Customs on a $20 card declaration? Seriously?!

[ravens_creed]

I had to drive down to the post office and pay an additional $7.73 to receive a package that was sent from New Jersey (I live in the Toronto area). The seller had only declared the value of the card at $20 (Still higher than any declaration I'd send!), and sent a half-decent bonus card with my original purchase. However, customs put a sticker on it, and they charged me some bogus handling fee. Brutal! Almost 8 bucks on a 20 dollar item? I was under the impression that customs didn't take effect on items under $100 in value. I guess I was wrong. Anyone in the know, your explanation to this would be much appreciated. Did the seller put this on me, or is this customs, or? ...









SCAN:
(The "78" wasn't my addition. The other (obvious!) black ink was my own doing.)

[twotoekenn]

was it shipped ups or fedex?

[nerf2003]

Hey Paul,
Nice address....you may want to remove it just in case....and that is bogus.....I would be complaining to the postal service. Never had that happen to me at all.

[dahabsfan]

Any item from the US to Canada is subject to taxation (plus the handling surcharge) regardless of value or whether it is marked as a gift (there is a gift exemption for some items up to $20). Lots slip through, yours didn't - that's life.


Should also be noted that a trade is not exempt either as it's still considered a transaction.

Darren

[ravens_creed]

I don't care if people on SCF see my address. Feel free to check out my house on Google maps / Google Earth, too, if it really floats your boat!



I'm tired of assuming the worst of every situation and everybody.



How often has this happened to everyone else? I'm not super angry, just surprised that a $20 package could even be subjected to these charges. Over 150 trades/sales in the last year, and this is the first time I've been dinged.

[ravens_creed]

Update: I just checked the package again, and realized that it was sent via registered mail, and the seller forked out 12.99 to send it this way, so (s)he is certainly not to blame here. I do wonder if the registered shipping was a tip-off to customs, though.

[flemingc04]

Never had it happen to me, but if you had to pay $7.73 in fees, I hope you got some pretty nice cards.

[jrpic6]

I think it's just a matter of your number came up, I think they pick random one's to charge on a daily basis. If they did it for all of the packages that come through we would never get our mail so I think everyday they pick a handful of packages and do their jobs the way they are supposed to. All goods are subject to Duties and Taxes there is an exemption on gifts of 60$ per gifts. I live near the border and go over shopping quite a bit and on the way back I declare everything and 9 time out of 10 they let me go without paying I usually only spend 100$ when I go but there is always that 1 time that they charge me taxes. I look at it as if I am still ahead cause the last 9 times they didn't charge me.

[Habs1901]

I've received a package from the U.S. the price of the item was 120$ and didn't pay anything on it. They probably did a random check and your card was part of the packages.

If I'm not mistaken the 5$ fee is because your envelope was probably opened by a custom agent. And resealed after.

[Habs1901]

Edit: did the seller check the "gift" option?