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Bronze Member Username: PetergalbraithPost Number: 14 Registered: 02-2004 | I was set to buy a receiver from a US dealer, and I am now getting sticker-shock at the shipping prices! Doing the `borderfree' checkout at ecost.com gave me a shipping+handling cost of CDN$136 on a 44 lbs receiver! Clicking the "get shipping cost" button at www.bhphotovideo.com for an h/k AVR-230 (27 lbs) quotes US$68 shipping. This is on a $350 receiver! Have anyone else noticed this? Anyone faired better? |
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New member Username: Joolz27Post Number: 2 Registered: 02-2004 | ouch, that's a good heads-up. I'm from BC and was considering doing this as well. |
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Bronze Member Username: PetergalbraithPost Number: 15 Registered: 02-2004 | Ah ha! www.jandr.com does ships to Canada. It has free shipping to continental US, but not to Canada. Nut they charge US$28.74 to my address, which is more reasonable. The problem is that they change $30 more for the AVR-230, so it almost evens out. I asked Vann's and they don't ship to Canada. I also made a mistake about www.bhphotovideo.com's shipping rate. They quote $82.50! |
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Bronze Member Username: PetergalbraithPost Number: 16 Registered: 02-2004 | I'm considering having one shipped (free US shipping) to a friend in the US, and having him ship it to me afterwards with a cheaper carrier! :-) |
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Bronze Member Username: PetergalbraithPost Number: 20 Registered: 02-2004 | Ah heck, I gave in and ordered the h/k AVR325 on clearance at ecost. US$369 translates to CDN$501.20, but instead of free shipping to US addresses, I paid C$99.54 for shipping, C$19.75 for handling and C$43.43 in GST tax on the receiver+shipping+handling for a total of C$663.92 or US$488.80. I could have had the AVR-230 for less than this at www.jandr.com, but I like the 325 features enough to pay a little extra (plus it's difficult to predict what I would have paid in taxes when it showed up, but it's possible I would have paid nothing as well! Ah well.) That's a huge surcharge, but I called a harman/kardon retailer in Quebec City (a 3-hour drive) and they sell the AVR-230 for C$940, or C$1081 after taxes! That's US$789! So it's still a good deal... |
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New member Username: Joolz27Post Number: 4 Registered: 02-2004 | Congratulations on your purchase, Peter! Do you know if you'll have to pay duty on that yet when it comes to the post office? Or is $663 including duty? Just looking at the details of the H/K 325... what exactly does dual-room/dual-source audio output mean? |
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Bronze Member Username: PetergalbraithPost Number: 21 Registered: 02-2004 | Hi joolz, I purchased through "borderfree" (clicking on the Canadian flag next to the `buy' buttom on ecost.com) and so the final price includes shipping to my door, customs handling and GST tax. There is no duty on it. I suppose you could order from some other place that simply gives the package to a carrier for shipping to Canada. That carrier may then ship to your door and request GST as well as a handling charge, or sometimes (from what I'm told) they don't bother and simply deliver it without charging you any tax. It's a bit of a gamble. In my case there should be no extra charges when it gets here (but I'm paying enough already!). what exactly does dual-room/dual-source audio output mean? This is not a feature I planned to use, so it didn't have any weight on my choice. The receiver comes with a second IR remote for the second zone (I presume you need an optional remote sensor. A regular IR repeater won't work). If you choose to use the second zone, you must dedicate the two rear amplifiers of the 7.1 to that zone and the system becomes a 5.1 system. Since I only have 2 surround speakers anyway for now, I could do this without sacrificing anything. Then you can listen to a 5.1 movie in the main room and a second stereo source at the same time in the second zone. You can also use the second remote in the main room. Since it's a simpler remote I'm my wife will prefer it! |