If I can share a personal experience with Canada Customs from two days ago. Please don't flame me. I am very thankful for the good relationship I have had with the great online tobacco shops from the US and my fellow smokers from south of the line. Here goes. This is exactly as per my two conversations with Canada Customs concerning my tobacco order.
I just got off the phone with Canada Customs. They phoned me regarding a tobacco order that I had sent back for appeal for three, eight ounce packages of Esoterica.
The tax for tobacco coming into Canada and I quote from the officer I spoke with is 332%
They don't want Canadians to buy out of country. I asked him if he would hold it for a day while I contacted the online vendor I had bought it from.
I called the online vendor and spoke with their very friendly staff. They said this happens all the time. I was told that they received a phone call from the Canadian Government a year ago and were told that any products sent to Canada must be marked for what the actual contents are.
This very helpful customer service individual said that most of the time, 90% of the product shipped, goes through because Canada customs doesn't have the time or resources to validate every shipment. They do spot checks.
I will also say that the Canadian Customs official who called me was one hundred per cent sympathetic and told me he personally thought it was a shitty deal for Canadians. Whether he was simply saying that or it was how he actually felt I have no other way to gauge other than he did sound like he honestly felt that way.
I got tagged this time around.
Tax was $350.00, over 3 times what I paid for the tobacco.
My simple comment to the vendor was, "If this will in any way cause you folks to stop shipping to Canada to please allow me to pay for return shipping charges, pay for the product and I will gift it to a fellow pipe smoker I know from the States." I did that not because I want people to go Oh Ah that was a nice gesture. I couldn't care less what people think. I did it because I appreciate and value being able to purchase product from the US and I don't want that to stop.
If I get tagged one time out of ten, so be it.
And that 332% is exactly what I was told. No BS there I think. And even with that tax, it still works out cheaper for me here in Alberta to pay the tax rather than buy from a Canadian B&M.
A price at a B&M here Red Deer and I Edmonton for a 50gram tin of FMOTT, 50 grams, not 2 ounces is $49.95. I know because I called a B&M I have dealt with in Edmonton to find out and also my local B&M.
I also know that if you spend 48 hours in the States a Canadian resident can bring back without penalty 200grams of tobacco.
My wife, two daughters, and daughter in Law are going to Vegas in October for 4 days.
I am going to give them each a shopping list.
Respectfully submitted.
Chris in Red Deer, Alberta
I just got off the phone with Canada Customs. They phoned me regarding a tobacco order that I had sent back for appeal for three, eight ounce packages of Esoterica.
The tax for tobacco coming into Canada and I quote from the officer I spoke with is 332%
They don't want Canadians to buy out of country. I asked him if he would hold it for a day while I contacted the online vendor I had bought it from.
I called the online vendor and spoke with their very friendly staff. They said this happens all the time. I was told that they received a phone call from the Canadian Government a year ago and were told that any products sent to Canada must be marked for what the actual contents are.
This very helpful customer service individual said that most of the time, 90% of the product shipped, goes through because Canada customs doesn't have the time or resources to validate every shipment. They do spot checks.
I will also say that the Canadian Customs official who called me was one hundred per cent sympathetic and told me he personally thought it was a shitty deal for Canadians. Whether he was simply saying that or it was how he actually felt I have no other way to gauge other than he did sound like he honestly felt that way.
I got tagged this time around.
Tax was $350.00, over 3 times what I paid for the tobacco.
My simple comment to the vendor was, "If this will in any way cause you folks to stop shipping to Canada to please allow me to pay for return shipping charges, pay for the product and I will gift it to a fellow pipe smoker I know from the States." I did that not because I want people to go Oh Ah that was a nice gesture. I couldn't care less what people think. I did it because I appreciate and value being able to purchase product from the US and I don't want that to stop.
If I get tagged one time out of ten, so be it.
And that 332% is exactly what I was told. No BS there I think. And even with that tax, it still works out cheaper for me here in Alberta to pay the tax rather than buy from a Canadian B&M.
A price at a B&M here Red Deer and I Edmonton for a 50gram tin of FMOTT, 50 grams, not 2 ounces is $49.95. I know because I called a B&M I have dealt with in Edmonton to find out and also my local B&M.
I also know that if you spend 48 hours in the States a Canadian resident can bring back without penalty 200grams of tobacco.
My wife, two daughters, and daughter in Law are going to Vegas in October for 4 days.
I am going to give them each a shopping list.
Respectfully submitted.
Chris in Red Deer, Alberta
