Where to find Gadgeteer Modules at the lowest price?

Is there a Canadian distibutor? Are you looking for one??

Falsely declaring a value on a customs form is a federal offense and will get a company in big trouble. Of course when you order from China they don’t care about following such laws because there is nothing that will be done to them. In the USA it can get you wrapped up in a federal lawsuit and put you out of business. Who do you want to do business with, somebody who plays by the rules or somebody who doesn’t give a crap?

Guess there’s no way around this one, then! Just going to have to wait until I’m ready to buy in bulk.

I am definitely looking for a Canadian distributer, get rid of that customs charge!

hmmm but we are talking about this going the other way, basically OUT of the USA not into the USA… unless our federal laws cover CANADA as well (doubt the canadian government sends our government a piece of the customs they charge ). so basically a company in the USA will not be doing anything illegal giving it’s clients an Option to purchase items as gifts… like i said Check Amazon, ebay and all big corps do offer such option they will even wrap it free of charge ;)…

BESIDES all this: DOESN’T THE USA and CANADA have a Signed FREE TRADE Agreement which is suppose to wave customs on most of the stuff MADE in the USA… going to Canada and vise-versa (remember GHI boards and modules are now made in USA)

Jay Jay:

I’m in business. I ship things all over the world, I know what I’m talking about here. It is a federal offense for me to falsely declare a value on a customs forms. The customs process is a agreement between two countries and part of the agreement is that the forms not be falsified (because what good would the agreement be then). A gift would only be something sent from one individual to another as a gift, you know a birthday present, etc. Buying an item as a ‘gift’ does not automatically relive the buyer from their obligation of paying any taxes or duties in their country. (Read the agreement on Amazon etc and I’m sure you will see this language.)

The free trade agreements do not cover personal purchases. It allows large companies like Ford to make trucks in Canada and sell them in the USA without all the usual hassles. It is still not free though. There is a similar agreement between the USA and Israel, if I sell something to another company and pay $25 for a special form, and have my products certified as made in the USA then the receiver will not have to pay as much in taxes. It is a big hassle though and typically not worth the trouble.

I see what you’re saying Jeff_Birt, however come to think of it, I’ve never been charged at the door for any Amazon package…

Do you order from Amazon.ca? That would be why.

Well when I type it, I type amazon.com however they could be routing me to .ca. I just checked and the domain remains the same, however they could just deliver the goods straight from Canadian providers, I’m not entirely sure.

Or they have warehouses all over the planet, essentially making them a “local” business entity everywhere! Regardless, they’ve got lots of lawyers to figure out international business law.

Oh no, some guy in a black suit wearing black glasses is at my door… what did i just do :slight_smile:

well you seem to assume that adding such feature means everyone will use it in a fraudulent manner… while you are in business to sell goods i do not think it makes you responsible for knowing if that purchase is a gift or not, so if a client marks it as a gift then it is his/her responsibility to their government on how such item is intended to be used…

unless you intentionally and knowingly do it in a fraudulent manner like MARK all your shipment as gifts by default… hence China’s way…

anyway, i think a distributor would be the best fit, since they will probably file all the proper paper work to benefit from any agreements between the two government and save a buck or two on customs…

In my experience small packages shipped by postal service often sail right through with no problems and no customs charges. But then a package can also get stuck in customs for no apparent reason for weeks. I’ve had that happen in several places in the world as well, and it is hard to find out anything about it when it happens. With FedEx or UPS they always keep track of the package so it won’t get ‘lost’ in customs for weeks BUT you always pay customs charges and the fee that UPS/FedEx adds as well.

I suspect ransomhall is right that Amazon might be fulfilling the order in Canada to prevent problems. I have heard form some of my customers that they ship purchases from Amazon and such places to a consolidation center that then ships them in a large container over seas.

USPS is always the way to go when shipping USA to Canada. FedEx are terrible when it comes to charging customs and brokerage fees - often you can get a fedex (or UPS) bill way after the fact. But generally they’ll just hold your stuff for ransome.

Seeed manufactures OSHW for companies like Dangerous Prototypes. I’m not sure why they choose to blatantly subvert US customs rules in my case, but they are listed as “the main” DP distributor. There are other US distributors for some of the stuff (like the awesome Bus Pirate), which I realized after I made the order. The order also took 6-8 weeks to finally arrive, after they admitted an item was actually not in stock, even though their site indicated it was. Big hassle all around and a well learned lesson.

BTW - I will continue to express my not so pleasant thoughts about Seeed on this forum as long as they keep helping me with so much fodder. For regulars - I hope it does not detract from my otherwise fabulously fun time posting here. If it does, let me know. For newcomers - be aware of (and search for) the multiple unresolved gadgeteer module issues they’ve left us wondering about.

Remember that purchases from GHI do not attract customs duty.

What you actually pay are the following

1.Sales Tax (eg. 13% HST in Ontario, BC, NS, NB, 15% NFL and AFAIK Quebec 5%GST+9.5%QST)
***Remember that the tax is calculated on landed cost i.e. Cost of product + Shipping (so if you choose an expensive shipping method you pay more tax)
2.The carrier (Canada Post, UPS, Fedex …) charges brokerage (service charge for completing border formalities)
3.The carrier pays the tax for you so they charge a fee for this money they are loaning you (With Fedex / UPS you may be able to open an account and avoid this cost)
4.The carrier brokerage and advancement fees attract sales tax too so use the calculation from #1 above

You can check with the carrier on the current rates they use. I think Canada Post uses a flat C$10/- fee

To make the story short there is nothing hidden here and the carrier will provide the complete working when they deliver and collect the fees.

**Also remember that the customs will use a an market evaluation on the invoice price if they feel that the invoice has been under valued. It is always better to ship using the correct advertised price.

**And if you really have a problem you can dispute this with the CBSA.

Canada Post is a good option as it will lower landed cost and the fees are low.

A good option will be to buy from Mouser using USPS (USPS Global Priority Mail $8.00). Select the country as Canada. They roll the border fees into the product price, so you will see that the prices are a little higher between the GHI catalog and Mouser catalog. Mouser will collect the applicable sales tax upfront. There will be no fees to pay on delivery.

More questions? … just ask.

Hey Rajesh,

mouser.com looks like it will be a great place to use, thank you!

And by “mouser.com looks like it will be a great place to use”, I mean, “I just purchased 2 Extender Modules and a Micro SD Card Module” :slight_smile: