Customs to Canada

I ship with Fedex, and we do not lie about the free gift on the items we ship when it comes to customs forms going to Canada. The problem is that Canadians don't pay their duties,taxes,or whatever fees that they are responsible for. 6 months later I get the Bill which always exceeds the proffit on that order.

Do I blacklist Canada?

Do I bill their card when I get the Bill? what is a reasonable fee to bill them on top of 15-20 dollars they owe on importing to Canada? Is 5 usd fair?

Do I charge more for shipping fees to make up for it which punishes my fellow Canadians that do pay their customs fees?

 

Who is sending you a bill?

 

FedEx sends me a bill stating that the shipper is responsible for customs fees when the end consumer is negligent.
quoted below:
"Duty, customs and/ or brokerage fees are due for the packages referenced on the attached documentation. An attempt has been made to collect these fees from the consignee; however, collection has been unsuccessful. FedEx Ground policy states that the shipper is responsible for duty, taxes and brokerage fees when they cannot be colllected from the consignee. Please refer to section XII. International Service Conditions of the FedEx ground Tarriff."

 

Why don't you help out your buyer and send it as a gift? I really hate when I meet a lousy seller that won't help you out and makes you pay loads of money in customs.

 

I believe there is a legit way to bypass this.

 

I once bought an item at ebay for $100. Stupid seller wouldn't send it as a gift. I paid $55 in customs.

Bought another similar item, seller agreed to help me out and sent it as a gift, paid $12 in customs.

 

hmm, I have been shipping all over the world for a number of years now. I have never been stuck (using Airborne/DHL) with anything like that. I have had people complain about the duties/fees they have to cough up, but never received a bill from the shipper. Sounds like you may need to investigate using other shippers. I also send a confirmation email to any overseas order restating our shipping policy that emphasizes that they are responsible for any duties, taxes or fees imposed by their customs department as they are the ones importing the goods. They have to let us know via email that this is cool. I have never had a problem using that procedure in 7 years.

 

AFAIK, Gift is the best, easiest way out. Can't hurt unless there is something I do not know about.

 

If you sell goods on ebay then it would be easy to say it is a gift. But if you have a full time job, and you didn't want to take any risks by telling lies to customs then you shouldn't send as a gift.

 

If you want to avoid getting stuck with the charge there are two ways that will work like a charm. (i'm in Canada BTW)

1) Send your product to them as COD - instruct FEDEX/UPS to clear product and to only accept cash or money order for the FULL amount + brokerage.

2) Use your own customs broker and have them clear the goods. Incorporate a brokerage fee payable at time of purchase which you will then pay your broker. Do it a couple times and you'll know exactly what to charge.

cheers
Frank

 

Stick it in your T's & C's that they are responsible and that yuo will invoice/charge them if they don't do what they're supposed to do.

We do the same with re-delivery charges. 1) Customer is responsible the premises are accessible and they are there to sign for it. 2) Our couriers will come back twice for free and after that we pay the courier a return charge. So 3) we charge this to the punter and from there on it's up to them to either forget about it and get the product (only) refunded or they pay delivery again for redelivery at the same T'c & C's. Done.

Let them agree to the terms before paying and you have covered it. Now you also charge the offendor only instead of building in an unfair amount spread over all customers.

 

Same has happened to me. I dont ship very frequently internationally, but Canandian tariffs are way too high! I have had items returned as people dont want to pay 40-50% extra. I dont blame them at all, for small items I have resorted to shipping via the USPS, and declaring the item a gift.

 

Theoretically, the T&C's should work, but oftentimes people don't read them and you still have the product arriving back to you becuase they don't want to pay. Then you're stuck with the product, out the shipping and worse, the threat of disputing the charge. I've had many fights with customers over this crap. I had these problems all the time with FedEx, but not so much with UPS or USPS. Don't know why, but I'm going to check my UPS bills to see if I was charged somewhere on my bill. Now that you mention it,it happened so frequently that I can't imagine UPS didn't stick me with charges along the way.

I now nearly force my customers to read the international shipping policies prior to ordering. Once in a while people complain about the duties, but only after they've paid - so at least the items aren't on their way back. I do also explain to my customers that shipping USPS is much less fees. Most Canadians are thankful and do go this route. Use the USPS API if you can.