A Very Special Program for My Canadian Customers

A Very Special Program for My Canadian Customers

I am pleased to announce my participation in a program with UPS that will greatly reduce not only the brokerage fees historically associated with UPS shipments from the US, but will also lower the duty you pay on your purchases as well. I am now established as a "Non-Resident Importer” to Canada which, by means of a holding a Canadian Business Number for a “virtual” Canadian company, I become both the Exporter and the Importer of Record.

Since I am the Importer of Record for my shipments, this now allows for the Customs duty to be paid upon its entry into Canada based on my cost of goods and not on the price you paid after my exorbitant mark-up.

Now as for the Brokerage Fees, this is the one area where I will probably end up eating the cost until this program gets rolling. Why you ask? The total brokerage fee charged for a "shipment" gets divided by the number of orders that I send over at one time as part of that "shipment". It’s a sliding scale based on the total dollar amount. As an example, the fee for orders totaling $500 is roughly $50. If I have, 5 orders to go that’s only a $10 fee per order. But you can see how it could not always go quite that way. However, it works out, my commitment to you is to never charge you more than $10.00 for the UPS Brokerage Fee.

The other fees that you usually see tacked on from UPS will not be charged on these shipments either. They don't get charged to me, so I don't have to pass them along to you. Of course the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be charged, but there is no PST, as I understand it.

The one feature that you may really like is that you pay everything upfront, or as they say, you pay “Landed Cost”. You will know the total cost of your order before it leaves the US. I charge you for everything - the merchandise, the duty, the brokerage fee, and the GST.

By now you should be able to see that for this program to work for me, I will have to consolidate orders and ship once a week. Most likely I will do this on Thursday, which historically is my slowest day. The UPS “hub” in Canada is in Fort Erie which takes two days from here. Then it will go by UPS Ground to your Province.

This Thursday is to be the “Official Kickoff” of the program, assuming everything gets back approved in time. If you want to be one of the first to help me work out the “bugs” in this new service, since there are sure to be some, please place your orders this week.

The site will most likely NOT be set up to support it fully for several days. So, if you do place an order, expect some back and forth communication to arrange for the correct final payment, and possibly even a slight delay. My main goal obviously is to get this fully functional for the holiday season.

As an incentive, I am offering FREE SHIPPING on any order over $100.00 to Canada through October 30th. Once again, don’t expect to see this reflected on your invoice if you place an order. I have a lot of site maintenance to do to implement this program. Trust me, you’ll get the free shipping.

For all you B & Bers up North, if ya don't know. Vintage Blades is absolutely SUPERB when it comes to customer service! I've ordered from him a couple of times in the past and each time he has included samples that I am still using today (Again, Thanks Jim!!)!!
Because I live in the same state that he is located in, I have to pay a 5% sales tax with my orders. That has NOT deterred me from ordering from him!

A++ all the way with Vintage Blades!

Oh, BTW, Vintage Blades is one of the few that carry Floris of London soap and cream.

So if you haven't done so already......Get To Ordering!!

Oh Lord. Just when you think you're done, SBAD, SCAD and SSAD kick right back into high gear again!!!!

I was interested in a new razor.

My webmaster will be hard at work over the next couple of days to get the site configured to handle the changes, but we finally have the details worked out on what UPS calls their World Ease program for Canada. Rather than repeat what I've already stated in my previous post, I'll cut to the chase.

To administer the program equitably, it requires a tiered based system. As an additional incentive, I am extending the offer of FREE SHIPPING on any order over $100.00 to Canada through December 31st. This is reflected in the rate schedule below. It will be based on the total cost (retail) of the items ordered as follows:

Under $100----------- $32.49
$100 to $149.99------ $22.49
$150.00 to $199.99--- $26.99
$200.00 to $249.99--- $31.49
$250.00 to $299.99--- $35.99
$300.00 to $349.00--- $40.49
$350.00 to $399.99--- $44.99
$400.00 to $449.00--- $49.99
$450.00 to $499.99--- $54.99
$500.00 to $599.99--- $59.99

There will be more information about the program, similar to my first post, on the site which will include the above rate schedule. When you order you will only see one charge for "Shipping Cost" but that will now include "shipping" (in this case free if you order over $100), a minimal brokerage fee, the duty, and GST. There is no PST under this program.

The first shipment has been delayed until Monday due to a UPS administrative delay and my need to be away for a funeral on Friday. So, any additional orders that you would like to be included in the first round, feel free to send them my way. If the invoice is not correct, I'll take care of it on Monday.

Very good Jim

My very first order with Jim, and once it's all submitted and done, he comes out with this new pilot programme a couple days later. No problem, he e-mails me wondering if I want to join in, and of course I do. What great service!

This is a great programme, and will be much appreciated by your (ever-increasing number of) Canadian customers.

Jim, are you able to ship cologne &c (alcohol-based products) to Canada under this programme? I apologise if I have missed that in the fine print somewhere ...

