gemmab1979

Hi everyone

I want to order some clothes from a uk high street chain to be delivered to me here in Calgary, its about £350 worth and I just wondered what import charges I might be faced with ? I've ordered stuff from there before but only ever small items worth £20, they just came through the post with no charges. Many thanks in advance !

JonboyE

It will depened on where they are made, what they are, who will wear them, and where you live.

Aviator

Most likely 17-18% duty + 5% GST + brokerage charges (depends on shipper).

MillieF

Because I had a 'credit' with M&S for 40 euros, I ordered a skirt at £60, and I then paid ten quid for shipping. It arrived pretty quick, but I got stuffed with duty and charges to UPS of 65$ which struck me as pretty damned steep. I shan't be repeating the adventure.

Aviator

Fedex, way cheaper than UPS for clearances.

izzi81

That's useful to know, we've only had one shipping experience which was with UPS and the charges seemed pretty expensive. I'll try for FedEx from now on!

MillieF

Yes, but the problem was that I had paid the ten quid shipment, and M&S used UPS...I wouldn't have touched 'em with a barge pole, but of course if you order on-line you don't know who the vendors might have contracted to.

Ben W Bell

I refuse to deal with a company that ships from outside Canada via UPS. Other couriers aren't as bad but are still bad. Best is they use regular postal system.

gemmab1979

Thanks guys I wonder how I'd know who river island use, guess I should email to find out!!

babsi

If they have what you want, I would order through ASOS.

http://www.asos.com/Women/A-To-Z-Of-...and%20&via=top

EVERYTHING on the site is free delivery and I would do multiple orders to reduce the chances of having to pay charges. The orders are normally shipped by regular mail.

scrubbedexpat091

It really depends how the company sets the shipping up, with Amazon.com now for instance they charge duty/broker fees in advance and much less then what UPS generally charges.

I ordered from Amazon.com a few months ago, the taxes/duty/broker fees were 12 dollars of which they refunded 2 dollars as their estimate was higher then what was charged.

Smart companies have learned and found ways to ship UPS and not have the customer charged a bundle.

gemmab1979

Thanks everyone and fab idea babsi checking out asos right now

ann m

Bought some stuff earlier in the year from M&S and surprisingly had nothing to pay. Came through regular Canada post I think.

Got some stuff last month valued at about £110 and it ended up coming through a donkey of a courier company in Calgary, via DHL at the UK end and cost $56 to release which I thought was bloody expensive.

(S'pose it worked out fair on both deliveries combined though!)