Buying online and shipping from States

[BobSaget]

I bought an inversion table from inversion-table-direct.com for $145 with free shipping but the website has e-mailed me asking for an additional shipping fee of $30 to ship the product from the border to my house in Brampton, Ontario. They will be using FedEX to ship to the border, so I'm assuming the extra $30 will go to FedEX again to ship from the border to my house.

Will FedEX ship the package to my house and ask for tax/duty payments at my doorstep or will the border customs bill me before releasing the package?

I've searched RFD for past threads and found that USPS-to-Canada Post is the cheapest way to go. But for my case, American shipping is covered by the website (they will use FedEX as mentioned), and I will have to pay $30 for Canadian shipping.

[Shar]

I think in FedEx's case what will either happen is that a) they'll bill you the brokerage fee + taxes/duties right at the door or b) they'll mail you an invoice later.

If the package was shipped via FedEx Ground then you'll be looking at a $25 brokerage fee on top of the taxes/duties you need to pay. I found the brokerage rate chart for FedEx on this page (http://www.stokecity.ca/orderfromus.shtml), but it hasn't been updated since 2004 so you might want to check with FedEx yourself. However, odds are the rates haven't changed.

[BobSaget]

Aside from the product price and shipping, the only other costs left are the brokerage and taxes/duties, correct? So if brokerage + tax/duty costs $60, I'm looking at a total payment of $235 for a $145 table...

The cheapest inversion table I've found in Toronto is $300, aside from used ones found in classifieds.

[Shar]

Yeah, that's unfortunately how it is with companies like FedEx and UPS. Their brokerage fees tack a lot onto the cost of an item.

If you can convince the company to go with the USPS instead of FedEx, however, then you'd be looking at a $5 brokerage fee instead of $25. I suppose that's not a huge difference in the long run, but it's the principle of the thing.

If you're patient and keep an eye on your local craigslist ads, you might spot a better deal.

[Kamloops]

By the time you get it you will be over 200 bucks, costco sells them
http://www.costco.ca/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=10298069&whse=BCCA&Ne=4000000&eCat=BCCA|111|2268|4739&N=4009299&Mo=0&No=0&Nr=P_CatalogName:BCCA&cat=4739&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-CA&Sp=C&hierPath=111*2268*4739*&topnav=

I got a used one like new in my local classified for 100 bucks it was this one

http://www.teeterhangups.com/products/f5000.html

By a used one, many people buy these and only use em once or twice -

here is one http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-sports-bikes-inversion-table-gazelle-stepmill-treadmill-W0QQAdIdZ71851179

and another http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-health-special-needs-Hang-Ups-Inversion-table-W0QQAdIdZ76257688

and another http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/spo/846287814.html

and another http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/oak/spo/849948518.html

and more

http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/search/sss?query=inversion