Hi Shawn --- My experience has been this. If the vendor ships US Mail then the brokerage is handled by Canada Post for a nominal fee. If they ship via courier (fedEx etc.) then the courier handles the brokerage and charges whatever they want to. I have found this to be more expensive than I want it to be. I recently paid $60 on a $200 order and in one memorable case got dinged $65 on a $60 order. I am now very careful about who's doing the shipping and will insist on US Mail if at all possible. If they won't ship US Mail --- I factor this into my purchase decision --- knowing I'm going to get hit for brokerage. The Bus Depot ships US mail incidentally.

Cheers, Doug

"Shawn Wright" <swright@ZUIKO.SLS.BC.CA> Sent by: "Vanagon Mailing List" <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> 07/16/2004 01:14 AM Please respond to "Shawn Wright"

To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM cc:

Subject: Re: New Info for Canadian Vanagon Owners (& 02 sensor in Canada )

On 15 Jul 2004 at 21:30, The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM> wrote:

> On a somewhat related issue, I have somewhat good news for the Canadian > contingent of the Vanagon list. We have reached a distribution > arrangement with a relatively large Canadian parts supplier that will > allow some Canadian orders placed with The Bus Depot to actually ship > directly to you from within Canada rather than coming from the U.S.

This sounds like good news for me, since I will need to order all the parts for a complete 1.6TD rebuild soon. But I'm still a little concerned about not knowing which parts if any will ship from Canada. I have resisted ordering from US vendors for this reason, as I have seen the exorbitant (or extortionist...) brokerage/duty that can be applied for no apparent reason at times when I receive things at work. I've had many cases where the total fees exceed the value of the item! Can any Canadian listees relate any experiences, good or bad, with ordering VW parts from the US? I need to order $400+ in parts, and could save $100 or more over local pricing, but am afraid this savings could easily disappear in brokerage/duty...

Shawn Wright http://zuiko.sls.bc.ca/~swright '85 Jetta D '88 Westy 2.1L awaiting 1.6TD conversion { This message sent by Pegasus Mail, guaranteed virus-free }