Since I am new here and I'm both in the process getting my car in the next 10 days as well as buying detailing supplies, I have some questions.

I was planning on putting together a rather large order from DI to get the balance of the detailing products I need, the total came to around $750 CAD after shipping and the 10% discount. I am of course the most worried about getting nailed on customs if I'm shipping from DI into Canada. Does shipping via USPS guarantee I will avoid customs?

I've tried going to a Canadian site; eShine, but everything isn't available there and the package discounts at DI almost make it cheaper. Unless any of you know another Canadian site that is as well stocked as DI.

Also for reference I am in Edmonton

 

Anything that crosses the border will have to clear customs. USPS/UPS/FedEx/whatever has no difference, except you may have to pay an additional brokerage fee with UPS/FedEx; who told you USPS will avoid customs???

 

I may of gotten it confused with the fact that they don't charge the brokerage fees like UPS/FedEx do. After googling around some it seems they charge you the tax depending on what province you are in plus a small handling fee. No crazy high brokerage fees like the other companies.

 

Right – if you ship with USPS you won't pay brokerage fee, but from my experience USPS is painfully slow... and $750 worth of products is going to be quite expensive if you have to pay duty for cleaning products (I don't know, but I'm sure you can look it up somewhere).

Luck for you there's no sales tax in Alberta!!! (bastards!)

 

No sales tax is a major bonus

I think what I will have to do to be safe is get as much stuff as I can from eShine and then order the few remaining products from DI. We need a DI located on this side of the border!!

 

is it because ups uses their own 'internal' brokers ? as opposed to an independent ?