I got nailed for the first tim ethis week too! They must be on the Anti-Pinball crusade. Cost me $50 on a $300 order from K's Arcade

Quoted from OTTOgd

Geez, I guess I have been lucky ... but I'm still annoyed.

Think about the law of averages.  That's less than $1 brokerage fee per box!

Quoted from Monkeybug

Think about the law of averages.  That's less than $1 brokerage fee per box!

That's another point.. it's better to think positively, and consider all the money you've saved on your other shipments  

wbradly hits on a good point. I just recently received a shipment from France. For a $350.00 purchase I paid roughly 50 bucks shipping and exactly $50 bucks customs. When you crunch the numbers I think it may be cheaper to not buy across the border. It's definitely is no more expensive; it's too bad that America has all the pinball parts.

I order allot of stuff (My wife says too much ).  Sometimes it gets thru and sometimes you get it with an extra charge.  I look at it as I have to pay every time and just pay it when it arrives.  If it arrives and there is no charge I count it as a lucky break.  I usually do not order it from places that ship it UPS (Crooks).  I ordered my car parts thru a distributer when possible so you don't have to worry about shipping, duty etc... But you can’t do it so easily for pinball parts

I have to weigh in on this topic, and believe me I am "fat with information" concerning this mess of customs & excise, currency exchange, shipping & handling fees, brokerage fees, & finally fees associated with making a payment to the supplier.

There are several ways to justify (i.e. crunch) these numbers, and I won't even bother explaining how I do it when I feel that I have been "stung" personally. But I can offer this to the MAACA members asking themselves how to avoid the annoyance of feeling that someone you can't even have your say with, somehow has their hand in your pocket and they can't even hear you say - "I refuse to pay these extra charges for my small personal order." The feeling of not having control over the amount you agreed to pay for something is what causes the majority of the frustration I think.

The last couple of days have been interesting at work to say the least. I assembled an order for PBR to fill, mainly for regularly stocked parts and for a few regular clients, when I began getting MAACA members calling and dropping in to place orders and checking prices. I will outline two examples of when to order through Starburst and when not to and why.

1) One member called me and ordered a specific coil with a part number and description, short and sweet. I immediately added it to the P.O., gave him the selling price from Starburst, he agreed and I wrote his phone number next to the item. PBR sells the coil for $6.93 (USD), Starburst re-sells it for $ 8.75(CAD). In this case, or even with one or two more parts, the member saves money and has the convenience of not doing all the leg work (see above if you forgot about how Steve likes to get paid).

2) Another member called me this morning with a long list of parts to get from PBR, with some parts that I already stock from different suppliers, ex: steel balls, rubber rings, lamps etc. Obviously I can't spend a whole lot of time creating new part numbers in the system when the same item already exists under another tag. I quoted him on the parts that I didn't have, but the total was high, around $230.00. The actual cost at PBR was about $153.xx. So if he orders direct, gets his 10% off for orders over 100 bucks, and if he doesn't get taxed at customs, and ships by mail and if it is a light order in weight, he will pay less. Lots of "ifs", but if he plans it  properly, and asks Steve to ship by mail in a flat package, it may be worth the chance.

So if you want a part or two from this supplier I will be happy to help you out, and "shoot the mess" with you briefly about how great pinball is, and other things which interest us. Building local business relationships has got to be worth a hell of alot more than a few bucks you didn't pay by chance when the post office (forget UPS) gets too lazy or careless to tax and\or do their brokerage "sting and screw" dance on a small personal order.  

robert@starburstcoin.com

Quoted from RAB

and asks Steve to ship by mail in a flat package, it may be worth the chance.

    DON'T!!

Steve always ship the proper,cheaper way.  He's the BEST.

Quoted from Mrhide

    DON'T!!

Steve always ship the proper,cheaper way.  He's the BEST.

Yeah, don't bother Steve with details, he is a real pro and has been at this pinball thing for well over 25 years, which, you can imagine will make even the nicest people turn cranky from dealing with so many details and pinheads over time. Not everyone in this hobby is a bright silver ball, - there are some really disagreeable people who have very few positive things to say or contribute, even on this forum.  

