Forum host?

[Pesser]

HerM; has a post wherein he says that CPAP.com is the forum host. i'm Canadian and I am buying stuff through "Canada CPAP supply". Are these the same folks? Are not these sites run by Lincar? I need to know this because is Eastern Canada CPAP machine and supplies are very expensive. My machine cost me $2,300. Of course that includes all the test and consulting...and I don't have a problem with that! However my future purchases will be with someone like CPAP Canada Supplies. I have an order with them now and the stuff is shipping from the US. I intend to buy a lot more and I am not covered by insurance.

[Julie]

Cpap.com is a 'private' dealer in Texas, and the host of this forum... they just don't mess in too often unless something goes quite wrong and don't act like forum cops about small things or political views. They are not connected to anything Canadian.

There are dealers in Canada such as coastalsleep.ca, Clinicalsleep.com, Cpapoutlet.ca (great for parts!) and others that do their best to match U.S. prices, or at least are not half as exhorbitant as other Can. dealers, plus carry Resmed stuff that U.S. online dealers are prohibited from sending out the country there. That said, I've ordered from Cpap.com (and other U.S. ones) for years as have others, and there's no 'duty' involved as they stamp 'Medical devices' on the pkgs.

[CRMW]

Isn't "Canada CPAP supply" an American company based in Florida?

Chris

[Pesser]

I just finished purchasing from "CanadaCPAPsupply.com". I did it using PAYPAL. The payment went to Lincare. Obviously Lincare (Florida) owns the website. And I did all this at American prices!

[Julie]

I don't understand why you would do things that way... yes, you can order from a US site, but why worry about who owns it because it's not relevant to you (will your insce. up here not cover things?), plus the best prices always are at Cpap.com, and of course our dollar is in the dumps now, so if you don't order from Can. dealers, at least go for the best price you can otherwise.

[Pesser]

I don't understand why you would do things that way... yes, you can order from a US site, but why worry about who owns it because it's not relevant to you (will your insce. up here not cover things?), plus the best prices always are at Cpap.com, and of course our dollar is in the dumps now, so if you don't order from Can. dealers, at least go for the best price you can otherwise.

Reading my first post should make it clear why it’s relevant to me! HerM stated who the forum host is!

There is a post entitled “Lincare screwed me over, who should I write to?”. I don’t know if or how any of these companies and this forum are connected and it seems there’s lot of people in my position. Ordering from someone that is unknown to me makes it very relevant. Do you need to know how much money my order is for? This would necessarily make this post as impolite as yours or are you going to insist that that was not your intent? You wrote “(will your insce. up here not cover things?)”. You already have the answer to that in my first post.

[Julie]

My goodness - relax a bit. I was trying to help and no one's paying any of us to do this, let alone testing us to see if we caught every nuance of your postings! I've had many years of experience here (most of it posting from the Bridgewater/Lunenberg area) and I tried to give you tips on how to shop as cheaply as possible. You're free to do whatever you want though, and if you think you can do better, terrific.

[Pesser]

Is this the nuance you are referring to: I SAID (OR WROTE) “HerM; has a post wherein he says that CPAP.com is the forum host. i'm Canadian and I am buying stuff through "Canada CPAP supply". Are these the same folks?”.

[teleute]

Canada CPAP Supply is a subsidiary or sibling or whatever of CPAP Supply USA. (Unrelated to cpap.com.) They are both physically located in the US, but Canada CPAP Supply is set up/licensed/whatever (I don't know the details) as if they are a Canadian company and are allowed to ship things to Canada that the other US companies can't (like ResMed and Respironics stuff). Their prices are usually but not always cheaper than the Canadian sites listed above (and I'd add cpapoutlet.ca to that list - I've gotten a couple of good prices from them). You do have to pay shipping with Canada CPAP Supply, though - most of the truly Canadian sites have free shipping over $100 or similar. That being said, the shipping is surprisingly reasonable, and fast once they fill your order.

Breathing equipment is zero-rated for GST purposes, so you shouldn't get charged taxes/duties/etc... on importing, regardless of what company you buy from. However, if you do happen to mistakenly get charged taxes/duties, you can apply for a refund (I have a post elsewhere about this).

So to summarise:
1. Any US company can ship to Canada, except for certain items where the manufacturers prohibit it (ResMed and Respironics notably). So if you're buying F&P stuff for example, or any other brand, you can order from cpap.com. Be warned, though...their shipping is very slow, so you'll want to order with plenty of time to spare.
2. There should be no taxes charged, regardless of company, but you can get them back if they are.
3. Of the companies in the US, only Canada CPAP Supply (to my knowledge) can ship ResMEd and Respironics stuff to Canada.
4. There are a number of actually Canadian options as well - sometimes with comparable prices, sometimes not. I do a quick check on all the sites before ordering anything.

I generally stick with a company actually in Canada if the price differential isn't that big, because it's faster delivery and I don't want the risk of having to submit for a refund on fees, etc... The Canadian companies can be pretty hit and miss with pricing - each one seems to have a few items they have the best price on, and then very bad prices on a lot of the rest of the stuff. For our initial large order of machine/humidifier/etc... though, we did go with Canada CPAP Supply, since the price differential was hundreds of dollars and that was worth it.

I have no idea about Lincare, to address your other area of concern.

Hope that helps a little, at least!

[teleute]

Also, important to note that the prices on Canada CPAP Supply are in Canadian dollars, not US. They accidentally (?) charged me in US dollars, but when I called and pointed this out they gave me a refund for the difference.

[Pesser]

Teleute: thanks for this. It’s re-assuring that I haven’t given my credit card details to people who will “stick” me. This has happened to me before; but not with CPAP gear ( I often help clients who’s credit cards and identities are stolen….I tend to overact when giving my credit card details)!!

Julie: thank you for the invaluable information you have given me. Especially your mentioning of their label of “medical devices”; that re-assures me.