Import fees from dealextreme.com..?

[True Kronic]

Dealextreme.com

OK, everything says free shipping, but how badly do you get nailed with import fees? (in Ontario, in particular)

I've gotten hit pretty hard in the past. Examples: I paid ~$20 for ~30 worth of cloths from the US once....I think I paid ~$50 when I imported an original DS Lite when they first came out in Japan....and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head.

From what I can gather, you get hit harder from UPS than Canada Post, but that just may be my own anecdotal experience.....also, the import fees seem almost totally random in regards to the size & contents of the package...again, from my experience.

 

[freeorelse]

Move south and there are no fees.

 

[anarchy99]

everytime i order fro DX they list it as a LED flashlite valued under $20HKD
and mart it as gift
so no duty or anything

 

[game_fanatic]

Likewise; I received a cheap $5 stand for my PS2 from DealExtreme, no additional costs to my door!

 

[ragnar14]

I've never gotten hit with any fees from DX orders. Of course, I've never tried pushing any large orders though. They have free shipping, so if you want a bunch of things, split everything into some smaller orders.

[quote name='freeorelse']Move south and there are no fees.[/QUOTE]

That's quite untrue. There are indeed import taxes in the USA. Perhaps the standards are different, but I've certainly heard friends complaining about taking the hit. And you get fun restrictions, like random blanket bans on parcels over a pound:
http://www.dv8cag.com/

 

[TheIceMaster]

I have never been hit with extra charges here either (Québec) but my orders are usually below 20$. I wasn't charged anything extra on the GPS I ordered from them (which still works fine after a year) which was around 85$.

If at all concerned, split up your order below the "standard" 20$ threshold as someone mentioned since its free shipping!

 

[KILLER TREKKY]

[quote name='True Kronic']Dealextreme.com

OK, everything says free shipping, but how badly do you get nailed with import fees? (in Ontario, in particular)

I've gotten hit pretty hard in the past. Examples: I paid ~$20 for ~30 worth of cloths from the US once....I think I paid ~$50 when I imported an original DS Lite when they first came out in Japan....and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head.

From what I can gather, you get hit harder from UPS than Canada Post, but that just may be my own anecdotal experience.....also, the import fees seem almost totally random in regards to the size & contents of the package...again, from my experience.[/QUOTE]

Received two orders from them now, both came right in my mailbox with no fees. They were relatively small parcels though, but from my experience, only UPS actually tries to kill you with brokerage fees (bought a green screen from LA, shipped via UPS and fees were 50% the items worth! An extra $50 just to for a broker). But I've neverh ad that with them, though they have been having shipping issues recently (my last order took 36 days to arrive, which was two days ago, but my fist took a little more than a week).

 

[JoJoBlue]

[quote name='KILLER TREKKY']They were relatively small parcels though, but from my experience, only UPS actually tries to kill you with brokerage fees (bought a green screen from LA, shipped via UPS and fees were 50% the items worth! An extra $50 just to for a broker).[/QUOTE]
^^ This.

UPS will charge their own extra brokerage fee on top of any import fees that might exist. And, that extra brokerage fee is often much higher than the import fees. I had bought something for $95, and import taxes were $12.35 (13% GST+PST for $95), but the total fees I had to pay was $54.31 due to UPS' brokerage.