You can look at the back of the (Customs) form, but don't expect a quick
resolution. Several months ago, I bought a used copy of Wingz from a guy in
the States. He charged $10 plus $18 for shipping. It was on floppy disks,
and Version 1.0, all clearly marked. He filled out the customs form just
fine with the right amount, and enclosed an invoice inside.

Customs opened it and revalued it to $200, charging me $30 tax plus the
Canada Post's $5 brokerage fee. We're up to about $75 Cdn now for something
that cost $10US.
So I was mad, I printed out every e-mail from our discussion, which
originated on lem-swap, I phoned the number on the back of the customs form.
You have two choices, one, send the whole package back for re-evaluation
(only an option if you haven't actually paid yet), which takes 6-8 weeks, or
2, pay and then apply for a refund, which is what I did. I applied for the
refund and included copies of all our e-mail correspondence, which clearly
tagged the price at $10.
It's now several months later and I've heard squat from Canada Customs. Glad
I wasn't counting on the refund to put wieners into the macaroni.
I'm with the lister who said, UPS bad, Fedex good. You can't compare Fedex
with USPS because the service is different. With USPS and CanPost, you throw
your package in there like you're throwing craps. Who knows what's going to
happen. All you know is that eventually, it will get there.
The fedex tracking number gives excellent detail and your package gets to
the destination on a timely basis.

But what realllyy, realllyy, ticks me off is that after Canada and the U.S.
negotiated free trade, Canada started zapping people on this side for the
new duty a.k.a. GST and PST on used goods purchased from private
individuals,something we'd never have to pay if we bought from each other
here in Canada.
USPS and CanPost are fine if you don't care when you get your item. CanPost
brokerage is $5. But if you pay Fedex's ground rate, it seems to pass
Customs a lot without getting zapped for PTAX and GST, at least in my
experience.
UPS Ground is almost always an unpleasant experience and you need your
chequebook handy.

Sorry for the longwinded post. This topic is dear to my heart (and my
wallet).
Tom


From: "bobw" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> BTW:  Warn anyone shipping to you about insurance levels. They will



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