Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!utcsri!utegc!utai!ubc-vision!fornax!bby-bc!john From: john@bby-bc.UUCP Newsgroups: can.general,news.misc,news.admin Subject: Re: uunet access from Canada Message-ID: <136@bby-bc.UUCP> Date: Sun, 5-Jul-87 14:37:18 EDT Article-I.D.: bby-bc.136 Posted: Sun Jul 5 14:37:18 1987 Date-Received: Mon, 6-Jul-87 03:38:04 EDT References: <954@van-bc.UUCP> <824@looking.UUCP> <132@bby-bc.UUCP> <827@looking.UUCP> Distribution: can Organization: Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada Lines: 53 Xref: utgpu can.general:639 news.misc:577 news.admin:540 > it, so I don't know how you get away with it. (By the way, the brokerage > fee of $30 is for stuff with a duty of 3 CENTS) The brokerage fee is separate from the shipping fee and depends on who you use. UPS, for example, will call me when a parcel arrives here in Vancouver and ask me if I want them to do the brokerage - if I don't then either I have a broker at the airport do it for me or I go down and do it myself. Different companies charge in different ways, some with a minimum fee or a flat fee others by a sliding percentage of the value of the goods. I have never been charged very much for brokerage. > > > >It is not the Canadian government it is business that results in the > >higher prices. > > < my examples of grossly higher list prices in Canada vs the US > > > I don't mean to be rude, but somebody sold you a bill of goods, and you > paid full duty, brokerage and 12% F.S.T. on it. > > How on Earth do you think the Canadian dealer manages to make money > selling the LaserJet for $4700 when anybody can order one from the states > for $3400? If there were free trade (real, free trade, not the stuff that > Mulroney is talking about) then there would be no discrepencies. > > The Canadian dealer charges more because there is a hassle getting stuff > over the border. It takes effort to get stuff over the border, so > dealers charge more for doing it. If customers didn't think it was a > better deal to buy a LaserJet for $4700 than to import one themselves, the > dealers would go broke. But your are ignoring my examples. Why is, e.g. the HP list price almost twice what it is in the states when exchange + duty (there is none) +fst only account for a factor of 1.5? All though there is some small overhead for trans border shipping a big company will get very good brokerage at a low per unit cost. I had an oem agreement with cdc for their smd and mmd drives and the prices they quoted to me were their US oem prices + whatever the current exchange,duty,fst were when the order was placed - not overinflated prices for the canadian market. Much of the stuff in the US is imported from Japan - why is the price there significantly lower than here (I am talking the manufacturer's list price). It must cost about the same to cross the US border as the Canadian border. If your arguments were true then all items would be twice the price in Canada. They are clearly not - tv's and other consumer electronic items to give just one example are competitively priced in Canada. The real problem is gouging. Why do people pay the extra? One reason is that if you buy it from a foreign company you have to return it there for warranty service - many people will pay extra to be able to have someone local to deal with. Another reason is that most people seem afraid to purchase equipment by mail order - they want to actually se the thing in front of them before they lay out $$.