Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Hi Guys bumped into this website the other day...

www.bongous.com

They are a mail forwarding outfit. They offer all sorts of services like credit card purchasing. They will give you a US based credit card so you can shop and ship to their office. They will consolidate multiple orders and ship back to you. All sorts of stuff and much cheaper than FED EX/UPS.

All desingned to get around painful international shipping issues.

But the big part is the custom tax for say a Canon 220 len.

There should be no taxes on photographic equipment. Bongo will ship it to you and not charge the extravagant customs clearance fee's.

The savings would be really compounded if 5-6 people got a larger order together from as many stores as they wished and shipped as one.

Tax is different to Duty, I probably meant duty fees, Danny, I know it's complicated enough, but you always have to pay taxes unless it's a "gift"

True enough...

Cool link. Thanks!

There is no duty or tax on mail items valued at $20CDN or less. (Although putting a value for duty of $19.99 on a 70-200L might be frowned on by CBSA)

Gifts from friends and relatives, valued at $60CDN or less, are duty and tax exempt. In cases where the gift is valued at more than $60CDN, the CBSA will assess duties and taxes on the excess amount. The gift must be sent to the recipient personally and include a card or other notice indicating that it is a gift. Items that do not qualify as gifts include:
- tobacco
- intoxicating beverages
- advertising material
- items sent by a business to a consumer in Canada and vice versa.
So a store cannot "give" you something to get around paying duty and taxes.

Duty is usually not charged on cameras and lenses. YMMV

Another good info source:
http://www.photoprice.ca/article/tax-duty-brokerage-demystified

Cool find. Would like a review from someone who has used this service.

Tell this to the HK sellers

Did anyone noticed that they use DHL and FED EX for their shipping for the final delivery...how is that going to get around the Brokerage / Custom clearing fees charged by the carriers when it arrives in Canada?

Arrgh...

http://www.bongous.com/shipping_cost_calculator.php

You are right...I sent an email...I'll report back.

That factor alone gives me more confidence in them. DHL and FedEx are miles ahead of UPS in terms of cross border shipping!

Not so sure about DHL but Fedex has a bad track record too as far as I know with virtually random customs clearance charges.

I got a response. They ship DHL to Canada. Anyone know how bad they are?

This is what they say...not sure if I believe them though...

Dan,

Since DHL acts as your broker, you are not subject to pay brokerage fees.

If you have any additional questions, please let us know.

Kind regards,

ice never had any issue with DHL. My fav shipper

What do they charge for clearance fees?