KEH shipping to Canada?

LeicaFoReVer

LeicaFoReVer

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I found a nice lens on KEH. They as usual ask for 50$ shipping to Canada but what I wonder if it passes easier through customs (without paying) as they use UPS/FedEx. Anyone having any experience?
 
Any customs fees are included in the shipping cost. As an example it takes about three days to deliver door-to-door to the UK.
 
Keh's shipping is crazy expensive to Canada. I have ordered from them but I was desperate. :)

It should go through customs easily and there should not be any other fees tacked on your end.
 
LeicaFoReVer said:
I found a nice lens on KEH. They as usual ask for 50$ shipping to Canada but what I wonder if it passes easier through customs (without paying) as they use UPS/FedEx. Anyone having any experience?
Click to expand...

I bought a Pentax 67 lens and hand grip in June (so heavy, large box for a lens). Shipping via FedEx was 28.10 (I grabbed my receipts so I can give you exact numbers).

It looks like I only paid tax and a $10 fee (can't quite make it out, but looks like FedEx calls it the ROD FEE) at the door upon delivery.

You will not avoid taxes IMO. I haven't had a "tax free" shipment from anywhere through any shipper in some time.

If you call KEH they will generally give you shipping options and find the best price. $50 seems a bit high given what I paid.
 
I've shipped cameras to most parts of the world from the US and shipping to Canada is the worse. The least expensive (and safest IMHO) is the Postal Service Priority Mail. Cost for a small lens (I sold a 40/1.4 to Toronto not long ago) was $38 with insurance. Look at a two week delivery time. If you end up with an insurance claim Canada outsources it to a contractor and it takes at least 6 months (speaking from experience).

I've decided not to buy or ship to Canada unless it's a really good deal for me. Maybe KEH considers it the same.
 
Paddy C said:
I bought a Pentax 67 lens and hand grip in June (so heavy, large box for a lens). Shipping via FedEx was 28.10 (I grabbed my receipts so I can give you exact numbers).

It looks like I only paid tax and a $10 fee (can't quite make it out, but looks like FedEx calls it the ROD FEE) at the door upon delivery.

You will not avoid taxes IMO. I haven't had a "tax free" shipment from anywhere through any shipper in some time.

If you call KEH they will generally give you shipping options and find the best price. $50 seems a bit high given what I paid.
Click to expand...

that is a reasonable price. Yes I contacted them but they did not give me a solution yet.
 
benlees said:
Keh's shipping is crazy expensive to Canada. I have ordered from them but I was desperate. :)

It should go through customs easily and there should not be any other fees tacked on your end.
Click to expand...

I bought off KEH and it arrived 3 days flat to my part of the world, less than 50 bucks shipping.
 
I've bought a lot from the US to Canada.

$50 is a bit high.

That is just the shipping fee. There is no customs but you "may" get hit with taxes - HST/PST and GST on the declared value.

Don't use UPS, because of high brokerage fees.

Postal service is great and so is FEDEX, just more expensive.

...Vick
 
My experience with shipping from KEH (to Toronto), a few years ago, was different from Mr. Monkey's. I paid PST+GST at the FedEx point of pick up, near Pearson Airport. They declare the amount you paid for the item on the customs declaration, and I don’t fault them for that. They didn't deliver to your door at that time, and it took more than 3 days.

In my opinion, KEH gives a camera a glance, generally a BGN rating, and lets the customer decide if it's acceptable or not. If it isn’t, KEH has an extremely generous return policy: send the item back and you'll get a refund. However, for a Canadian, you will be out the $100 for shipping both ways, and your HST will take 6-8 weeks to get back to you. Really. I went through that scenario with another camera (and a different U.S. vendor) because I learned from this experience. You don’t recover the $8.00 Canada Customs handling fee.

My opinion regarding the KEH ‘glance at it’ rating of cameras is based on my M3. It looks great, but had a number of problems, one of the more minor being the missing take up spool - hard to miss noticing if you do more than glance at it. Because of my lack of experience with buying via mail, I kept the camera, and kept having it repaired. It would have been cheaper to send it back and lose the $100 on shipping.

I won’t gamble on KEH again.
 
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I had good luck buying a few Bronica lenses from KEH. Stick to US Postal Service for cheaper shipping -- Fed Ex, etc. will skin you alive on fees.
 
Shipping costs to the Great-White North/Canuckistan/Canuckville/Canada are always "pricey" but you also have to recognize what that shipping "gets you" for your money.

Complaints have been made about B&H's shipping prices (specifically the UPS prices) as well but it's basically the same thing.

