Shipping from Texas to Canada

Hey Gang,

I'm about to put my first order in from DMC and I thought I'd check on your experiences with regards to shipping costs. I've been ordering MG parts from Kansas for years, and typically, I would double the order to add shipping costs (i.e. $50 part will cost $100 to my door in NS). Do you find the same thing ordering from DMC? I thought I would check, so that I might budget for it.

As it stands, my order is $285 USD. So I expect to shell out around 500 CAD. Ugh...

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Tim

Why so much? This is a great time to buy parts from the states because of the great exchange rate.

Are they big or heavy parts? That'll do it. Sometimes they slap duty on there, sometimes they don't.

I don't use the same formula (thankfully!). I get everything for my car from Dave and Julee at DMCMW and while I normally try to put in a big order (as opposed to onesie, twosie things) I find the shipping and taxes quite reasonable. A rule of thumb for a big box coming Fed-Ex is about $40 USD. If you have an account (which is free) with Fed-Ex, they waive the $10 customs paperwork fee. They then also put the taxes and duty straight to your credit card (instead of paying for it at your door on what would probably end up being the same credit card). The way our two countries deal together is that anything you buy from DMC will cost you our Canadian sales tax on it. For me in Ontario, that is the 13% HST. And you pay that on the Canadian value of your goods.

Ok class, let's do an example:

Let's say my Spring (specials!, lol) order is $1,000.00 USD worth of parts. Depnding on what you get, it could be heavier or lighter, bigger or smaller. But to keep it simple, consider the Fed-Ex charge for shipping to be $40.

Julee will put that with the invoice, so your bill on your Canadian credit card will be $1,040.00 USD converted to Canadian. Right now we are on the lucky end of the exchange rate and our dollar is slightly higher than the US dollar. Since the banks don't seem to honour the actual rate, and instead charge some BS rate of "real rate +2-4% because I can" rate, just consider it a wash for the time being.

So you have now paid $1,040.00 CAD for your $1,000 USD worth of parts. When your delivery arrives in 2 or so days, if you've got the Fed-Ex account part set-up, you'll see Fed-Ex charge you 13% of that $1,040.00 CAD. That ends up being $135.20 worth of tax (ain't it fun being Canadian??).

And that's it. You now spent $1,175.20 CAD to get $1,000 USD worth of parts. Part of it is a flat rate and part of it is percentage... but it definitely doesn't double the cost. Well, unless you only buy $25 worth of parts at a time I guess.

Heck, keep sending them money and you'll qualify for the 10% off discount eventually. I'm on my 2nd time qualifying for it actually. I guess one thing to remember is this isn't a cheap hobby nor a cheap mode of transportation. I look at it kind of like how the guy driving a Viper doesn't care how much gas costs. Cause if you can't afford the gas (/parts), you can't afford the toy :)

Let me know if you have any other Canuck questions...

Well, as I recently purchased something from DMCMW, I can honestly say that I was surprised at how much less it costs than I realized.

I put in a $450 USD order, and after taxes, Fed-Ex shipping (I have a Fed-Ex account) it came to just over $550 CAD. I placed the order on a Tuesday at lunch (ATL time) and the package arrived in Ontario the next day BEFORE 1pm (ATL). Granted, I did ship it to Ontario instead of New Brunswick, but still, it came faster than if I had ordered anything for my 2007 Matrix.

That sounds very encouraging. So it would seem you would all recommend ordering from Midwest. Can I place my order online, or do I have to call in my order there?

I'm not disgruntled about the cost of parts or even shipping... Like I said, I've been sending hundreds of dollars to Kansas every year for the last 7 years, I was just hoping for some insight into the best/cheapest way to get these parts.

Thanks for the help,
Tim

If you're ordering from a DMC facility, I'd definitely call Midwest. They are the "Northeastern" facility. The price is the same, but the shipping is less. In a worst case scenario, they have to bring something in from Houston, but that only delays things a couple days (and still doesn't add to the cost of the order; they ship between each other regularly)

You'll have to phone in to place your order. The 800 number doesn't work in Canada. It's a great experience to speak with Julee, and builds a more personal rapport with them.

If you don't already have one, I highly recommend getting a free FedEx account. It saves you their processing fees, and you don't have to pay duty/taxes at the door to receive your order...they bill your credit card later in the month.

Just to follow up:

I did open a Fedex account and I did call Dave and Julee.

Analysis: Best transaction ever.

Shipping and duty summed to $90 for the $275 order, which although sounds high, was much less than I expected. In addition, I didn't care! I called on a Monday evening and my parts were in Halifax on the Thursday!

I won't bash Long Motor Corp., they consistently had good service, but I was used to paying an arm and a leg for shipping/duty and waiting 3-4 weeks for parts.

Add another recommendation to the long list for Midwest.

Great news Tim? Super. I'm sure Dave and Julee will be enchanted by hearing that. Chalk up another happy customer to our friendly neighborhood DMC friends.

[...I'm sure Dave and Julee will be enchanted by hearing that. Chalk up another happy customer to our friendly neighborhood DMC friends.[/QUOTE]

And if you ever order something from Hervey, phone him_ he always pickup the phone personnally_ and arrange the parts to be send with the priority postal and after that(entering Canada) Canada Post Priority mail takes over. I did not had to pay customs, but I had to pick it up at my local postal office.
I ordered several things from him and he was always very calm and nice. I ordered heavy stuff too like 2 ss headers, and special magnaflow exhaust. It would normally takes more days than ordering from DMC though.