Buying a laptop through a US based site

[accesskb]

hi,
I was wondering if anyone has had experience buying a laptop through a US based site and shipping it to Canada via fedex or ups?

I bought a laptop through Lenovo and had it shipped to a relative in NYC. Problem is, the unit won't get delivered on time before I start uni, so I don't have the time to go to NYC now. I was thinking of asking my relative to ship it to my Toronto address via Fedex or UPS. Anyone done this before and know how much custom taxes will I end up paying? Fact is, Lenovo US site doesn't ship to Canada, and buying a Lenovo through the Canadian website would've cost me over $1000 more.

Thanks.

[ZaZ]

Make sure you've got warranty in Canada.

[accesskb]

Make sure you've got warranty in Canada.

yeah i'm not too worried about that.. i did buy the 3 yr warranty. just might have to ship it back to the states first. Do you know anything about customs and having a relative ship the unit to Canada? i bought it through the US site because it costs $1300 less

[ZaZ]

I don't, but I'd make sure you have warranty in Canada. Otherwise you'd probably have to ship to the US for service. Did you buy a CTO model? Generally CTO machines bought directly from Lenovo don't have international coverage.

[jtreble]

accesskb,

IMHO, not a good idea: it's not the GST/PST/Duty that's going to kill you, you'll have to pay these on the Canadian side when you pick up your laptop anyways, it's the UPS/FedEx "Brokerage Fees" that are going to really hurt. If you absolutely have to ship, ship USPS. When I order from Lenovo USA, I ship to the nearest UPS location in the US (Ogdensburg - 55 minutes from Ottawa), have them hold it, and go pick it up. Hope that helps.

p.s., as already mentioned in this thread, consider an upgrade to an "International Warranty"

[mjdl]

I bought my W500 in June through a US dealer (it was a store demonstrator in pristine condition at 2/3rds the current discounted price on lenovo.ca).

I ensured that the model number was covered by the Lenovo International Warranty Service--this information can be found in two places: the lenovo support site, and the latest edition of the Lenovo product list book ("tab book", or whatever it's called). It's also advisable to have any vendor send you the serial number of the notebook, so that you can check the warranty length and the component configuration claimed by the vendor (the Lenovo support site will give warranty information, where it was sold, and a parts breakdown for each serial number).

United States Postal Service Global Priority Service is the best for shipments into Canada: a tracking number and insurance are available, the Canada Post site allow you to have email updates on the movement of the shipment once it crosses the border, and the inevitable PST/GST charges on the declared value can be paid at delivery by credit card--no insane brokerage fees like UPS will charge, just a C$10 service fee. And if you miss the delivery, you can go to the local post outlet mentioned on the card they leave and claim your shipment with photo-ID.

All-in-all, ordering from the USA is reasonably easy for Canadians, as long as you do diligence on warranty matters and vendor reliability. (It never hurts to explicitely direct them to the USPS page on how to prepare a properly documented shipment to Canada.)