If a man who can take being shot in the face can get wound up by Amazon.ca I think it's only fair to say the service is probably not all it could be.

I don't recall Frank Serpico complaining about it.

Frank Serpico used Amazon ?

Yes. It's a little known fact that when he was connected up to the machines in hospital he was able to access an early version of the internet, but they didn't want ordinary people to know and it was cut out of the movie.

..... and the first words he said was ....... 'Amazon is shit in Canada! ..... Arrrggghhh, I need to go ack to sleep now"

...but his recovery was aided by the discovery that there were times when it was actually better and he now lives in Upstate New York to be closer to Canada.

He really is still alive.

No it's not.

Yes it is.

The trick to this one is to use companies in the US that are GST registered, then there are no brokerage fees. Not many companies are, but there are a few, usually big ones.

True but USPS is a far more costly exercise than Canada Post generally speaking, Canada Post for example also has cut pension benefits.

Just to illustrate my point about other shippers being more expensive in Canada, go to fedex.ca and fedex.com and compare Saturday delivery rates to the US. Because Fedex uses USPS to facilitate local deliveries in the US, the rates are far lower. I get a $30+ difference on a 1Kg package sent over a similar distance.

The lack of sales tax on out-of-State purchases and also the lack of indirect subsidy to shipping companies via USPS definitely does mean there is an uneven playing field in the US, which to answer the OP - is why amazon.ca and other on-line retailers are pants.

Lots of books and DVDs/Blu-Rays are either unavailable in Canada or much cheaper in the UK. Particularly when Amazon have sales; I think I paid about $20 for 'Band of Brothers' on UK Blu-Ray vs $60 here.

I just had the usual emails from Amazons based on my orders and I happened to notice that on their home page, the UK and Canada sites were both advertising the same Kindle.

Both qualified for free delivery (not that the UK site would deliver here) but £69 total on the UK site, just under £66 on Canada.

And? I don't think it's price so much as selection that is the problem with amazon.ca.

Depending on state, its harder now to get tax free stuff from Amazon as they are slowly having to charge sales tax when shipping to certain states now.

California for instance, was tax free until last fall, now all shipments to California from Amazon have sales tax added, and several other states are the same and growing.

The days of sales tax free purchases on Amazon are coming to an end.

Cost has been mentioned throughout the thread as well as selection.

Yet they do carry many of the same items and often cheaper.

It's worth emphasising the point so people don't carry on with the wrong impression and miss the advantage of comparison.