Customs Charge Duty on Vonage Adaptor for anyone?

Posts: 508

when i signed up last month, I had some issues recieving my adaptor from Vonage, anyways, when I finaly did get it, I had to pay $12.25 COD to the UPS driver.
I called Vonage about this and they said that since it had been expetited overnight that UPS charged me an aditional charge, the UPS man said it was Duty from Customs cuz the product came from the US..

I got Vonage to credit me back teh $12.25 tho, and they gave me a free month too, cuz it took longer than the posted 5-7 days.. supposedly it had bever been shipped, thats why it was expedited overnight, but when I checked the shipping tracking online, the one I got was the one that was sent teh day after I ordered.. so some funky things happening there, but ehhh, I have what I wanted so I'm happy..

Posts: 91 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Nov 26, 2004 Posts: 91

I ordered the Vonage adapter months ago and I didn't pay any customs. However I didn't request expedited shipping... just the regular shipping whatever it was.

Posts: 336 · Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 6:29 pm Post subject:

I did not pay duty on mine either, but I do know of someone who was recently sent a bill from Canada Customs asking for duty money on a Vonage terminal. He runs a business and chose the Vonage Business version. His ATA was delivered by DHL, not UPS.

Here's the scoop. Due to the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the USA, there is no duty on electronic equipment that is manufactured in either Canada or the US. Since the LinkSys ATAs are made in the US, there would not be a duty charge on them.

Let's hope you are not sent a duty charge by Customs for this. Vonage needs to ensure that they let UPS or DHL or whomever they are dealing with know that these boxes are not being purchased. They are loaning them to customers, and they are to be sent back when you cancel your service. They also need to get this straightened out because electronic equipment should never have duty charges as mentioned above. Only if it was manufactured in Japan or some other country, would you pay duty on electronics between Canada and the US. This is one of the good things that came out of the Free Trade Agreement! If anyone else has this happen, I would fight it. Don't just send the government the money.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Feb 06, 2005 Posts: 1

Canada Customs love to charge tax. I got taxed on blank checks Bank Of America sent me. Hard to believe but all you can do is refuse. Disputing a charge with Canada Customs will take a year of your time. Canada Customs is a serious problem and I have to agree with the Americans that the Canadian system needs an overhaul or we should just close the border completely. Putting up with the nonsense is not something anyone should have to do.

Posts: 336 · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 12:42 am Post subject: Re: Canada Customs blows

jloassbang wrote:

Canada Customs love to charge tax. I got taxed on blank checks Bank Of America sent me. Hard to believe but all you can do is refuse. Disputing a charge with Canada Customs will take a year of your time. Canada Customs is a serious problem and I have to agree with the Americans that the Canadian system needs an overhaul or we should just close the border completely. Putting up with the nonsense is not something anyone should have to do.

Why would Customs have anything to do with cheques that you received from the Bank of America? Are you mixing them up with Canada Revenue Agency? Those are two totally separate departments of the federal government.

Charges for duty are easily wiped out if you give a legitimate explanation to them. I think Vonage should be the ones explaining it though. How are they to trust the person receiving it? If you send the form in, write on it that you received the electronic equipment as a gift, because really you are not paying for it, it is a gift until you send it back with no money. Vonage would need to declare to Customs what they are sending. They need to supply the dollar amount, and they also need to supply information such as "GIFT", "REPAIR RETURN", etc. Customs does not charge duty on stuff like this. It's not really Customs that is charging, it is UPS or DHL, whichever company delivered the goods. The delivery company sent this paperwork to Customs based on the information they received from Vonage. This is why you should contact Vonage and ask them to clear it up for you, and they should not be doing this to other customers either!

I had another friend sign up tonight. I just hope when he gets his equipment that he will not have to contend with this duty stuff. If he has trouble like this I will be sure that he calls them and gets it straightened out. If Vonage doesn't know what to do, then call UPS and explain the situation to them. They are the ones who issued the Customs paperwork.

Posts: 53 · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 2:45 am Post subject:

Part of the COD was a UPS charge for Brokerage fees. I used to work for the company and had to deal with these charges all the time. Due to NAFTA, there may not be any duty charged but there is GST on most imports. For calculating the GST and collecting it, UPS charges a Brokerage Fee, usually a big chunk of the COD. This usually applies to packages shipped their Standard service, however on items shipped Expedited or Express the brokerage fee is included in the shipping fee but GST still has to be collected. Because UPS operates their own brokerage, they are responsible for collecting the GST on packages that pass through their system without a Customs Broker. Two ways to avoid the Brokerage Fee is to clear the package at customs yourself, which can take several hours of your time, or send USPS.

Posts: 508 · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 11:20 am Post subject:

The day it was delivered I was not home, (on a side note, I told Vonage I would not be home that day adn to ship it to a different address, since they were supposedly 'overnighting' it to me, anyways, they didnt' send to my parents, they sent to me ad I wasnt' home, UPS left a paper on my door saying they missed me) well, this paper did say GST on it beside the COD amt of $12.25..
It's all good, Vonage credited it back to me on my next bill.. they didnt 'now where it came from, he was making excuses, but I dont' care, as long as I didn;t have to pay for it..

I bought a Digital Camera off ebay once, and about a week after I got it, I got a bill from Customs for about 8 bucks for duty.. freaking customs..

Posts: 336 · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 6:58 pm Post subject:

dabones wrote:

I bought a Digital Camera off ebay once, and about a week after I got it, I got a bill from Customs for about 8 bucks for duty.. freaking customs..

Yeah, it is a drag, but remember electronics manufactured in the US are duty free. They make millions per year off of people who are not aware of that fact. I bought 2 computer systems from Gateway 2000. That was back in the day when they were awesome machines and built with good quality. Smile

I still have the monitor! I was not charged any duty on the computer at all, because it was made in the USA. The only thing they charged me duty for were the speakers that they sent me, because the speakers were made in Japan. If I had known that, I probably would have shopped here for the speakers and avoided the damn custom's fees. Oh well.

Posts: 508 · Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 6:43 pm Post subject:

this camera was built in Japan, and actually had Japanese writing on it, but it was owned by someone in California, and they shipped it to me, so I guess being built out of the US I would have had to pay regardless..

its' nice when you get the person to write "Gift" on the customs declaration.. Smile

lol.. thats what usually happens..

Posts: 91 · Vonage Forum Senior Joined: Nov 26, 2004 Posts: 91

Just got a Bluetooth headset from the US.

The headset is worth 93.00CDN but I was taxed only 23.99. In the end I paid ~1.50 in taxes + 5.00 custom handling fee. Geez, the fee was more than the tax itself!

Oh well, I'm pretty happy I wasn't taxed on the full amount of the item... muwhahaha...