Im all for supporting local vendors but holy smokes!....Im looking at a new fuel cell for the chevelle, 22 gal metal enclosed and their $400 at Kbelt and $189 at Jeg's same company, same part number.....whats your experiences?....do they really hose you over the border, shipping etc....D

 

DUNO about over the border, but i order a lot from jegs or summit and think its pretty cheap and awsome service !!!!

i dont think the shipping to CANADA would be 200..lol but then again, i dont know !

 

Ive ordered from both and havent had any issues.Jegs shipping is by far much faster than summit and usually cheaper aswell even after duty/brokerage fees at the border.Id say go for it.

 

LT4 HOT cam kit with 1.6 rockers and springs was $500 US from Jegs and Summit.

Same kit from GM here was $1,700 Cdn - discount = $1,300 Cdn.

I said to the parts guy that I could buy it in the US for 500 and to my door would be no more than 800 all in.

He said he couldn't buy it from GM for 800.

I brought in lots of stuff and it was always cheaper even after brokerage than dealing with people up here plus they actually had the stuff whereas locals were on back order.

 

Shipping isn't that expensive but ask before you commit. When they ship, the duty and brokerage can add up. Find yourself a UPS store in New York and do a cross border trip. The customs guys don't sweat the duty and they don't charge a brokerage fee (obviously) when you go across the border. I live near Ottawa, order stuff from Summit all the time to a UPS store in Ogdensburg, NY and pick it up. All you pay is a $5 holding fee per parcel at the UPS store and HST at the border.

I've brought back wheels, tires, injectors ... Last week I was there and brought back LCA's, a panhard bar and new plug wires. All I paid was the tax. The savings between the prices here and there was stupid and all it cost was gas money.

 

$1700 Cdn!...thats nuts......I think I'll order from Jegs...I can never even get the Summit website to work properly.

Good tip about the UPS store I never even thought of that.....dont you have to pay duty or is that HST?

 

Dscott;

Ive done both. Are you sure about the fuel cell being that far off? Usually Jegs and Summit are pretty close in price for this kinda stuff. Max difference of maybe $50 over a 300-400 part.

In terms of pricing, its pretty easy to calculate what you will pay. The cdn parts place prices are up front. You can calculate the shipping, and tax through summit but everyone has a different formula for duty. I consider this a hidden cost. I will usually buy canadian unless its a Summit or Jegs part. For stuff ive bought, i think it actually gets to be more expensive from Summit or Jegs after Duty.

My advice, is to avoid UPS at all costs. Especially around the holidays.... Try to use USPS if possible (order over the phone and specify this). If the option is not available go for the "pay up front" option. That way they charge the duty up front, and there is no collection when the part is delivered.


Cheapest option is to drive across the border and drive back (from the UPS store) and just pay the taxes. If you cant do that, talk to some speed shops in your area (people that do custom work, and are a relatively small operation), they can get you stuff at wholesale sometimes.

6 of one and half a dozen of the other, ive bought from Summit, Jegs, and locally and honestly you dont save a whole lot with any of those options. Its just ridiculously expensive to have this hobby in Ontario, and thats that.

 

Duty is a brokerage fee that someone charges you for importing your goods for you.

Tax is tax, you pay it always. If you go across the border and pick up the part yourself, you only pay Tax, because you are importing it yourself.

 

Been awhile but IIRC NAFTA provides that goods like car parts, guitars etc. which were manufactured in the US can be shipped to Canada duty free. Brokerage Fees are just a weight based tariff that the courier adds for pencil whipping your order through customs fairly quickly. Ship something from the US that wasn't made there and you will pay customs duty as well as brokerage fees. So duty is a customs fee while brokerage fees are a service charge by the courier.

 

George has it right. And when a supplier ships to Canada they are obligated to charge duty if the parts aren't either US made or exempt under NAFTA. And a business cannot ship to Canada without using some kind of broker. Consequently you pay the duty and a brokerage fee when stuff gets shipped. It adds up and explains why parts are more expensive here. A small business, like a car parts place, usually hires a distributor to take care of those details so you, the customer, pay for duty, brokerage fees, the distrubutor's fees and the small business's mark up. That's why your hi-perf parts in the states are twice the price here.

On the other hand, if an individual drives over and back, it's personal so there's no brokerage. And as for the duty, the customs guy usually have a tolerance. I don't know what that number is but I've brought back up to 6 or 7 hundred bucks worth of sparts and they don't care. I do know when you get into the thousands they will but it's usually only 5-15% so you're still way ahead. As for not declaring what you've bought, I hear it's a really bad idea. From what I'm told, you lose the goods, the penalty is the value of the goods on top of that and then you're on of those lists for a really long time...

 

And like A.K. pointed out, if you do decide to have it shipped to Canada, try to have it done by US Postal Service. Then there's only the shipping/postal charges, duty (you'll pay for at the Canada Post outlet when it gets delivered) and a Canada Post fee (I think it's $5). Plus HST but that's in every case we've talked about.

Problem is a lot of the mail order places won't ship USPS because they have to go down to a post office and do the shipping themselves whereas UPS and FedEx and the rest pick the parcels up and do all that for them.

Brian

 

Like it was said above, avoid UPS like the plague!
Check this out: http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shi...clearance.html

They hose on brokerage fees. USPS is the best, or pick it up over the border.
For Ottawa guys, I use Roethel parcel service in Ogdensburg. It works like UPS store, $5 a box. I always deal with Bonnie. Have the stuff shipped there with a tracking number, go pick it up.

Roethel's
1801 Ford Street
Ogdensburg, ny 13669-1845
Phone: (315) 393-4770

 

You are right. I just know when i get charged for it. Thanks for the correction.