Canada Duties for Pipes

[rockynrobyn]

Hi Everyone,I’m in Canada and I recently bought a Peterson system standard off of Amazon.ca. The seller was 4noggins so I know it came from the USA. When it arrived, there were no duties or taxes.
I bought a meerschaum from Turkey and I got an email from DHL that says there is a duty charge of $65.40. Has anyone else had this same experience? I was under the impression that there were no duties on tobacco pipes. Thank you for any help you can give me.

 

[warren]

What was DHL's response when you contacted them? I'm guessing their response was right on the money, as it were. Or, maybe try Canadian customs.

 

[sasquatch]

"Duty" is assessed on import purchases over 400 Cdn. You will pay GST. You will pay PST in some provinces. You will pay a handling fee for border services, and possibly another handling fee (brokerage fee) for couriers like DHL and Fedex. 65 sounds high on a pipe unless it was an 800 dollar pipe.

 

[sasquatch]

So let's just "work up" a fake customs bill: You buy a pipe, it's 300 USD. That's 370 Cdn. So GST is 18.50, if you have provincial tax add that in, I dunno, another 5 or 10 bucks? 15 bucks handling fee and there's 45 bucks kinda thing. So I mean, 65 bucks isn't outrageous if it's a hugely expensive pipe. If it's a 200 dollar pipe, something's kooky, and you can pay it, then submit a claim against it, point out the error in the customs bill.

 

[chopper]

$65??? Man, it sounds like they're ripping you off.
I'm not Canadian so don't know for certain but I'm thinking that part of your problem might be that you used DHL.

I'm an Aussie and I've bought a meerschaum pipe from Turkey and did not get hit with any duty.
Whenever I buy anything from ebay I use the countries postal service, [basic with tracking], whether it's Turkey, anywhere in Europe, Britain, Ukraine, America and even China and have not lost a single order. [touch wood]

Apart from the Aussie GST, which applies to most sales of new items, I've not paid duty from anywhere for any item, much less for a pipe [and I've had dozens of orders . . . yep, PAD, lol]
Although for some odd reason that I'm not sure why, some U.S. e-bay sellers have a duty surcharge notice. [Maybe it's a State thing?]

What I do know for a fact is that co's like DHL and Fed-Ex attract much closer scrutiny at Customs than regular mail. Same goes with priority mail. Not sure why. [Learned this when I first started ordering tobacco from the U.S.]

Hope another Canadian can give you a definitive answer.

Edit to add; I see that Sasquatch beat me to it : ) [One finger typist here ]

 

[olkofri]

Using couriers is a guarantee that you'll be dinged. Couriers charge a brokerage fee, so it's in THEIR best interest that duties are always assessed.

Best thing is to use regular or supersaver post.

Alas, not every outlet will want to use the post and with the viral thing postal service became abysmal and they can take geologic time to deliver, so, to avoid delays that upset customers and potential loss of goods in parcels, many vendors switched to courier. The viral thing has been a boon for FedEx, DHL, and friends—they've even upped their rates this year.

With post, duties are a hit or miss. I've gotten parcels with tobacco waived through and I've been dinged for parcels with nothing but pipe cleaners and filters. Many factors affect this, such as contents declaration, declared total cost of items, nature of items, type of service (express stands a higher chance of being dinged—"if this guy wants it this fast, he really wants it and he'll pay duties without contesting them!" kind of mindset on the part of the CBSA, methinks), level of boredom of customs employees, et cetera, et cetera.

In a nutshell: use the post whenever possible.

I got dinged for $40 CAD for a pipe worth $153 USD coming from Italy. One of those vendors who won't use the post. But heck, I got the pipe within a week.

 

[Parkland_Puffer]

As others have said it is hit or miss but it seems like the cheaper the transport method the less often it gets hit by customs.

 

[elvishrunes]

I’m a Canuck and I’ve only been dinged once on tobacco, just a single tin…. I heard from a post office clerk it’s fairly random, they just grab a package and tax it. I order tobacco through supersaver and pipes by fedex, or some courier like that, I want the tracking on pipes. So far the pipes have been OK. Ive also heard price may affect the tax, maybe they can scan your receipt inside the box? Who knows…

 

[Sloopjohnbee]

seems like alot of duty
the only thing I can think of since it was meerschaum they could've registered it as a 'collectible item of high value or commodity item' if that happened you are screwed
I don't import sh** anymore for this specific reason
after this covidien nightmare I don't trust any complicated systems and processes

 

[jewman22]

DHL will always charge you a what they call a "brokerage fee" when bringing something into Canada. Even if Customs doesn't charge you duty, DHL whips up a bill for what the customs charge WOULD BE. A person I play golf with regularly works for them, that is how I came by this information.
Worst Carrier Ever, sad that they manage to be worse than Canada Post.