Buying online and shipping from States

[BobSaget]

I bought an inversion table from inversion-table-direct.com for $145 with free shipping but the website has e-mailed me asking for an additional shipping fee of $30 to ship the product from the border to my house in Brampton, Ontario. They will be using FedEX to ship to the border, so I'm assuming the extra $30 will go to FedEX again to ship from the border to my house.

Will FedEX ship the package to my house and ask for tax/duty payments at my doorstep or will the border customs bill me before releasing the package?

I've searched RFD for past threads and found that USPS-to-Canada Post is the cheapest way to go. But for my case, American shipping is covered by the website (they will use FedEX as mentioned), and I will have to pay $30 for Canadian shipping.

[Shar]

I think in FedEx's case what will either happen is that a) they'll bill you the brokerage fee + taxes/duties right at the door or b) they'll mail you an invoice later.

If the package was shipped via FedEx Ground then you'll be looking at a $25 brokerage fee on top of the taxes/duties you need to pay. I found the brokerage rate chart for FedEx on this page, but it hasn't been updated since 2004 so you might want to check with FedEx yourself. However, odds are the rates haven't changed.

[BobSaget]

Aside from the product price and shipping, the only other costs left are the brokerage and taxes/duties, correct? So if brokerage + tax/duty costs $60, I'm looking at a total payment of $235 for a $145 table...

The cheapest inversion table I've found in Toronto is $300, aside from used ones found in classifieds.

[Shar]

Yeah, that's unfortunately how it is with companies like FedEx and UPS. Their brokerage fees tack a lot onto the cost of an item.

If you can convince the company to go with the USPS instead of FedEx, however, then you'd be looking at a $5 brokerage fee instead of $25. I suppose that's not a huge difference in the long run, but it's the principle of the thing.

If you're patient and keep an eye on your local craigslist ads, you might spot a better deal.

[Kamloops]

By the time you get it you will be over 200 bucks, costco sells them
http://www.costco.ca/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=10298069&whse=BCCA&Ne=4000000& eCat=BCCA|111|2268|4739&N=4009299&Mo=0&No=0&Nr=P_C atalogName:BCCA&cat=4739&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1 &lang=en-CA&Sp=C&hierPath=111*2268*4739*&topnav=

I got a used one like new in my local classified for 100 bucks it was this one

http://www.teeterhangups.com/products/f5000.html

By a used one, many people buy these and only use em once or twice -

here is one http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-s...QAdIdZ71851179

and another http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-s...QAdIdZ76257688

and another http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/spo/846287814.html

and another http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/oak/spo/849948518.html

and more

http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/sear...uery=inversion