Hey Folks,
Are there any successful Canadian owners out there? I have never dealt with importing goods across the line before. I need to get a handle on the duty fees and what taxes are required to be paid, and when. Also what is the best method of shipping? Do I
have to pick up at a customs broker house?

I am very interested in a package deal 950/750. Depending on border costs, I may have to settle for the 7100 amp.

Thanks for your time.

Tom

I had absolutely no trouble with getting my 950/770 across the border ... no duty on electronics from the states ... I had to pay GST but for some reason I was never charged PST (Ontario) ... the Outlaws will send you an accurate quote on shipping and from there my only problem was the UPS lost my 770 for a few days but got it here in the end (Outlaw was a great help there too!)

If you are going to buy, now is the time...our dollar has not been this strong in ages (you luck !#@!)

Tom,

In general, any time you have something shipped to you via UPS into Canada, you should expect massive headaches. Avoid them at all costs! THE problem is that they apply grossly outrageous brokerage fees to everything valued at more than $20Cdn. I've had packages with declared values less than that cost me $17Cdn in brokerage fees alone. Imagine what they'll ding you for a Model 950!?

To avoid this I do one of two things:

1. Insist that all shipments come via USPS. That might be a problem for large (heavy) packages (like big speakers) but should not be for something the size and weight of a 950. USPS gets handled by Canada Post which, near as I can tell, charges a flat $5Cdn fee for brokerage.

2. If you travel to the US (as I often do) have it shipped to you there and bring it back as part of your duty-free allowance (or part thereof). That's what I did with my 950. Most hotels will hold packages for you for at least 30 days. Contact their mail / receiving people first to be sure. (The only caveat on this approach is that Outlaw's banking / credit system is much pickier than most. If you are paying by credit card you will need to contact your credit card folks and have them add the shipping address to a special note to your credit card file - since it and your credit card mailing addresses will be different and Outlaw's credit service will reject it. In some cases the credit card people will not know how to do this properly and your order will be rejected. This happened to me and the shipment never showed up at my hotel. Luckily I was back in the US a month later and got things straightened out in time. Even luckier was that the unit shipped the day that the EPROM software glitches were fixed. So in the end the delay was good for me!)

I have other tricks that I could share with you if you post your email address. Canada Customs might be watching!

Regards.

Jeff Mackwood

Hey Jeff,

My email is, with a slight modification that hopefully the address harvesters can not do automatically yet, is


Always interested in methods to minimize my tax burden.

Looking forward to your reply.

Once I get the cost nailed down, I can go to work towards earning WAF points.

Budgets are made to be broken, trampled, stomped,burned,...

Yee Haa

[This message has been edited by tak9 (edited August 20, 2003).]

I am from Drummondville Quebec and ordered a 950/7100 combo. I had to pay $600 to UPS for brokegae fee, duty and GST and PST. Because Outlaw shipped both unit as separate one and from 2 different location UPS treated both package separately. This is Outrageous from UPS so be aware of this

As I said in my earlier message, anyone out there who is listening should AVOID UPS AT ALL COSTS. I've never had problems (or outrageous additional costs) with any other courier company. And while it's fun to make fun of our postal systems, I've never had any problems with anything that's come via USPS / Canada Post. And I've received literally hundreds (if not a thousand) shipments from the US over the last three years alone. I refuse to buy from any supplier or seller who will only ship via UPS into Canada. Plain and simple.

Jeff Mackwood

Hi Jeff,

I also want to order a combo 950/7100. I leave in Canada (Province of Quebec). I looked to use UPS, but I saw their fee...

Can you E-mail me? I would like you to share your experience. If I can save a few buck... It would be much appreciated!

bolduc.aj(remove that)@forces.gc.ca

I mean ''live'' in Canada. French speaking!... Can you tell??

Thanks Jeff for your expertise.

Thanks to all for your input and experience.

And especially a THANK YOU to AJ for serving in our Armed Forces.

Hi Jeff,

Would you please share you trick with me. I live in Ottawa.

Thanks

AMF

Sure. I need your email address - and assurance that you don't work for Canada Customs or Revenue Canada

Jeff Mackwood

To apilon:

I am from Brossard Quebec and I have also ordered a 950/7100 combo and was charged a total of $598 CDN by UPS (fairly close to the $600 you said you paid!)

After looking at the invoices from UPS, I realized I paid about $160 CDN too much due to an error made by Outlaw.

Outlaw sends the combo in 2 separate packages. In my case, the 950 box included an invoice for that item at $749 but the 7100 package contained an invoice for the entire combo at $1598.

Now UPS uses these invoices to calculate taxes and brokerage fees with the result that I paid twice for taxes and brokerage fees for the 950.

Trying to have this corrected and my money refunded is no easy task, since you get conflicting directives whether you are speaking to Outlaw, UPS or Revenue Canada! Also, UPS won’t refund the additional brokerage fees saying it was not their error (that’s UPS!)

Outlaw tells me that in the future, they will include the proper invoices in the packages sent to their Canadian customers, but I would suggest anyone thinking of placing an order for a combo mentions this fact when ordering.

Check out http://ubb.outlawaudio.com/ubb/Forum15/HTML/001030.html where I have posted other comments on this subject. Check out the one from November 27th in particular.

Outlaw is really doing us Canadian clients a huge disservice by insisting on using UPS. UPS is absolutely horrendous - period!

Even if it took a few days longer for each shipment to arrive via USPS / Canada Post, it would be a huge improvement - and a great savings.

Come on Outlaw! This is the only area I know of where you need to make a huge improvement in an otherwise exceptionaly great buying / owning experience. Get rid of UPS for Canadian shipments - please!

Jeff Mackwood
Ottawa, Canada

It seems to me that both Outlaw Audio and UPS don't give a damn about their Canadian customers once they have our money in their pockets!

As stated earlier in this forum, when I bought the 950/7100 combo in December 2003, I had to pay taxes and brokerage fees twice for the 950 due to an error made by Outlaw Audio in their invoicing.

This could and can be easily corrected by sending the Canadian Government a B2B form stating the invoicing error. But for that, I need both Outlaw Audio and UPS to send me the corrected documents. After repeated (3+) phone calls to Outlaw (talking to Ms. Sherry) and UPS (talking to Ms. Ilonka) and more than a month of waiting, I got nothing, ziltch, NADA documents.

So, I am out nearly $160 CDN due to Outlaw Audio error and UPS greed, about the price of 7 0.5m PCA-Pure Copper Analog cables!

My only consolation is that the combo sounds really great!

Babamar,

I've looked into the events that have led you to this point. Fortunately, we keep detailed records of our customer calls. In regards to the B2G form, Sherry had discussed with you that we were informed by UPS that this form must be picked up by you at your local Customs Office in Canada and filed by you with Canadian Revenue. Additionally on 12/23/04, at your request we sent the corrected invoices directly to UPS International at FAX #506-447-3706. We understand how difficult dealing with customs can be, and we are very interested in helping you see this issue through. If you would like us to mail you a copy of these invoices we would be happy to do so, just let us know.

Regards,

Scott

To Scott:

Thank you for your reply.

I already have the B2G form, it's available for download on Revenue Canada web site. As stated, I am waiting for the corrected invoice from Outlaw and the corrected import document from UPS. The last phone call I made to both places was indeed to asked that these be mailed to me.

So, please, do mail the corrected invoice to me!