Just a little story folks... I recently won an auction on "that auction site" for a Contax 46mm 81b filter for my G2 get up. The price was reasonable ($13.75 US) since a brand spanking new one up here runs $60.00 CDN plus taxes.
After the auction was over, the seller told me the cost for shipping ($9.00 US) by UPS. Needless to say, after having dealt with UPS before, and after reading a number of horror stories on this list, I politely asked the seller to reconsider and send it via US Postal Service (we're talking about a 46mm FILTER.. it's about the size of an orange slice). Since the seller was a "dealer" he said that his shipping department usually shipped UPS because that was their carrier and couldn't ship via US Postal Service. Before sending back another Email explaining my reasoning, I decided to call UPS and find out just how much they actually WOULD charge for a $13.75 US (approx $21.00 CDN) item coming across the border into the Peoples Republic of Canada. I was floored..... UPS would charge... get this..... ready ?? $16.50 CDN !!!! (of course that's just their "brokerage" fee - any taxes would still have to be paid on top of that) So... I emailed back the "dealer" and told him that the total cost for the $13.75 USD item would be easily close to what I could buy it for BRAND NEW up here in Canada if he decided to ship via UPS. I pleaded to ship via FedEx or Purolator. I was happy to hear "Sure, we'll ship it via FedEx"... Well.. in less than a week it's here.. and in great condition via FedEx... AND.. NO BROKERAGE FEE OR TAXES/DUTY So the moral of the story for the folks in the U.S. - Please ship via FedEx or US Postal Service if you're shipping up to us lonely, cold and igloo bound Canucks :) Cheers, Dave - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
