B&H Canadian Shipping “Fast & Easy” Customs Problems

[9VIII]

As a Canadian placing an order with B&H, at checkout they give the option to pre-pay taxes and duty, which sounds great, so it’s the option I’ve chosen for the last few years.

But this week a package came in from B&H with a lens and it has $90 tax and duty, and I already paid $44 USD for “Tax and Duty”.
Now that I think about it, I also paid tax and duty twice on the previous order as well.
When they started advertising “free shipping” to Canada a few years ago I thought it was great, but it looks like the “Fast & Easy” button has effectively scammed me into paying even more for shipping than I did before!

Does anyone else have experience with B&H shipping to Canada?

Am I just unlucky or is B&H (effectively) running a scam on fake customs fees?

 

[Don Haines]

Interesting.....

My last order was with the Customs fees pre-paid and there were no additional charges.....

I suggest you contact them.....

 

[Click]

My last order was with the Customs fees pre-paid and there were no additional charges.....

I suggest you contact them.....

Ditto

 

[kphoto99]

My last order was with the Customs fees pre-paid and there were no additional charges.....

I suggest you contact them.....

Ditto

More likely the delivery company that is doing the scamming.

 

[R1-7D]

So long as we have NAFTA, camera equipment is not dutiable with the exception of some carbon fibre tripods.

What was the shipping method you chose?


I experienced a similar sort of thing when I ordered a circular polarizer from B&H back in the spring. I was charged "duty" when I shouldn't have been charged anything. The actual problem was the shipping company -- because the item was shipped via ground, they charged a brokerage fee but called it "duty".

To avoid brokerage fees it's sometimes worthwhile to pay for the faster shipping, even though it seems like it adds a massive expense at checkout. Anything shipper via express/air, etc. has the brokerage fee already included.

 

[Chaitanya]

My last order was with the Customs fees pre-paid and there were no additional charges.....

I suggest you contact them.....

Ditto

More likely the delivery company that is doing the scamming.

UPS?

 

[R1-7D]

My last order was with the Customs fees pre-paid and there were no additional charges.....

I suggest you contact them.....

Ditto

More likely the delivery company that is doing the scamming.

UPS?

Yeah, UPS and FedEx like to call their brokerage fees “duty”. It’s ridiculous.

 

[snappy604]

Bet you UPS ground shipping.. been scammed by that many times.

You can tell them you'll process the duties yourself, some websites online go into detail, but it sounds like a bit of a pain. Some of the shipping options avoided any brokerage scams, but still required duties/taxes. It's changed since I last tried it.

 

[9VIII]

The package was shipped USPS and delivered through Canada Post.
The issue is I see no indication on the customs forms that anything special was done at all. It really looks like they’re just taking people’s money for nothing.

I sent an e-mail to CS with the B&H internal website system but I’m not sure if the e-mail actually made it to them, or if it’s just the holiday rush delaying things.
I guess I should probably call them and make sure to get an answer before too much time passes.

 

[YuengLinger]

The package was shipped USPS and delivered through Canada Post.
The issue is I see no indication on the customs forms that anything special was done at all. It really looks like they’re just taking people’s money for nothing.

I sent an e-mail to CS with the B&H internal website system but I’m not sure if the e-mail actually made it to them, or if it’s just the holiday rush delaying things.
I guess I should probably call them and make sure to get an answer before too much time passes.

Yes, it always makes sense to contact a company first, especially one with very responsive customer service. Not understanding the issue and then going to online forums to shout "scam" makes no sense (for people without an agenda).

No follow up?