Question about shipping from USA/Canada

[jajaja]

This case is about shipping from Canada, but I guess its the same system in the US.
Anyway, I bought something from a Canadian seller on Ebay. He sent me a invoice and the shipping was set to 9.60 USD. I live in Europe and I thought the stuff was heavy so I accepted it and payed.

Today I recived my stuff and I see on the envelope that it only had cost 4.95 CAD (about 4.5 USD).
I e-mailed the seller about this and asked why and he wrote that $2.50 was for shipping and handeling (fair enough) and $1.50 was for insurance and delivery confirmation.
He also said that Canadians had to pay 15% tax on everything so it was a total of $6.90 (4.5 for shipping + 1.5 for insurace and 0.9 for %15 taxes).

So my questions are, is this thing with taxes really true? I mean if you come to the post office and the clerk tells you that the shipping is $5, do you have to pay $5.75 (includes 15% tax) then? This seems very wierd to me, why not just set the shipping prices included taxes instead of adding it on later?

The $1.50 insurance and delivery cofirmation, this is only valid inside Canada (i 99.99% assume that). Like, how is it possible to get delivery confirmation worldwide on a letter with no barcode or trackingnumber? Same with insurance.
How do the deliveryconfirmation thingie work anyway? Do you get confirmation that the person you have sent it to have recived it?

[SamuraiSmurfette]

you do have to pay taxes (as well as a fuel surcharge on parcels) shipped out from Canada.
So, if you get a letter with a $1.00 stamp on it, it would have cost the mailer $1.15.
BUT, if you get a letter with the scale-printed postage labels, then it shows the price with tax included.
Ontario is the province with %15 tax. Any other province, it's less.

So, it sounds like the seller wanted a few extra bucks off of you regardless.

[Jumpman Jr.]

Yeah, it depends what province he lives in. I think some provinces have no tax (like Alberta... maybe I'm wrong), but some do. Either way, $9.60 US sounds a little high. $9 CAD sounds a little bit more fair but I know some Canadian sellers use that to their advantages. (they say shipping costs $5 Canadian[when it actually does] to an American seller).

[almostgotthemall]

Yeah, it depends what province he lives in. I think some provinces have no tax (like Alberta... maybe I'm wrong), but some do.

Alberta only has to pay 7% (gst), most others vary between 14 and 15%. The fuel surcharge, which was introduced this year, is extra and also does not show up on the total of the stamp. The fuel surcharge, i have found, only applies to parcels. It has changed many times over the last few years.
The last parcel I sent from Canada to the USA said 15.39cad on the stamp, but I paid closer to 17 dollars.
We are taxed to the hilt, eh?!

[syd]

Ontario is the province with %15 tax. Any other province, it's less.

Not here it isn't. We get the 15% bomb here too! :/

Yeah our shipping really does suck. Pretty bad when it costs more to ship within Canada than to ship to the US.

Back on topic though, the taxes are definitely authentic. There is a fuel surcharge, but I don't think there's any way you can get insurance or delivery confirmation when shipping overseas, even though I may be wrong about this.

[jajaja]

Ye.. you can get insurance and tracking number, but then you have to use EMS (GEM) or UPS. Cost some money.
But I just found the tax thingie strange. Not that its 15%, but that you add it later. Like if you go to the post office and ask how much it cost to send something. Then the clerk says "it cost $5" and then you have to pay $5 + 15% taxes. Why not just include this in the price?

[loporjai2003]

Ye.. you can get insurance and tracking number, but then you have to use EMS (GEM) or UPS. Cost some money.
But I just found the tax thingie strange. Not that its 15%, but that you add it later. Like if you go to the post office and ask how much it cost to send something. Then the clerk says "it cost $5" and then you have to pay $5 + 15% taxes. Why not just include this in the price?

Its the Canadian way eh ? :P

Taxes up to our eyeballs ... each dollar you hold in your hand in Ontario is only 87c .... ( 1/1.15 ) even though
it says a dollar .. same with the post office.

Anyways, compared to the US (USPS), we Canadians pay through the teeth for our postal service, and then add 15% on top.