Duties to ship UK-US?

doubleh

I've never had this issue before, but I do know a lot of our Canadian fabbers deal with this as par for the course. I was just about to order a bra from figleaves, but I got a flag during the ordering process that I may incur duties. How does this work, actually? ANd how does it work to return as that is a distinct possibility? I'm willing to pay a little more for shipping as this is a hard to find item in a hard to find size, but I don't want to get blindsided.

Also, I just ordered from Boden and didn't have any duty issues...that they mentioned anyway...?

11 years ago

Shopping

6 replies

Latest reply was from doubleh

Diana

Veteran

I've never had to pay duties on my fig leaves packages. I think technically the limit is $200 so if you keep the total under that it should be fine. Sometimes they'll ship a larger order in multiple boxes, not sure if that's to keep each box under $200 or if that's just a lucky coincidence.

Eta: they have a us address for returns so you just pay regular us shipping. Bras are light so it's cheap.

11 years ago

lyn*

(website)

Veteran

You guys are so lucky; I just got dinged $75 on a $80 package from the UK. Grumble.

11 years ago

Beth

Veteran

Late to the conversation, but I've ordered multiple times from the UK and France and had no duties assessed as long as the value of the order was under $200. Boden handles duties in-house, so you should never run into a problem with them regardless of value.

Lyn, that's so frustrating. Grrr.

11 years ago

Glory

Veteran

Another Canadian here. I had to stop ordering from everywhere except Canada because of the indiscriminate charges. Like Lyn I ended up paying almost the cost of the item in duty and it is pretty tough to turn it away when they are standing at your door. Other times I have paid nothing at all.
My rule for the past year is no more cross border unless it is in person or mailed from a friend.
I spend loads of time pining now

11 years ago

lyn*

(website)

Veteran

I have turned stuff away before, Glory - and I'm starting to do that more. It's sort of ridiculous at the randomness of the charges.

Even Canada Post is starting to get really bad - they increased their base "handling" charge from $7.50 to $9.80 (or so?) and so I don't mind paying GST on my items (we don't have PST in Alberta), but anything below a certain amount doesn't get duties - but I still have to shell out $10 for them "handling" it.

It's driving me nuts. During No Buy July I'm reflecting on this more. It's definitely an added expense that I don't want to have to incur anymore.

11 years ago

doubleh

Veteran

Somehow I have missed all the replies and I apologize for not tuning in sooner!

Lyn*- ouch. I never even thought about such things before YLF. But I also didn't "go exotic" either. Forgive my ignorance on the whole duties thing- I had no idea what you Canadians were up against! That has got to be a rough factor.

Update:
So, I did order from Boden and from fig leaves the same day. Boden was over $200, but it was broken into two shipments- my understanding that the +$200 shipment was from US stock and the $50 overseas. (I could have totally made this up.) Also spent over $100, but less than $200 at figleaves. I am waiting on that order still- my immediate gratification nerve is raw. My card did get charged $4.21 from one or the other, but not sure which. And not sure whether to expect any more charges.
Unfortunately, nothing from Boden worked for me. Sad bc it's great quality- I will just mind my ps and qs next time. figleaves remains to be seen.

11 years ago

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