StompBoxParts
Authorized Vendor
I do believe it comes down to “who is working that day?”
We've come to the same conclusion that this is the case with many orders shipped via national carriers. We've gotten chewed out before for shipments that would get tariffed and others that wouldn't to the same customer for similar orders. We aren't doing anything different, but there seems to be something inconsistent about what orders get taxed. I do believe "who is working that day" has to be a factor. The more expensive your order, the more likely it is to be taxed, but the only way to overcome the expense of putting it in the box and slapping a label on it is to order more stuff to make it worth customers while. The general trend we're noticing is that Canada (and all countries) are more closely watching and taxing what is coming in and out of the country. The other downside of national carriers is that you have no idea how long it will be in transit. Sometimes it's a week, other times three months. It's all at the mercy of multiple countries national postal systems and what route they end up using for the shipment.
Any private commercial express carrier (UPS, FedEx, DHL) is almost always going to stick you with a broker fee on a shipment. If you want a shipment to arrive quickly and reliable, this is the only way to do it.
Shipping internationally has become quite burdensome for customers and shippers in the past few years, I feel for that. For our customers in Canada we do offer a pre-paid duty option if shipped via USPS to avoid any surprise fees, but we are aware that the shipping cost is still expensive which is a serious bummer.
