The GZG Digest V2 #652

Hi Tom,

I feel your pain.

I did an order to Jon a couple of weeks ago for around the same amount of
money. Total order value was about $110 Cdn or so. The order arrived in a week
(Kudos, Jon! Nice quick service, again, though it doesn't beat your 5 day
arrival time for one order that included shipping over a weekend), but
the customs people hit me with a $20-ish set of fees.  I had to pay
provincial sales tax, federal sales tax, and a $5 "handling fee" for the
privilege of paying these taxes. That's what gets me... I don't mind (well,
not *too* much) paying a tax if it's fair. I certainly mind being charged a
fee for the honour of paying the tax....

Heh.  I'd probably still be annoyed if they re-titled it a "customs
surcharge" or something, but actually *telling* me it is a "handling fee"
while I'm paying taxes is just insulting. Ah well.

On another note, I just bought some FT books from B.R.Snasis Games
(http://www.brsnasis.com/) and I would highly recommend their mailorder
service in North America. I'm sure they'd do just fine overseas too, but I'm
not there so I can't comment on it. But shipping from the US up here to
Canada, he got me the shipment in a week, it came packaged well, and his
prices are at%20 under the manufacturers suggested retail price. Check them
out.

Oh, by the way, in case anyone was looking, someone on-list mentioned
that BRSnasis's website was advertising "More Thrust" recently. The site was,
but when I ordered, they didn't have any more. It's now off the site.

And on the topic of ordering, KR at GeoHex is having a "Giant End of Summer"
sale, on Stargrunt stuff and some terrain items.

http://www.geohex.com

> Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 19:09:53 -0400

********************************************

> Hi Tom,

That's why it took longer this time - Customs sat on it for a couple of
days!!  ;-)

  I had to pay
> provincial sales tax, federal sales tax, and a $5 "handling fee" for

Yep, we suffer the same thing on stuff coming the other way - if it's
unlucky enough to get stopped, there is a fee charged by the postal service
for giving it to Customs to look at and charge duty on; as you say, they're
charging you for their time in determining what to charge you; it's nearly
as good as being a Lawyer!  :-/

That said, don't forget that you're getting nearly 15% off the list prices
in the first place because you don't have to pay the UK/EU tax (VAT), so
this goes some way to offsetting whatever you get levied at your end (which
is exactly why it works this way) - and thus on any parcel that DOESN'T
get
stopped you're getting a real good deal!  ;-)

In the end, taxes, like death, are pretty unavoidable one way or
another....

Jon (GZG)
> On another note, I just bought some FT books from B.R.Snasis Games
Check
> them out.