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Pasted from photoprice.ca

B&H Photo Video, one of the largest and most reputable US-based stores, has just made available an exciting new feature for Canadian customers. They now feature Ground Purolator shipping to Canada.

This is exciting for Canadian consumers because:

Ground Purolator shipping is a much more affordable option, when compared to the previous UPS Expedited option. Our quick check shows that shipping costs are, on average, 50% less! Most items ship for less than $20, which is competitive with Canadian retail store shipping.
B&H Calculates the Tax & Duty & Brokerage, and charges you at time of sale. That means the final price you pay to B&H is the final price to you. No more surprises, and no worrying about the tax bill from your courier when your shipment arrives.
Don't forget that many photographic items are covered by US/Canada or Worldwide Manufacturer Warranties, so many items you purchase from the US often come with warranty coverage in Canada. You can read our article on warranties for all the information. If you're new to buying from the US, you can also read about Tax, Duty, and Brokerage Fees when buying from the US.

Go check out B&H's new Purolator Ground shipping for yourself! If you have questions, don't hesitate to contact us. Good luck, and happy photographing!

http://www.photoprice.ca/article/bh-che ... g-tax-duty

Woohoo! That's great news! Thanks for the heads up Ziggy!!

no problem! but I guess it will be bad for our wallets

Great news! Thanks!

Great news. I prefer Purolator over the other courier companies. Now .. what do buy to test this out

^ Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM II

Seems to be the best buy from the US

great, finally some sense, now waiting for Adorama to follow

best news ever. or best news of today, at least

Man, why couldn't they do this a year ago?!

Woohoo!

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1 ... ormal.html

compared some items and it's not necessarily cheaper by a lot, but it's good to know exactly how much it will cost up front and not have to worry about it being held up at customs or showing up COD

Never mind a year ago but 4 days ago when I placed my order.

This is awesome. This is ground shipping, and there will be no brokerage fees on this?

It's very likely that a company B&H's size (with respect to the number of items they ship) have longer term contracts with UPS and such contracts take time to expire and then have to undergo renegotiation.

So they probably didn't have a chance until now..

Just a guess mind you, but if you want to know for sure you can always ask Henry Posner

Cheers,
Dave

A few months ago I actually contacted him complaining about the minimum costs for USPS...I wanted to order a very small item from them and they charged me over $30 for shipping it, while I had ordered a much larger item from further away and was only charge $10 shipping. At the time he stated he told me they were looking at reducing shipping costs to Canadians...still don't understand why they have such expensive postage rates when others ship for much less!

I know our shipping department has been working on something, but don't know what or when it will happen.
Maybe this will motivate them to get moving!

Helen Oster
Adorama Camera Customer Service Ambassador
HelenO@adorama.com

The B+H catalog just arrived in my mailbox today - it is almost as BIG as a Sears catalog. Coincidence between this and the new shipping policy? I think not!

Did you request a catalog?

confirmed. a little over 48 hours from the order, the box was was at my door, HST paid at source, no duty, no brokerage, $7 shipping fees on $110 of bulky merchandise

henry, vistek, aden... see you in another galaxy (henry's "best quote" on the same goods exceeded $200)

Never did when I got mine. I guess they just send you one if you bought from them.

How good is purolators online tracking, and is a signature required?

opps double post

I bought some stuff when I was in NYC this year.

oh my. what a beautiful day. If only we could convince Alienbees to switch from UPS as well, then all will be well...

I had items shipped before. Got charged $30+ for a wee box of CS4 but the savings was substantial compared to a any Canadian retailer.

Nice, I love BHphotovideo. I used to live in CA and to ship across the country was dirt cheap. I'm glad they're recognizing that Canada is an important market to cater to. More vendors need to follow suit.

the actual choice of the carrier is the weakest link in the B&H chain. purolator is easily the worst shipping company i've ever dealt with (and i have shipped a lot)

their tracking is reasonably detailed, but the messages can appear online several hours after their timestamp--completely useless for monitoring the actual delivery. combined with their horrible delivery practices ("we don't leave notices of delivery to protect your privacy" - !!!) it's a flip of the coin whether you'll get it on time (most of the time i saw "HH:MM delivery attempt failed" when i was waiting at the door precisely at HH:MM; if the truck passed by at all, it didn't even slow down). better plan for a trip to the kipling warehouse every time

yes, signature is required

Thanks Vilk

I haven't used purolator in along time and I see they have not changed. I'm in Barrie and fortunatly their depot is almost just around the corner from me.

Nope. I bought stuff this year and my billing address was Canada and shipping address was in the States where I vacationed - they got it right by sending the catalog to my house rather than the USA shipping address.