That d*mn courier thread.

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esoo said:
In my experience:
Mail services (stuff that gets handled by Canada Post on inbound): random checks so you may get away with paying nothing. Otherwise $10 + taxes + duties
DHL: $20 + taxes + duties
FedEx: Ive had come in free, I've been billed en route, and I've been billed afterwards. $20 + taxes + duties
UPS Standard: avoid at all costs. Fee is based in part on declared value + taxes + duty.
UPS Expedited: $10 + taxes + duties

Taxes have been charged at HST rate. Duty is not always charged - it has been dependant on what has been stated on the customs paperwork.

I know it doesn't help much, but that is what it is. Our gift declaration value is so low it's not useful.
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Thanks!

When you say duties, what kind of % or amount are you usually looking at? And do you get the same fees for buying from a retailer vs buying from an individual on BST?

edit: Weird that duties are charged at all, considering knives bought direct from Japan are duty-exempt and a knife made in the USA would also be duty-exempt. Maybe it's because it's made in Japan but coming from the US.
 
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I have been nailed with duties on knives on occasion. Not sure what the difference in the declaration was that caused it to happen. It has been rare but it has happened.

BST has usually been USPS and I've been lucky to not get caught on anything. Retailer has been whatever carrier they use.
 
yoyoma said:
That I'm fine with. I'm just afraid of getting slapped with a big 30% duties or something.
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It's never been that big for me. I'd say at most I've been charged 20% above what I've paid to the store.

But as I've said and has been noted in the thread - do not use UPS Standard. They charge and outrageous amount for the their brokerage. You can pay $50 or more just to have them collect taxes.
 
esoo said:
It's never been that big for me. I'd say at most I've been charged 20% above what I've paid to the store.

But as I've said and has been noted in the thread - do not use UPS Standard. They charge and outrageous amount for the their brokerage. You can pay $50 or more just to have them collect taxes.
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Do you have any experiences with buying from Australia? Looking at potentially buying from Newham Knives (made and sold from Australia, I believe) and was wondering if I'd be slapped with duties.

EDIT: Nevermind, I was able to find the answer myself. The same free trade agreement that makes Japanese made knives duty-free (when shipped from Japan) applies to Australia as well.
 
yoyoma said:
Do you have any experiences with buying from Australia? Looking at potentially buying from Newham Knives (made and sold from Australia, I believe) and was wondering if I'd be slapped with duties.

EDIT: Nevermind, I was able to find the answer myself. The same free trade agreement that makes Japanese made knives duty-free (when shipped from Japan) applies to Australia as well.
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Only knife from Aus that I've gotten was a Kippington. No duty (but the other fees)
 
FYI for everyone, FedEx seems to be having some serious issues at the moment. I have a knife from @Knot Handcrafted that been stuck in the UK for about 10 days now. I have another I shipped last week to @eliasborota that should have arrived Monday, FedEx is showing they still havent picked it up... My local shipper did not seem shocked by this and said it has been an issue lately.
 
Matt Jacobs said:
FYI for everyone, FedEx seems to be having some serious issues at the moment. I have a knife from @Knot Handcrafted that been stuck in the UK for about 10 days now. I have another I shipped last week to @eliasborota that should have arrived Monday, FedEx is showing they still havent picked it up... My local shipper did not seem shocked by this and said it has been an issue lately.
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Yes, it's extremely annoying. So far it appears the package hasn't been scanned even once the entire time.

I recently ran into another shipping issue with inaccurate tracking info. I called the USPS location it was left at, lady said she'd look into it, a few hours later it updated from having been in WY to all of a sudden having been received in Denver. The Denver status never updated. Yesterday afternoon I called a USPS location for help and apparently they could see it had actually in-fact arrived at a facility near me the day prior. She confirmed that it was not, however, out for delivery. It was delivered yesterday, 5 days after the expected delivery date and the tracking says it's still in Denver.

There are a lot of knives I wouldn't have cared much about had they been lost or not accurately tracked, but these two in particular . . . yesterday's is a unicorn as is the one I'm waiting for. Oh well, first-world problem. Hopefully it arrives soon.

Also, @Matt Jacobs is an awesome seller. He packed the knife in the originally packing and had it shipped the very next day. He also has been communicating with the location he left it at and done what he can to help. Great seller, great guy.
 
UPS *** is this
IMG_3638.jpeg
 
Ordered a Shapton Rockstar from Amazon US to UK. Zero padding in the box. Courier threw it over a 6ft fence onto stone slabs in the back garden. Stone somehow miraculously survived. A testament to the durability of the rockstar stones.

Amazon JP order earlier this week wasn't much better. No padding again. Naniwa arata plastic box/holder was cracked. Any other stone without the hard box and it would have broken for sure.

Would be nice if they started using a little padding for such fragile items. International returns are major hassle, discourages me from ordering from international Amazon if I am to be honest.
 

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I was excited for the two seconds that I thought this might be a Fallout: New Vegas thread.
 
Vertigo said:
When the knife shows up at the USPS center two hours from your address, then yeets off 400 miles to the east for no reason:

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I live a couple of miles from a FedEx hub, but they don't transfer from FedEx to USPS at that location, so when I order something by "Smart Post" I think they call it, I see my packages arrive in town then head for another hub 130 miles away.
 
Dear UPS driver

Please actually take my package to the UPS Store, and do t just claim you did. Take it off the truck, and take it inside. Tomorrow, please and thank you.



The UPS store says they believe it’s at the hub, just hanging out.

Of course, if he’d used the address I gave him…..
 
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