Beware: Canadians ordering from eBags!
 

The eBags Weekender is 20% off today and I thought I would order one. I called their customer service to see the shipping and delivery costs.
What a surprise.

The number we are talking about aren't huge but I do find them dishonest.

The Weekender is on sale for $55.99. On the website is says that shipping to Canada for an item up to $75 is $16 Canadian.

When I called to order, they said the charge is $26.83. How can that be, I asked, when you say clearly on the site that it is $16.
Well, it seems they charge an extra fee to ship it to Michigan from where they then say it is $16 to ship to Canada. But nowhere on the website is that mentioned.

Then they charge Provincial Sales Tax. I have never heard of a mail order house outside of my province charging PST. GST, or federal sales tax, yes. But charging PST is, in my opinion, unethical for a product not purchased in my province.
If they have a cross border provincial outlet from where they ship it then I would understand, but in that case they shouldn't tack on the extra shipping.

Lastly, today's Visa exchange rate for the bag would have been $58.99 Canadian and they were quoting me $67.07 Canadian. That's a pretty good mark up!

In the end I did not order because it left a bad taste in my mouth. Their total to me would have been $102.62 when it should have been $77.95! That is more than $24 on a $78 item.

Any Canadians ordering from eBags should be aware of these exorbitant hidden charges.

No experience with eBags, but I know some mail order outfits in the US charge GST (or HST). Reason being is that they elect to get charged for duties/taxes which allows for the customer to get the package with minimal hassle.

GST is the federal sales tax and I expect to pay that. I have no problem with that. But you must agree that when ordering out of state or out of province, one never pays state or provincial sales tax.

And then to tack on a delivery charge to get it to Michigan in addition to the delivery charge to Canada (and not advertise doing this) adds insult to injury.

The exchange rate, well I know any firm tries to make a few bucks when they can but put it all together I think it is really bad business practice.

I've purchased off eBay and various online vendors and not encountered this cumulative nickel and diming.

I once looked into ordering from eBags, but with all the extra charges, a $200 item would have been almost $400. It really was insane, so I've never considered ordering from them to Canada again.

I ordered from them in August. They have a link on their website for Canadian check out which lists the all in cost in Canadian dollars.

I found with the shipping fee depending which coupons you tried to apply the shipping fee would change. Usually deeper discounted coupons would result in the higher $27 shipping fee. Right now when I go to their website I can order the weekender for $62.99 and it quotes it with $16 s&h. The exchange rate they offer on the purchase isn't the greatest, as $62.99 USD works out to be $68.59 USD.

In my case when I ordered I needed the bag for an upcoming trip and it simply wasn't worth the hassle to ship it over to the states and drive to North Dakota to pick it up. If you've got time you could always ship it to a border town and pick it up. On the bright side I really like the bag, no regrets in ordering it :)

As for the PST Futureshop et al charges PST on internet purchases, so its not unknown for online merchants to do so.

I read this title as "Beware, Canadians ordering from eBags! Let's fortify our walls to keep them out!"

Will5404: If you order from Future Shop, yes you may be charged PST. But that's because they are selling it from inside Canada.
It is not appropriate to pay PST if it is out of province or out of Canada.

As for the fee you got for delivery just now and the exchange rate you got, that is lower than they quoted me. I spoke directly to a customer service rep and I even questioned the accuracy of their numbers. It's interesting that the two of us got two different numbers.
Again, this suggests that eBags is a 'moving target' and not reliable.

Yes, FlyMeToTheLooneyBin, an unfortunate thread name! Don't put up the walls yet :)

Funny, I thought along similar lines: "Oh no, Canadians ordering from ebags!". :D

That's too bad. I really love my eBags packing cubes and I was inclined to order from them again.

I actually ordered 2 batches of packing cubes from them but both times I had a friend staying in the US for a week or so, so I had the items shipped to the hotel and brought back for me. I never actually tried shipping to Canada and I suppose now I never will.

I agree that charging PST on an item not purchased in Canada is not ethical. Charging GST and probably HST even is OK, but not PST.

I'm pretty sure the letter of the law states you should pay PST on such purchases, just no one goes over to the provincial government offices to pay them in person if its not collected :p

Since they contracted out Canada Post to handle the whole Canadian side of the transaction they collect all taxes (big surprise, government agency).

I'm pretty sure the letter of the law states the contrary. That's why visitors can apply to have PST rebated to them when they leave (over a certain amount).

The point in starting this threat was to warn Canadians that the prices on their websites are just a starting point.
I'm sure Americans have been happy with their experiences shopping at eBags.