Quoted from RAB

... when the post office (forget UPS) gets too lazy or careless to tax and\or do their brokerage "sting and screw" dance on a small personal order.  

Far be it from me to defend the Post Office (actually, it's Canada Customs... not the Post Office) but it's not really a "sting and screw" dance. It's taxes and a small brokerage fee. Not really anything to be surprised about here. When you buy goods at the store down the street, you pay tax (and, indirectly, a brokerage fee on items that were manufactured outside the country). When you import goods into the country, you're also supposed to pay tax on those goods. It's pretty standard stuff and shouldn't be a shock to anyone -- in fact, you should COUNT on it. If, on occasion, your package makes it through the border without getting assessed tax, good for you.

I don't think Canada Post or Canada Customs is out to "screw" anyone. Again, just be thankful you didn't have to deal with UPS or FedEx and their *ridiculous* brokerage fees. But that's another story...

And further be thankful that the items were made in the USA. Otherwise you might have to pay "duty"as well. Taxes/brokerage fees are not "duty" and the two should not be confused.

Quoted from cooke

Far be it from me to defend the Post Office (actually, it's Canada Customs... not the Post Office) but it's not really a "sting and screw" dance. It's taxes and a small brokerage fee. Not really anything to be surprised about here. When you buy goods at the store down the street, you pay tax (and, indirectly, a brokerage fee on items that were manufactured outside the country). When you import goods into the country, you're also supposed to pay tax on those goods. It's pretty standard stuff and shouldn't be a shock to anyone -- in fact, you should COUNT on it. If, on occasion, your package makes it through the border without getting assessed tax, good for you.

I strongly believe & agree that some kind of responsible and accountable authority should collect taxes and redistribute the money in order to run the closest possible thing to a fair and just society in the measure of what our human limitations can allow. The "sting and screw" feeling, Corey, I should have specified earlier, comes from sometimes paying and sometimes not. Yeah, it is a lucky a** feeling not to pay that 15% occasionally, but why does it happen sometimes and sometimes not. People hear about it and feel cheated. We should be able to expect some kind of consistancy from our goverment agencies in order for people not to feel bad when they do pay. And we also know that alot of us feel we are paying our share while others more fortuneate than us don`t "seem" to be. Hence, that seemingly unintentional "sting & screw" feeling we get when we are asked to pay more.

If someone buys a single rubber ring at the parts counter, I need to do up an invoice for inventory purposes and so as to direct the monies, however small, into the right accounts. The taxes get charged automatically, why is that so difficult to do with goods crossing the border, don`t they have bigger computers and more people working than at Starburst ?

Quoted from RAB

1) One member called me and ordered a specific coil with a part number and description, short and sweet. I immediately added it to the P.O., gave him the selling price from Starburst, he agreed and I wrote his phone number next to the item. PBR sells the coil for $6.93 (USD), Starburst re-sells it for $ 8.75(CAD). In this case, or even with one or two more parts, the member saves money and has the convenience of not doing all the leg work (see above if you forgot about how Steve likes to get paid).


robert@starburstcoin.com

Thanks for giving a example of the cost for a PBR part, good price! Sometime I make bigger order with PBR to justify shipping cost... now I just need a Starburst on the south shore

Quoted from Hyann

Thanks for giving a example of the cost for a PBR part, good price! Sometime I make bigger order with PBR to justify shipping cost... now I just need a Starburst on the south shore

Yeah, I use to that too years ago when I was collecting, always pumped it up to get that 10% discount at 100, only to pay that 15% when it got delivered by Canada Post, it seemed that under 100 back then it would just be waiting at my door with no extra charge, so basically trading "4 trente sous pour une piastre" as they say.

Je suis a Longueuil chaque fin de semaine Hyann, si tu passes a mon atelier je peux toujours ammener ce que tu as commande avec une facture et avec des taxes dessus en plus !