What if I don't pay duties?

[spider]

Were the items in question shipped from a country other than the US?

I would expect the shipper to deliver a free sample by the cheapest route possible, the Post Office, and fill out the customs form to the effect that the contents were a free sample. How did a courier get involved?

Why did you place five orders instead of one?

 

[xsolarwindx]

Were the items in question shipped from a country other than the US?

I would expect the shipper to deliver a free sample by the cheapest route possible, the Post Office, and fill out the customs form to the effect that the contents were a free sample. How did a courier get involved?

Why did you place five orders instead of one?

I am not sure which country.

I have no idea how a "courier got involved".

I placed 5 orders because the website kept timing out every time I tried to add multiple orders. I had some weird issue. Then I just decided to order them individually.

 

[xsolarwindx]

I really don't care for the details. How do I get out of paying a ridiculous fee for almost nothing? I guess I'll just tell my friend to ignore the package or something.

 

[DarnDirtyApe]

It sounds like the shipper screwed up badly by not sending USPS, and Fedex is trying to take advantage of you. Generally speaking there are no taxes or duties levied on shipments with a value under $20:

http://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/pgcustoms-e.asp#1382741

I would wager that the entire fee is Fedex's "handling" fee for taking it through customs. Tell the delivery guy to piss off and tell the shipper to send you samples through USPS this time.

 

[xsolarwindx]

It sounds like the shipper screwed up badly by not sending USPS, and Fedex is trying to take advantage of you. Generally speaking there are no taxes or duties levied on shipments with a value under $20:

http://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/pgcustoms-e.asp#1382741

I would wager that the entire fee is Fedex's "handling" fee for taking it through customs. Tell the delivery guy to piss off and tell the shipper to send you samples through USPS this time.

Thank you. That's what I will do.

 

[digi]

What are you building?

 

[xsolarwindx]

What are you building?

Some microcontroller project. In this stage, I ordered some LED multiplexed drivers from Maxim IC and AustriaMicrosystems. Maxim gave me trouble. Austriamicrosystems went through customs and I didn't have to pay anything. I'm just building various projects and using the chips to interface to microcontrollers via SPI and the microcontrollers will communicate to the PC via UART or RF. Random stuff...

 

[digi]

I build a lot of microcontroller controlled LED devices...I built a 16 x 9 LED video display....a total of 145 pixels!
I prefer to use PIC micros,as they're readily available and inexpensive.
I also ordered a bunch of samples from TI, specifically the TLC5925, which is commonly found in video billboard displays. It's a 16 channel, high speed LED driver....if you're interested. They're available in DIP packages as well, Maxims drivers seem to be only avaialble as SOIC's.
Good luck on your project.

 

[xsolarwindx]

I build a lot of microcontroller controlled LED devices...I built a 16 x 9 LED video display....a total of 145 pixels!
I prefer to use PIC micros,as they're readily available and inexpensive.
I also ordered a bunch of samples from TI, specifically the TLC5925, which is commonly found in video billboard displays. It's a 16 channel, high speed LED driver....if you're interested. They're available in DIP packages as well, Maxims drivers seem to be only avaialble as SOIC's.
Good luck on your project.

Yeah, I love this hobby stuff. My lame blog is here if you wanna see:

solar-blogg.blogspot.com

I love PIC micros and programming them in C. And Maxim has a lot of DIP packages. I'm using the AS1107 driver from AustriaMicrosystems. It's a really cool chip to use.

 

[digi]

thanks, I'll be spending some time on your blog!

the 16x9 diaplay I made uses DMX512 to control the RGB pixels, I control it with (free) Chamsys MaqicQ PC software, and a USB to serial interface i made, using an FT232.

 

[xsolarwindx]

thanks, I'll be spending some time on your blog!

the 16x9 diaplay I made uses DMX512 to control the RGB pixels, I control it with (free) Chamsys MaqicQ PC software, and a USB to serial interface i made, using an FT232.

Yeah, I need to get myself some FT232 chips. I only have one serial port and a million USB ports and a lot of PICs. I hate constantly plugging wires in. Also, if you need any C compilers for any PIC, just ask

 

[digi]

Thanks very much, will be in touch.

 

[mdavie]

It sounds like the shipper screwed up badly by not sending USPS, and Fedex is trying to take advantage of you. Generally speaking there are no taxes or duties levied on shipments with a value under $20:

http://www.canadapost.ca/tools/pg/manual/pgcustoms-e.asp#1382741

I would wager that the entire fee is Fedex's "handling" fee for taking it through customs. Tell the delivery guy to piss off and tell the shipper to send you samples through USPS this time.

I agree. You shouldn't be paying anything on a $0.50 item. Two things is could be. The $15 minimum broker fee they charge or they valued the product at what they believe is the fair value. I do a lot of shipping and I would vote for it is just a minimum broker fee. Turn the package back and not accept it.

 

[xsolarwindx]

I agree. You shouldn't be paying anything on a $0.50 item. Two things is could be. The $15 minimum broker fee they charge or they valued the product at what they believe is the fair value. I do a lot of shipping and I would vote for it is just a minimum broker fee. Turn the package back and not accept it.

Thank you. Will do that. But is there a law or something that states that I have to accept it? Can they sue me or something if I don't?