Ever ship between US and Canada?
 

Hello,

I am about to possibly purchase the spoiler I have been debating since picking up my 10-Series and the only thing that has me hesitating is dealing with customs.

It would be coming from Canada to Oregon.

Has anyone dealt with shipping across the border? One would not think it is such a big deal. Most all of us like Canadians and their love of all things hockey and beer related - but the company I work for doesn't even ship to Canada due to customs being so unpredictable - so I want to avoid surprises.

Thank you one and all for your thoughts on this, :thanks:
~WilO

You will most likely be hit with a brokerage fee. That being said I've gotten very lucky on many occasions having items shipped from the US. I try to get the purchaser to use USPS vs say UPS (conversely in this case it would be Canada Post), and I try to get it valued as a "gift" or "warranty return w/no value". It also really depends if you're buying from a vendor or a regular Joe Shmoe. It's sometimes flagged if customs sees a vendor name.

Shouldn't be a big deal at all. Ordered from both sides plenty. As said try to get labelled as gift or sample to avoid hassles. UPS especially always rapes on border crossing packages so I always avoid if can. Mail is usually best IMO.

As a Customs Broker and international freight forwarder, I can tell you, what you're doing is basically committing fraud on both a federal level and on an international level. Nobody is going to come knocking on your door in the middle of the night because you miss-declared the value of something (<USD2500). But it's still fraud, and it's still subject to fines and penalties if you get caught. And it's not pretty if it happens.

Suggesting somebody commit fraud as well to save a few bucks is probably not the smartest idea.

Oh well. lol

I ship from the US to Canada pretty regularly, but nothing as big as a spoiler. I also live in a border town and find it's much cheaper, when buying a product from a US retailer, to have it shipped to a depot in the US then drive over and pick it up myself. Th difference in shipping costs is huge...

Last order of ecigarettes would have been $70 to ship US to Canada, or free to ship within the US... Drive 15 minutes into Michigan, pay $5 and pick up my package. If you know someone on the Washington-BC border, might be worth checking it out.

I work for a manufacturing company. I ship world wide. I use UPS, because they have their own brokerage service that's included in the price. You get a tracking number to track your shipment with, and they are very very reliable.

So long as the spoiler you're purchasing is less than $2,000.00 value, which I'm sure it is, the process is pretty straight forward if they send it through the post (Canada Post / US Mail).

Here's a link if you want to read it in depth: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...56343320,d.dmg

Just make sure they declare the item properly and use the correct value. I believe the correct harmonized tariff number for a body part of a car would be: 8708.29.5060 and should be 2.9% duty. So I'm guessing you shouldn't pay more than $15 in duty. If that much. And there's no VAT or GST going 'south' like Canadians have to worry about in the opposite direction.

You'll get a postal notice to come to your local post office to pay and they'll deliver it to you a few days later.

For a small, private shipment like this, don't go through UPS. But make sure the shipper insures it.

FWIW:

When I bought 4x of the JDM underpanels several months ago, my duty was 2.9%. After the FedEx brokerage fees, I paid $~23 on $800 in goods.

A decent seller will make sure the items are shipped in a manner that is trackable. And protect yourself by documenting the purchase, so you can have charges reversed if it ends up being fraud. No point in having it declared as a gift to save a few bucks, and lose out on any claim for reimbursement in case of lost shipment.

-alex

Just as a comment on this: Customs is only unpredictable if you don't know how to file paperwork or declare items wrong.

In my ~20 years of shipping things all over the world (both personal and professionally), I've never had a single shipment get held up for anything other than "routine" inspections, even container shipments. And those are an additional 2-3 days, at most.

-alex