customs for cpap in canda

Any of you Canadians who have bought cpap from US did have to pay customs? I want to buy from cpapauction and want to make sure I don;t have any surprises of paying custom, I know that being a medical device should be exempt but want to know for sure...
thanks
rux

Medical supplies don't get charged for customs. Just make sure your seller has properly labeled your package as medical equipment and you should be fine. CPAP equipment I've had shipped from the US has had this on it: "medical equipment GST exempt code 57."

Avoid UPS and Fed Ex into Canada. You may be liable for fees related to customs. USPS is better.

Great advice! Thanks for posting.

Been ordering from Cpap.com for years and never had to pay duty (though once a package was incorrectly labelled - not sure if it was from them - and they did try to charge me, but I spoke to Customs and we worked it out).

thanks all of you that responded

I would echo Linus and recommend that you avoid UPS. I ordered some CPAP stuff (not from CPAP.com though) shipped via UPS and I had to pay over $70 in duty. I think you can apply to have the money reimbursed but I not exactly sure how that works.

I just got "stung" on cpapauction site. I have bought about 15 items on that site. I always ask the seller if they will ship to me via USPS and ask how much the shipping will be to Ontario.

I bid on and won a machine. I have never purchased a machine there before. I always check "feedback" because once I paid for a mask and never received it. It was a new seller. I appealed through PAyPal and got nothing in that case.

This seller answered my email, asking about shipping to Ontario via USPS. He quoted a very reasonable price - more than for a mask but that is to be expected.

I know that it is "buyer beware" in all of this.

Yesterday I received an email with an invoice from UPS. I contacted them and am told I have to pay a brokerage fee for this machine. It was a good deal and even the brokerage fee still makes it a good deal. I did, however, try hard to clear all this with the seller,as I mentioned.

When I spoke to UPS I was told that the seller could have sent it by via one of their air services - "Express" or" Expedited". UPS, according to the woman I was talking with provides free brokerage with these 2 services. If it is sent "Standard" as mine was, brokerage is due. She told me that shippers are advised of the brokerage fees that the buyer will have to pay. She did not say they are told about the free brokerage services but I am assuming they are told this too.

I have ordered many cpap items from the US, including machines and, as I said, a number of items on the cpapauciton and this is a first.

I am more angry about the fact that the seller answered my email about USPS delivery and charged me that and then sent it via UPS without ever contacting me.

I understood there was no customs fee on Medical Equipment but I guess certain ways of shipping are free- others are not.

As I said, I still got a great deal, even when you add the brokerage but the seller will not get good feedback because he didn't do as he said he would. I paid a USPS shipping cost to the seller and now must pay an even larger brokerage fee to UPS. I have contacted him about all this but he has not replied and I don't expect he will. It is really "buyer beware".

This is a "heads up" for other Canadian buyers!

If any Canadians know if I can recover that brokerage cost, because it is medical equipment, I'd be glad to hear how it is done!

There is a class action law suit over the "brokerage fees". One way to get a out of it is to go to the brokerage house and pick up your item at the border. It is the buyer who is responsible. If you get a shipment outside of the normal shipping methods, you can refuse the package. I am not sure if that prevents you from being stung by this brokerage practice. I used to ship optical transmitters to Canada 10 years ago. I avoided UPS for this reason. It is a big scam and it looks like no one has been able to stop it. Use USPS.

I ask for USPS ALWAYS! That's what I did this time as well, but the seller charged me USPS shipping ( what he quoted me). He asked for about twice the cost for shipping to a US address - pretty fair. I paid him that and now I am stuck with brokerage fees too since he just went ahead and shipped UPS without even contacting me!

Don't know how you make an auction site seller honour what he said. Even with good feedback you can get stung. Actually, 99%+ of my cpapauction purchases have been great. This is the second bad transaction out of, I think, about 15.

All I can do, as far as I know, is leave him bad feedback, which I WILL do!

atomickitty - brokerage fees are not duty. Medical equipment can be imported into Canada from the US without duty (duty is a form of tax; it can only be charged by the Canadian federal government on shipments into Canada. In addition to duty, shipments into Canada may also be charged GST and, depending on your province, HST or PST.)

Brokerage fees are just a fee for brokering the item's importation into Canada. They have nothing to do with any tax, duty, GST or PST. They are charged by UPS, not any government.

Thanks for the clarification MoneyGal!

My experiences with couriers for shipping from the USA to Canada is this: UPS GROUND or FedEx GROUND, BOTH charge extra brokerage fees & taxes on brokerage fees. You can read about it on their websites. BUT the AIR services of both DO NOT charge brokerage fees, but are more expensive up front, but I've found air service is less expensive in the end but the amount of less varies. Also there is far less hassle with and the clearance through customs is faster via their AIR service. To save a bit of money when using Air service from both couriers, ask to use their 2-3 (or multi) Day Int'l Economy option, vs. Next Day shipping.

I also try to insist on US Postal Service, like their "Priority" Service for speed or Regular mail if speed is not needed or if the shipping budget is tight, but even then, if the package happens to be inspected by Canada Customs (this is hit & miss & depends on the declared value of the item and it can cause a delay of several days), Canada Customs adds their version of a brokerage fee, a flat rate of $5 which they call "Handling" or some such thing. Hopefully the sender CLEARLY fills out the declaration label or forms, as if they don't, then it can cause Customs to tack on taxes for the wrong amounts or for items that are exempt. Also ask the sender to NOT delcare the INSURED value on the item, but only the 'MATERIAL or manufactured or sold costs of the item. Insured value has nothing to do with the actual cost of the item being shipped. Customs only cares about the value of money exchanged between you and the seller / retailer, not what you insure the item for. Also any insurance value should not be listed on the declaration forms but kept and sent to you seperate via email or mail. This error of declared value vs. perceived insured value of an item being shipped often adds a lot of cost and extra taxes to an item for a recipient.

USPS generally seems to be the least expensive overall, pretty fast and is the least hassle. But if the package is opened by Canada Customs, they'll add on a $5 handling fee with any Provincial or GST taxes owed.

Also you may / should be able to claim back your brokerage and other fees (such as travel & accomodation) associated with a Medical Expense, on your Income Tax form and if the expenses aren't worth it one year, you can accumulate them for 5-7 years (I can't recall which it is) and then claim the costs. Just make sure that you keep ALL of your receipts to be claimed related to the medical expense as proof. Deductible Medical Expenses can include more than just the particular item or service being claimed, so check your income tax form for medical expenses to see what all is allowable.