What is involved with shipping from the U.S. to Canada?

All orders shipped from the United States to Canada must pass through Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA). Customs officials inspect the paperwork that accompanies the package, determines fees to impose, and, inspects the contents of the package if necessary.

If the package is shipped from within the U.S. via the United States Postal Service (USPS), the Canadian customs officials will turn the package over to the Canadian postal service for final delivery. Most private shippers (UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc.) act as a customs broker (handles paperwork, pays taxes and duties, etc.) and handle the final delivery.

Of course, Canada prohibits the import of some items. Other items require the foreign exporter to have an export license. We believe that the items sold by S.H.E. are not prohibited, and, that they do not require an export license.

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What shipper does S.H.E. use to ship to Canada?

We use UPS as our shipper to Canada. As a private shipper, UPS provides us with tracking all of the way to our Canadian customer's front door. As a customs broker, UPS forwards the necessary paperwork to Canadian customs officials to expedite processing when the package arrives at the border. UPS pays taxes and duties imposed by Canadian custom officials. UPS either collects these amounts from the recipient upon delivery, or, S.H.E. can pay the estimated amount to UPS upon shipping.

UPS has told us that Canadian customers should receive their package from S.H.E. within 10-14 days after shipment. For your protection and ours, all shipments we make with UPS are insured and require a signature upon delivery.

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How much does it cost to ship to Canada?

There are several factors involved with calculating the shipping and handling costs of an item shipped to Canada. Because of the PayPal shopping cart capability built into our site, orders shipped to Canada will have to be processed differently to calculate the appropriate amount. This amount includes these factors:

• shipping amount charged by our private shipper
• taxes from Canadian provincial and/or federal governments
• duties
• S.H.E. handling fee

The shipping amount charged by our private shipper seems to range from $10 to $20, depending upon the origination and destination locations.

For the items sold by S.H.E. (which we believe have been classified as "casual goods" by Canada), there are three types of import taxes imposed by Canadian governments. The "Goods and Services Taxes" (GST) is a 7% federal sales tax. The "Provincial Sales Tax" (PST) is a 8% sales tax imposed by some provinces. The "Harmonized Sales Tax" (HST) is implemented in certain provinces and is a combination of the GST and the PST. So, we must know our customer's province before we can calculate the tax amount.

Duties are fees that are calculated according to tariff rules and regulations. We believe that the leather items sold by S.H.E. are exempt from duties when shipped from the U.S. to Canada.

A handling fee of $5 is added to any order shipped to Canada to cover the additional costs incurred by S.H.E.

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What do I do to place an order and have it shipped to Canada?

You must contact us first before placing your order on our site. This will allow us to determine the amounts for shipping, taxes, duties, and, handling. Use this contact form to place a Canadian pre-order with us. We will contact you by email with the costs involved and instructions on how to place your order on our site.

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What are some of the things that can go wrong?

There are several things that can happen to a package shipped from the United States to Canada, as opposed to a package shipped within the United States. By using a private shipper, these "problems" are reduced to issues concerning the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA).

Our private shipper acts as the custom broker to provide paperwork to the CBSA. The CBSA audits the invoice provided by S.H.E. to determine if the item(s) can be imported, and, what fees to impose. We estimate and collect these fees from our customers when they place their order, and, our private shipper pays these fees (acting as the customs broker) to the CBSA.

It is possible that the CBSA will want to collect fees greater than the amount we have collected from our customer. We have instructed our private shipper to try and collect this money from our customer upon delivery of the package. Our customer has the option to pay this money and accept the package, or, refuse to pay this money and refuse the package. If our customer refuses the package, we have instructed our private shipper to return the package to us (which is an additional cost to us).

If a package is returned to us, we will contact our customer to determine the next course of action to take. Refunds will be awarded on a case-by-case basis. The following amounts will be deducted from any refund:

• amount paid to our private shipper to ship the package to our customer
• amount paid to our private shipper to ship the package back to us
• any non-refundable fees collected by the CBSA or any other Canadian authority
• amount charged by S.H.E. as a handling fee
• any non-refundable fees collected by PayPal
• any other tangible expenses incurred by S.H.E. during the entire transaction

As with any package received via government postal service or a private shipper, it is the recipient's responsibility to inspect the package and report any damage to the proper authority.

It is ultimately the customer's responsibility to determine that the item(s) they have ordered from S.H.E. can be legally imported into Canada. No refunds will be given for any packages confiscated by the CBSA or any other Canadian authority.

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