The shipping (either via FedEx International or UPS Worldwide Express/Expedited/Saver) all includes brokerage fees and customs clearance. Ground shipping (FedEx Ground / UPS Ground) do not include brokerage and/or customs clearance. If you think shipping is expensive with the International types of shipping mentioned above, I dare you to try shipping the item into Canada via the cheaper Ground shipping. Your eyes will bug out by the cost of the brokerage fees.

There was a point in time where I wanted to purchase a $20 filter via Ebay but the seller (in the U.S.) would only ship UPS Ground. I called UPS and asked what the brokerage fee would be for the $25 item. $25 CDN was the cost. It's a sliding scale for brokerage fees - as the cost of the item rises so does the brokerage fee. So imagine spending $300 on a lens and shipping ground.. you're soon spending $350 + after you include the brokerage fee and shipping costs. This does not even take into account any Bond fees that might be incurred as well.

Here's a list of what can occur by shipping ground into Canada via UPS (FedEx has made it tougher to find their info on their site):
http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shipping/cost/zones/customs_clearance.html

Cheers,
Dave
 
Just placed an order with KEH for a 165mm Pentax 67 lens and a neck strap.

Interesting...shipping is $21 via FedEx ground and $55 via FedEx International Priority air.

The order I mentioned previously was with FedEx International Priority. I wonder if rates have gone up.

I echo Dave's comments re ground shipping. I was told first hand by the UPS driver who used to deliver in my neighbourhood that you will avoid the heavy brokerage fees by shipping air. So if you do the math it is almost always going to be better (especially with more expensive items) to choose the more expensive air shipping option in order to avoid the fees.

I like KEH a lot. The gear has always been fantastic, the prices are at least in line with ebay and usually a bit better but you avoid the uncertainty of ebay. Mind you I always buy EX grade gear from KEH.

Where used camera gear and film is concerned, I find I am still way ahead by purchasing from a US seller and paying the shipping etc.

Just compare the price of film from B&H or Freestyle with Vistek and Henry's. It's almost half the price. Very much worth it.
 
Best thing to do if you deal with a seller that won't ship USPS is to have them ship to a friend in the US, and have them ship it USPS. They can "fix" the customs numbers during the remailing process.
 
OK, I defend Henry's, though I'm just one of their customers. For equipment, wait until it shows up on Henry's ebay. Two days ago, a MF Nikkor 85mm f1.8, K (later) type in nearly mint condition from the photo, that looked to be factory AI'd went for $214.90.

I just checked Freestyle Photo and Henry's for two 5 packs of 120 Acros.

Freeesyle
28.98 two 5 packs 120 Acros
23.93 shipping - the cheapest on the site
52.91 total

Henry's
26.45 one 5 pack 120 Acros
26.45 one 5 pack 120 Acros
52.90 total

Half price if you get free shipping.
 
grainhound said:
OK, I defend Henry's, though I'm just one of their customers. For equipment, wait until it shows up on Henry's ebay. Two days ago, a MF Nikkor 85mm f1.8, K (later) type in nearly mint condition from the photo, that looked to be factory AI'd went for $214.90.

I just checked Freestyle Photo and Henry's for two 5 packs of 120 Acros.

Freeesyle
28.98 two 5 packs 120 Acros
23.93 shipping - the cheapest on the site
52.91 total

Henry's
26.45 one 5 pack 120 Acros
26.45 one 5 pack 120 Acros
52.90 total

Half price if you get free shipping.
Click to expand...

Portra 400NC in 120 is $7.49 a roll through Henrys (can't see a pro pack price at the moment). So 5 rolls = $37.45

A pro pack through B&H is $21.50. Freestyle is $23.99.

Which is in line with those Acros prices. I'm not suggesting it makes sense to order 10 rolls. That's not enough. When you place a bigger (say minimum $100) order you start to see the cost advantages.
 
So it shows 44$ for UPS worldwide express for 150$ item.
Is that ok? So will I pay anything else on top of that? I am little confused.

Fedex int. economy and priority have both the same amount ~59$
And there is another option as "international mail" which is 59$ too.

Does not make sense. Which one is the best option then?
 
I forgot to mention the exchange rate. It's low, but there is one, so add a couple more bucks to the film and shipping costs for a U.S. supplier. I prefer to buy locally anyway, and not in $100 lots.

LeicaFoReVer, I haven't heard many positive comments about UPS, and my own experience means that I won't buy from anyone who insists on shipping that way. For example, they tried to charge me for a free item for which shipping had been paid at the point of origin.
 
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