Shipping to Canada—Please Help!

Mooser

Hi everyone this is my first post here so forgive me if this is not in the correct spot/format! I have a question regarding shipping to Canada (where I am based), so if there are any CANADIAN pros that can chime in here that would be greatly appreciated.

So I have gone through selecting all the U.S. labs (Bay, EZ, WHCC) and see that there is quite a difference between them in terms of shipping and costs; Bay is more for the print and insanely more for the shipping (by almost 3x), EZ is the cheapest print and shipping (but 3 weeks to get to canada..!), WHCC seems the most reasonable cost/shipping value ($24 for a 20x30 shipped via UPS 5-7 Business days).

My question is, is there any lab that does not ding their customers brokerage/handling at the door for Canadian customers? I understand that there are no duty fees for printed materials coming into Canada, so my inquiry is strictly about fees at the door via courier (UPS). Again if any CANADIAN pros can offer advice for which is the best method here for getting prints to customers with the least amount of shipping (and ideally zero brokerage etc) that would be great! Thank you.

rainforest1155

Hi Mooser and welcome to DGrin! :wave:
From what I understand, while there's no import duty on print orders coming to Canada, recipients may still be charged GST and any local taxes that may be due. That should apply to any of our 3 US labs regardless of the shipping method. For non USPS shipping methods the brokerage fees that get the order through customs quicker, are usually included in the shipping cost at checkout. However, at times the shipping carrier may tag on some small additional fee, like a fuel surcharge or service fee in addition to any GST or local taxes that are due.

I'm hoping that some Canadian Pro can chime in with more specifics.

Don Kondra

As a Canadian, why are you ordering from the US ?

With the exchange rate on the dollar and the limited (and mostly expensive) shipping options available, I would think it would be faster and less expensive to order in country.

Your profile doesn't say where you live. Have you looked for a local printer ?

A few options for on line ordering in Canada-
http://www.blacks.ca/
http://donsphoto.com/
http://www.henrys.com/Photo-Printing.aspx
http://www.printpartner.ca/

Cheers, Don

AceCo55

@Don Kondra said:
As a Canadian, why are you ordering from the US ?

With the exchange rate on the dollar and the limited (and mostly expensive) shipping options available, I would think it would be faster and less expensive to order in country.

Your profile doesn't say where you live. Have you looked for a local printer ?

A few options for on line ordering in Canada-
http://www.blacks.ca/
http://donsphoto.com/
http://www.henrys.com/Photo-Printing.aspx
http://www.printpartner.ca/

Cheers, Don

Because if the OP wants to use Smugmug's shopping/printing/fulfillment capability on his/her website, there are only two Print Companies that are available to use - and both are based in USA.
If the OP wants to use a Canadian based printing company then the OP has to self-fullfil ... which takes away the convenience of an online shopping option.

I live in Australia. So if I took up the option of using the Smugmug commerce facility on my site, my Australian customers would still get their orders filled by one of these two US printing companies. As the OP has realised this involves longer delivery times and greater shipping costs. Since there is NO way any of my "customers" would EVER gets their prints done in US and then shipped to Australia, I have down graded my account so that the option doesn''t exist and I self fulfill (small number of requests so it isn't a big deal for me ... but it would be IF I ran a busy photographic business and I wanted to streamline the process to free me from having to do that)

Smugmug does have a European print alternative but if you don't live in the US or Europe, the issue of using Smugmug's commerce facility is very problematic - hence the reason for the OP's question.

Mooser

Thanks for the comments everyone. Yes if SM had a Canadian lab that would make life a lot easier.

After some digging it looks like according to WHCC page they collect the brokerage/handling fees in their shipping cost, though neither SM or WHCC could confirm this for me.

Either way they are the closest lab (Minnesota vs Cali or Georgia) to Canada, and therefore the most cost effective. Here's what I found on WHCC's site: