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What is the deal with Canadian customs/Rightstuf?


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ikillchicken



Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Posts: 7272
Location: Vancouver
PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 6:27 pm Reply with quote
I got my rightstuf order today (about $160 value) and customs charged me 40 [expletive] dollars.
$11 duty
$20 tax
$8.50 handling

Honestly, I don't even know what the deal is anymore. It used to be that at most I'd pay $20 and half the time I didn't even get charged. Can anyone shed some light on what exactly has changed? I guess the tax has gone up because of the HST but since when can they charge duty on stuff from the US?

I don't get why it is apparently only Rightstuf either. I literally never get charged by customs for every other thing I buy from the US but always for Rightstuf. Does it have to do with the specific mail service they use and if so, is their changing to this new service the reason I'm now getting charged for more?

I'm really pretty sick of this. It's like a [expletive] lottery.
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jmfsilenthill



Joined: 31 Aug 2009
Posts: 1863
Location: Chinese cartoons are srs biz
PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 7:43 pm Reply with quote
I feel your pain man, though you seem to have gotten it worse than I did. I made a $300 order about a month ago and I got charged about $46 all together. But then last year I order ~$200 of stuff and get charged $11? Pretty ridiculous.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 8:31 pm Reply with quote
@ ikc - I have no idea why you were charged $11 duty. The $20 would be sales tax and the $8.50 is standard handling fee, but that $11 is a head-scratcher. I have ordered over 50 packages from TRSI since 2009 and I have never been charged anything other than sales tax and handling. Actually, caught a rare break last time I picked up a TRSI package in that Buddy at the postal outlet neglected to ask me for the handling and HST and I neglected to remind him about it. Very Happy

My bigger beef with Canada Customs is those effers open my TRSI package every single time. You'd think after 50-odd packages, they'd let the occasional one get by without pawing through it, but no.
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DerekTheRed



Joined: 19 Dec 2007
Posts: 3544
Location: ::Points to hand::
PostPosted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 8:37 pm Reply with quote
Conspiracy theory!!: Rightstuf boxes say anime and/or manga on them (haven't bought in a while, so I forget exactly what branding they have) and since all anime and manga is child pornography in Canada, Canada Post charges maximum to subsidize all the manhours customs has to spend flipping your pages and screening your DVDs Wink
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Fifth B



Joined: 05 Sep 2010
Posts: 213
PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:36 pm Reply with quote
Blood- wrote:

My bigger beef with Canada Customs is those effers open my TRSI package every single time. You'd think after 50-odd packages, they'd let the occasional one get by without pawing through it, but no.


I hear you . . . I want to say brother but I don't want to make any assumptions. Every damn time with me as well, although the last order I placed arrived in little over a week. I had to check and make sure that I hadn't somehow slipped into a bizarre, alternate universe where I happen to live in the states. Most of the time, I end up waiting a month or longer for anything I order from TRSI. And every time it finally does get here, I can expect that bloody yellow tape strapped all over it.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:14 pm Reply with quote
*checks underwear*

Yep, you can call me, bro. Wink Sorry to hear you go through the same shakedown I do, but on the other hand, I'm a bit relieved to hear I'm not the only one. In my paranoia, I was wondering if ordering Dance in the Vampire Bund (both the anime and manga) had put me on some sort of CC "watch" list. Shocked
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ikillchicken



Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Posts: 7272
Location: Vancouver
PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 9:50 pm Reply with quote
No. It's not just you Blood. I always get the yellow tape treatment too.
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Rukiia



Joined: 30 Aug 2010
Posts: 1897
Location: British Columbia, Canada
PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 9:59 pm Reply with quote
I got the same. They charged me $50 for a $350 dollar order I made recently. They also rummaged through my box as I too had yellow tape on mine.

Greedy bastards is all I have to say.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:23 pm Reply with quote
Well, my Canadian brothers and sisters, I think we have compiled enough anecdotal evidence to surmise that any TRSI package coming into Canada has a "open this puppy up and root around" directive at Customs. I have never had any package from any other online retailer yellow-taped (that I can remember).
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jmfsilenthill



Joined: 31 Aug 2009
Posts: 1863
Location: Chinese cartoons are srs biz
PostPosted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 12:17 am Reply with quote
Me 2 u gaiz Crying or Very sad .
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DaltonLeblanc



Joined: 21 Sep 2012
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Sat Sep 29, 2012 10:14 am Reply with quote
Even with the custom fees it still costs less than ordering from anywere else!, but i also wish they would keep their grubby paws off my shit!
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Nico87



Joined: 11 Jun 2011
Posts: 139
PostPosted: Sat Sep 29, 2012 11:46 am Reply with quote
Had to pay $36 to pick up my copy of Steins;Gate Part One LE and I'm in Norway. $22 for "outlay commission" (got that from Google Translate anyway) and $14 for VAT. Sucks to be us.
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blaizevincent



Joined: 16 Nov 2010
Posts: 407
PostPosted: Sat Sep 29, 2012 2:13 pm Reply with quote
i have the same problem in the UK

Last year Rightstuf added International Tracking. They also started the Declaration of prices for International Packages with Computers rather than Humans like they did previously.

Basically instead of declaring the value of each Item in the package as $5 like they did previously regardless of actual value and price paid the computer (obviously) just declares each item in the package at Price Paid. Meaning a package of 3 anime Seasons costing $38 each is going through Customs in 2012 as $114+S/H rather than in 2011 as $15+S/H.

This is a difference of $99 and its a Huge Difference

Hence the Custom Charge Rising since last year on Right Stuf packages. Because each Package is going through with the Price you Actually Paid rather than the aforementioned old declaration system.

I can only put this down to people who were claiming packages hadn't arrived and Right Stuf being forced into refunding them and so they brought in tracking and in turn brought in Computers to do the Declaring of Prices.

So in mind thanks to those people Right Stuf killed off a majority of their International Market. Well them and greedy Customs. I hate being punished in the UK for buying stuff i can't purchase here, seems unfair since customs is there to protect Businesses in its own country.

Honestly i use Rightstuf now about 3/4 less as much as i used to. In fact in 2011 i made upwards of 25 orders , this year i have made about 5.
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Gatherum



Joined: 14 Feb 2012
Posts: 773
Location: Aurora CO
PostPosted: Sun Sep 30, 2012 7:44 am Reply with quote
To anyone wondering, RightStuf uses USPS. Maybe Customs doesn't like USPS for some reason. Might think we're trying to smuggle American Freedom® into your borders and poison your youth. :V
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Sun Sep 30, 2012 7:57 am Reply with quote
As I've said in another thread, I think I cracked the mystery of why virtually all TRSI packages get opened by Canadian Customs. There is an anime title called Cool Devices that, for some reason, is actually banned in Canada. Cool Devices is distributed by Critical Mass, which is TRSI/Nozomi's adult label. I bet ya anything that is what put TRSI on the Canada Customs radar and why they open their packages.
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