
Since then, I buy in Canada only. Cheaper.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Avoid using UPS if at all possible since their brokerage fees are way higher then USPS or FedEx.

 

[Serge Breton]

yes,
stick with USPS since there is no brokerage and sometimes they don't even charge you the tax!
I am going to use my paypal credit card and put it under a US address if i indeed get one then i'll be all set. There is a Mail Boxes etc 1.5 miles from the tunnel so all i have to do is go over to MI, pick up the item and bring it back over. I can have it shipped anyway, Fed-Ex, UPS, etc and i won't have to worry about brokerage fees since i'm picking up over there. I think it's well worth it for a US address ($60 a year US). If Paul or someone else wants to split the costs then that's even better! $30 a year for a mailing address. If i get free shipping on one item such as the dvd player in my first post, there's my savings. If i were to get the Dell with $198! in shipping i would be way ahead with one purchase!
Life would be good
I hate to see Canadian dealers/maufacturers suffer but until they learn to price their item accordingly. I know in the US there is much more sales volume but i will buy in the US everytime. especially when i can save half price. Warranty issues are covered if the item is shipped back so that's a good thing. I know this because i bought a DTC100 from NY, the receiver had a flaw, shipped it back to them and they issued a new one.

 

[Roy Wallace]

Hey, guys:
Don't forget the good old GST. I buy several items through eBay each year and most come from the USA. When the post office delivers the item, even though it has been postage prepaid, they tack on the GST as well as a handling fee of five dollars!
It's a bugger when all the good stuff is in another country.

Bye for now

Roy