Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Some Trouble at Canadian Customs for Marty's Moly

Wanted to share this experience with you all in case you're also sending things internationally, or at least, into Canada.

I've just picked up Marty's sketchbook at the post office and had to pay a customs fine of $30.97 because the little green sheet on the front says the book is value $500, which I suspect is a typo simply missing a decimal point. I'm going to argue that angle anyway and send the paperwork and receipt in too the border agency to try and get the charge refunded.

While the art is certainly irreplaceable, customs views the value as my paying for something as a purchase, not as an insurance thing, so they've charged me GST & PST, the two kinds of taxes here.

Just wanted to let you all know so that for future posts you might have into Canada, it's generally best to either cite a low value or mark the item "gift - zero value" then insure it separately as a gift "x" value or get a tracking number for it. Tracking numbers are often enough.

Any rate, the Moly is here safe and is an incredible thing to behold, every contribution in there so far is stunning!

e

5 comments:

  1. I am so sorry. I will reimburse you. I usually write $50. I don't know why. It means nothing.

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  2. Oh no, please, no worries! I'm just going to send it in for a refund, should be fine. They didn't even open the thing, so once they see it's not a commercial purchase or manufactured sorta thing, the taxing aspect is invalidated anyway.

    I just wanted to share the knowledge about customs here, as I've run afoul of them many times back in the day when I was a hardcore EBay toy seller.

    e

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  3. I think that may have been my mistake.
    I am glad I did not write something like $1000.00

    Let me know if you can't get the money back and I will send you some.

    Glad to know for the future.

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  4. Good thing, ha ha! :)

    Again, no worries, Canadian customs is a burly gate keeper, thankfully easy enough to appeal when a mistake happens.

    e

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  5. hey guys, lately I think everybody is trying to charge more money to everyone else (ok cranky explanation)
    this month phone costed me wrongly more money (they refund next month) some plane ticket they charged it twice to my visa (another error..) and another unlucky money error issues,
    :PPP

    sorry I went straight out of topic

    what I was going to say, I have a moly since I while ago, ill be finishing it soon,
    sorry for the delay my friends, been a bit busy lately, will post pics about the weekend or so

    ReplyDelete