Made in Canada conundrum

06-05-09: Polk432
howgul, No auction today!

I trust you very well. I know you will send the package with your letterhead, banking information and free tonearm. God bless you and the little children.

I called the Canada Border Services Agency, and they said that one has to apply for a Temporary Admission Permit (Form E29B). Along with this completed form you have to send a guarantee deposit/bond, which you get back once the item is back on U.S. soil. This is the private way, I would think. However, when the shipment is processed by FedEx, they told me to contact FedEx since (and I quote -from French- "they have their way of doing things" (the agent may have been hinting at something here, but refused to elaborate) are the ones who handle this. So the taxes, etc, may stem from the fact that the Canada Border Services Agency (i.e., Canada Customs) considers your audio unit as having been shipped from the U.S. one way into Canada, and decided to levy taxes as it would for any item (because FedEx did not do the paperwork correctly??). (Note that these are sales taxes; duty would apply to devices NOT manufactured in the U.S. and amounts to 8% I believe. The bottom line, I believe, is that FedEx should hold the solution to this. I'm sure you did a lot of legwork here, and I sure would like to know the current status of your audio unit, and, bases on this, what the next step should be. The Canada Border Services Agency's telephone number is 1-800-461-9999 (which may not work from the U.S.) or long distance 204-983-3500 or 506-636-5064
Website: www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/contact/general-generaux-eng.html

Infotrad, thanks for the info. In brief, should it not be the job of the shipment agency to inform people of what you just found out when sending an item in another country for repair? Should we all have college degrees simply to ask a clerk accross the counter at the local UPS store, USPS, DHL or FedEx what has to be done to get the thing at the repair shop and back with minimum hassles at the border ? Aren't we suppose to expect those people to know what they're doing and tell us even before we ask ?

How come the shipping agency didn't inform Springbok something was missing on the shipping box ? How could they miss it ? A large and heavy box sent to Canada ? Somebody has to take the box, how come they didn't react when they learned,saw or charged to be sent in Canada ?

Polk, what a laugh I had reading your dribble...

This guy would be the perfect candidate for a Rick Mercer interview.
For those here that know who Rick Mercer is, just imagine.... Now that would be hilarious.

On a different note.
Springbok, two month's sitting in customs, I would be asking FedEx for answers maybe they screwed up, there's no way you should of payed any other cost's other then shipping.
U.S. and Canadian Customs are set up at these couriers facilities.The service you usually get from couriers is a few steps up from government postal workers.

Back in the mid 1980s through the 1990s I collected 1950's and earlier German table top radios, primarily Saba and Telefunken.
I bought direct from sources in Germany and the Netherlands.

I had maybe 5 radios out of dozens that I purchased in all those years opened for inspection by Canadian Customs.

Shipped by air then delivered to my door step usually took under 10 day's.
The radios that were flagged for inspection, all from the Netherlands BTW, this added 3 to 8 days to the overall time they took to reach me. Upon arrival a customs notice was included stating my parcel was opened for inspection.

Since then I have shipped components back to the U.S. for factory upgrades including purchases of dozens of other items from the U.S. and elsewhere that were delivered promptly with zero problems, most recent was a 40 pound Accuphase tuner from New Jersey.

I'm not suggesting this two month wait didn't happen to you, anything can happen, however it is extreme....

Ar this point, we don't know what actually happened. This being said, incompetency can be found everywhere, so it would be no surprise in the case of a courier company. But to stay on the sunny side, let's chalk it up to human error... and try to find where the error occured and fix it.