Ian,

First of all thank you for the order and the nice words of support. Yes, I am shipping colognes and aftershaves containing alcohol. I was very upfront with UPS on this issue and have emails to document the disclosure. So far there has not been a problem. Everything is fully identified on the invoice. I even use what is called the HTS code that specifically identifies these products for customs. Again, no problem so far. You may notice that I have taken all shipping limitations for Canadian orders off my site.

On another topic, the site updates have been completed and the tiered shipping rates for Canadian orders have been loaded into the system. It seemed that the most expeditious way to provide an explanation of the program was to include a link to a PDF document on the main page of the store where the shipping options are listed. It is assumed that today there is not a computer out there that does not have some form of Adobe Reader to open a PDF document. I guess this is true.

Thank you for the positive feedback about this new program. I am excited about it. I just hope that everyone "up north" takes advantage of it come this holiday season.

Jim:

Great program.

One question - how are you dealing with purchase of $20 or less or "gift" purchases of $60 or less that don't contain products with alcohol.

These are not subject to duty or taxes as per the following:

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/E/pub/cp/rc4051/rc4051-e.html#P003

I think that you might want to send purchases within these limits by USPS to avoid UPS shipping fees/brokerage fees altogether. Just a thought as to how to possibly take advantage of these duty/tax exempt thresholds.

Chris,

I am often asked about shipping items and declaring them as “gifts”. This is just not something that I do. It may seem to be an overly conservative policy to some people, but I am a licensed legal entity, now in both the US and Canada. In addition to maintaining the various business licenses and the US Fish & Wildlife Permit to import and export badger hair brushes, I have to deal with more governmental agencies than you can imagine in running this business. If I were found through a random inspection to have falsified just one Customs document, all that I have established with these agencies would be at risk. I know it seems like a simple thing and others do it, but these are commercial goods, they are not gifts.

As to the other part of your question, the minimum order for the store, as stated on the store main page, is $20.00. So, in the rare instance that someone decided to place an order that came to exactly $20.00, they would still pay the same as if they had ordered merchandise worth $20.01.

I appreciate your feedback and the opportunity to express my view of the issue of declaring the shipments as “gifts”. While I understand that it may not be well received by all, it is a good time to make this policy public knowledge.

Well, the first shipment under the new program went out today without a hitch. Thank you to those who participated to date. The next shipment day is Thursday, which will be the regular shipping day for the consolidated shipment to Canada going forward. I took some time this weekend to revisit the fee schedule and made some minor changes downward. Again, I want to emphasize that I do not look to shipping as a profit center. If I can find a way to lower my costs, I will pass them along to you. Accordingly, here is the revised fee schedule:


Total
For Total Shipping
Orders Of Cost*

Under $100----------------$32.49
$100 to $149.99-----------$19.99
$150.00 to $199.99-------$24.99
$200.00 to $249.99-------$28.99
$250.00 to $299.99-------$32.99
$300.00 to $349.00-------$36.99
$350.00 to $399.99-------$40.99
$400.00 to $449.00-------$44.99
$450.00 to $499.99-------$48.99
$500.00 to $599.99-------$52.99
$600.00 and over---------$59.99 plus 6%

*Includes shipping, brokerage fees, duty, and GST.

VintageBlades said:

Well, the first shipment under the new program went out today without a hitch. Thank you to those who participated to date.

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Great programme, Jim, and I can't wait to get my order! Come on, UPS!!

Of course, with free shipping at the $100 level, and Floris cologne ... ... I mean, ... I don't mind spending my retirement fund ...

My order came in yesterday. Well packed, and some nifty samples to boot. I'll order from him again. I appreciate the programme, as it makes the 'total' cost clear up front (rather than that nasty suprise cost when you have to pay for your parcel delivery) ... and there's no payment or signing when the parcel is dropped off.

Hopefully more American vendors will look into this type of programme ... a good way to ship cologne and aftershave to Canada!!

I think this is a great program.

My only suggestion is that you allow Canadians who aren't buying any goods containing alcohol to have their purchases shipped by way of USPS - which avoids brokerage fees altogether and is gnerally cheaper than UPS ground to boot.

Just a suggestion to facilitate low-value purchases.

Kudos to you Jim for taking care of our brothers from the north.

Was going to order a Shavemac to go with my nice Germany scuttle thats on its way I guess I'll have to pull the trigger and get that order in.

Why does under $100 cost $32.49 while $100 to $149 cost 19.99 or put another way why can you get up to 299.99 for $32.99? I must be missing something. Not that it matters I've yet to be able to buy less than $100 shaving supplies

Hutch said:

Why does under $100 cost $32.49 while $100 to $149 cost 19.99 or put another way why can you get up to 299.99 for $32.99? I must be missing something. Not that it matters I've yet to be able to buy less than $100 shaving supplies

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Free shipping on any order $100 or more ...

Sweet potato pie! My credit cards are groaning already! Thanks Jim!