Digikey packing slip woes

Would you prefer to pay import duty twice?

Jim

-- "Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today."

--James Dean

The import duty on "Quantity shipped = 0" of a $1000 item is what?

Same as "Quantity shipped = 1"? That would then mean that "quantity shipped = 100" would be the same duty as 0 or 1, since the duty apparently pays no attention to the quantity shipped in this fantasy-land?

Seems a bit far-fetched. Standard packing-slip language is pretty clear about what's in the box - Ordered = 10, Shipped = 5, Backordered = 5, or whatever numbers fit.

I have no idea, nor am I a Canadian customs lawyer. I only know that when I ship to Canada, the Canadians will do ANYTHING to keep from going through Customs, even if it means driving a couple of hundred miles to pick up a fairly low cost item at a friend's place in the States.

Canadian Customs must be a real bitchkitty, at least from my observations.

Jim

-- "Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today."

--James Dean

Export/Import from the US is an increasingly difficult subject due to the miriad of fuzzy rules. Shippers do not tempt problems by putting zero quantity items on invoices as that will confuse the highly trained officials. The US government actively persues a policy to prevent US companies from exporting by creating a rule set that is extremely complicated and subject to interpretation at their whim. It takes big $$ lawyers to straighten out our officials. Our policy makers still can't figure out why US companies are forced to produce outside of the US.

It's not so much Customs per se, it's the 6% tax that's added to just about everything, including the shipping charge and the brokerage fee. And if the bill is kind of small, then UPS is happy to make it bigger by tacking a US$25 brokerage charge (minimum) onto a $20 item. So please, America, ship it by US Post if possible.

-- Joe

Ugh... UPS brokerage :( I'm still pissed at those guys.. D from BC

I sent an ancient Tek 1S2 sampling plugin to a guy in Canada, as a gift, and they hit him with a $50 import fee.

What happened to NAFTA?

John

It conflicted with the interests of too many unionists, protectionists, and other special interests.

You can probably thank the "republican" regime for that.

Thanks, Rich

I can understand Digikey not listing backorders on the customs invoice. The people at the border are so damn inept, you probably wouldn't get your package at all. They'd be too busy tearing apart the layers of cardboard (box) looking for the "missing" items. Maybe bring in some guard dogs to sniff / pee on them.

My advance apoligies to all the Customs inspectors out there... But deep down, you know I'm right!. TERROR!! HOMELAND SECURITY!! NO ONE IS SAFE, CODE ORANGE, etc... you know it's all B/S. Has to be!!

As for Digikey, they could at least put a slip inside the package (not invoice), but then I'm sure some Company's shipping & receiving would lose it, or try to file it, pay it twice, etc....

"Yes." Bad day here. But I'm still in no mood for more government "protections"... After all, you can ship jobs across the border no problem!

-mpm

NAFTA.. AFAIK...individual electronic components are duty free between Canada and the US. I think the brokerage fee still applies because somebody has to certify that the goods are indeed duty free? Can I become my own broker and do the paperwork myself?

" Dear Canadian Government I bought some electronic components..I don't owe you any money because it's a NAFTA item.. Thank You Have a nice day... " And... " Dear Canada Post You bastards for charging me brokerage on duty free items.. "

When I receive an item by US postal..I have to pay brokerage at the BC (Canada) postal outlet. I think it's ~$9.00CAN.

I'm 30minutes from the Washington border. Maybe I can have my components mailed to the border crossing and have a customs officer just check it out for free!?? No duty, no brokerage...?? D from BC

Are the Republicans running Canada now?

John

That is insane. Who does your government work for?

John

We export a lot of stuff, without much hassle. The only thing we have to be careful about is some technology limitations on some of our products, super-fast risetimes and such. The rules are pretty much obsolete but still require a bit of care. And a few countries are embargoed, like Iran and Cuba.

A bigger problem is the tendency for Europeans to not pay invoices for

John

"Government"? "Work"? I can't believe you used those two words in the same sentence!

Of course not. They're just setting up obstacles on "our" side, to make it as inconvenient as possible for everyone.

Thanks, Rich

How?

when I

Still, CDN$9 to the government is easier to swallow (actually I believe it's a flat $8 plus 6% G.S.T. for all amounts up to $1600) than US$25 and up to UPS.

Check out this web page ( one long URL):

And here are some forms:

-- Joe

By cutting off additional shipments.

John