The wife bought a few items online and I was going over the bill. The site looks to be international but the items came from bc canada. Now going down the bill, all items are in USD. Then they get to shipping again in USD. Then it says " bc-gst 5%, pst 7%" IN USD! Then under that it says " hst, not included" and again IN USD 0.01. With the total amount at the bottom in USD. Could someone please explain? I live in bc.

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86 SE Convertible 3800sc 4t65e HD.

Explain it ? Easy....

Somewhere in the fine print on their website is a term/ condition that "prices are in USD". The only ones they have in CDN are those they are forced to by law IN B.C.

Some smart kid figured out how to screw over the customer by squeezing an extra few points in exchange rate out of the sale, and in typical smart-kid fashion he didnt think (or care) far enough ahead to realize his policy would result in few-to-none repeat customers.

(If its an online-only retailer, my bet is with the "dont care" option, they are thinking the internet is a huge market, they intend to hit 1 or 2 percent of it for sales, make their money and dissapear.)

I see the item being in us currency. Mabey the shipping, don't know how they can justify that since it's shipped in canada from canada. But how can they charge me the provincial and federal tax in US dollars? If I convert that over, I have paid more that legally allowed.

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86 SE Convertible 3800sc 4t65e HD.

I'm not versed with the BC tax code (never done business out there) but I'll betchya there is some loophole that allows them to charge it that way, then you can request a refund for the difference (if they arent taking USD at par with CDN). I know here in Ontation, I can legally charge just about anything in any currency I want and NOT have to issue an exchange rate/ refund simply by posting a notice "X" currency is valued at par with CDN......if I can find a sucker to pay is a different story, though

I'm sure you know our currency is not at par. I worked it out and the tax difference exchanged is .64. So they charge me USD in tax but submit it to the government in CDN and they pocket the diffence. That's not right. Believe me I would return this crap in a heartbeat but the item is no cheaper in the us and the shipping would be more. If we didn't need. It then it would definitely be going back. And what about the penny HST? We don't have that any more, I paid the equivalent in gst/pst at 12% and they tacked on a penny at the end.

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86 SE Convertible 3800sc 4t65e HD.

quote Originally posted by Tweeder: I'm sure you know our currency is not at par. I worked it out and the tax difference exchanged is .64. So they charge me USD in tax but submit it to the government in CDN and they pocket the diffence. That's not right. Believe me I would return this crap in a heartbeat but the item is no cheaper in the us and the shipping would be more. If we didn't need. It then it would definitely be going back. And what about the penny HST? We don't have that any more, I paid the equivalent in gst/pst at 12% and they tacked on a penny at the end.

I know its not on par. Its also NOT legally required for a company to pay exchange. All they have to do is post a notice that they pay a sub-standard or none-at-all exchange rate, and if you the customer choose to do businesses with them anyway then its your loss (NOT very smart or long-term business practice, but perfectly legal). Its VERY common here, especially in restaraunts, within 50 miles of the border to see an "exhange rate" notice on the cash register stating the rate is FAR belowin the going rate. Same thing, but in reverse because here its the Americans gettin shafted, but legally they have 3 choices, and only 3. Go make their purchase elsewhere, accept the places they are rate, or produce CDN currency.

Just because banks and money markets are using a certain rate on a given day, does not bind individual businesses to that same rate. They are free to run their OWN "money market" by purchasing the USD at below going rate for the day and selling higher at some point later in time. (Like I said earlier, IF they can find a sucker willing to sell the USD for their offered rate. Captive sellers such as hungry tourists or internet purchasers make finding those types much easier)

<edit>

So your difference was 64 cents. Say they did 100,000 sales in that billing cycle thats 64 grand for runnng a legal private currency-trading operation. Not bad at all.

[This message has been edited by MidEngineManiac (edited 04-11-2014).]

I know about the currency difference part at restraints and what not. The legal part I was referring to was the taxes the company is legally required to take and foreword to the government. What I'm saying is that I paid more in taxes than required because they charged me the tax in USD and is paying it out in CDN. I'm not mad that I paid for the item in USD as I seen it there but they charged me canadian shipping in USD and the whole tax bit. But the real pissmeoff thingy is them charging me hst. It's gone, we don't have it no more. They taxed me after they taxed me, like we don't pay enough f'n taxes.

Edit: no where did it say they would be charging shipping and taxes in USD.
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86 SE Convertible 3800sc 4t65e HD.

[This message has been edited by Tweeder (edited 04-11-2014).]

If you paid for the item in US dollars, you'll pay the taxes in US dollars.
If you paid for it in Canadian dollars, you should/will pay taxes in Canadian dollars.
Otherwise you'll be paying 10 or 12% more or less(whatever the exchange rate is). Much easier to charge you in the same unit of money than convert it half way through.
So...only if you paid in Canadian and got taxes in US will you have been screwed over.

Try the math.
$100 US *1.12(tax) = $112 US = $123.20 Canadian (at 110% exchange rate)
$100 US = $110 Can. $110 *1.12 tax = $123.20 Can.
Its the same thing.

Putting shipping in there wouldn't change anything, it'd still work out the same.
And if it lists everythign in US $, it's safe to assume you'll pay shipping and taxes in US. They're not going to switch half way through the transaction.

PS: I havent read every post, so i might just be spewing out what MEM has said already.

[This message has been edited by Stubby79 (edited 04-12-2014).]