Accidentally charged duty? Get a refund.

I don't want to scare you, but mistakes happen. From the e-mails we've been getting, we estimate 2 of every 100 orders are accidentally charged duty. (Personally, we've never had this problem.) Take a deep breath and don't worry; we can fix this. It could be a result of several different things:

Over the course of this article, I'm going to show you how to figure out what went wrong, and how to (hopefully) get your money back.

PhotoPrice.ca calculates the tax, duty, and shipping when buying photography products from the States. Check out our Price Comparison Engine when you're done reading this!

What are these charges?

Take a deep breath. Look it over. Study your importing documentation carefully. Were you charged any tax or brokerage fees? If yes, you should have expected tax, and you could have avoided brokerage fees. Read our article for more information.

Okay, it's really duty. How do I figure out why? Again, the answer to this is on your shipping documentation.

It's duty, and it's wrong. How do I get it back?

If you're sure the customs codes used were wrong, you can file an amendment or adjustment request. How you do it and how much it costs depends on which courier company or shipment method you used.

Tell your retailer. Even if you don't decide to file an adjustment, be sure to tell your retailer if you feel that they've misclassified something. They might be willing to offer you a discount or other perk; at the very least, they should hopefully fix the problem so the next Canadian doesn't get dinged by the very same thing!

That's all, folks.

If you have any other questions or problems, please contact us. Still can't figure it out? You can send us a copy of your importing documentation and we can take a look. Just let us know. Good luck, and happy photographing!

PhotoPrice takes the hassle out of finding the lowest price for your photography equipment, by automatically calculating tax, shipping, and exchange rates. Use our Comparison Shopping Engine today!

P.S. When buying from the States we recommend Adorama or B&H Photo Video, two of the biggest and most respected camera stores down south.

Return to PhotoPrice.

Navigation

Product Search



Products

10 Most Popular Products

Popular Cross-Border Deals