Wanderlust 4x5 P&S

[Ben Syverson]

Not directed at you at all, Tim! We got an avalanche of address change emails after I posted the update before last. Thanks for updating your address via Kickstarter!

Unfortunately, we can't manually change someone's address in Kickstarter, and to make things worse, we need to continually import our Kickstarter database into Shipstation (our shipping software) to get the latest addresses. So if we make any manual changes, they'll be clobbered the next time we import.

[WayneStevenson]

Currently, its not shipping at all.

Got a notification the other day that it shipped. Looking forward to trying mine out.

[Tim Meisburger]

Thanks Ben. I hope it shows somewhere in your database that I also sent the additional $40 through PayPal for international shipping.

Cheers, tim

[Andrew O'Neill]

Showing tracker info for me now, too. Still don't know who the shipper is, though. I pray that it's not UPS because they'll have their hand out expecting me to pay them a brokerage fee.

I just checked. Because the camera was made in the US, it will be exempt from duties. NAFTA.

[AuditorOne]

Too bad it doesn't seem to work coming back the other way. The last time UPS delivered something to me from Canada it cost me a fair amount in duties payable to UPS.

[koh303]

Too bad it doesn't seem to work coming back the other way. The last time UPS delivered something to me from Canada it cost me a fair amount in duties payable to UPS.

how much exactly?
UPS charges all incoming international shipments into the US some standard brokerage fee, which is true anywhere in the world. This is not a duty or tax. If anything the import duty on most if not all camera gear into the US is 0.029% (as per the HTS)....

[AuditorOne]

I don't recall the exact amount as it was about a year ago. It was well over $100, but the amount of $160 sticks in my mind. They would not drop the lens off without the payment. I call the UPS office and they insisted it was import duties they had to cover and that I would be billed either way, whether they returned the lens to Canada or not. I have never again ordered anything from outside the US, Canada included, until I knew exactly who the shipper was going to be. It had happened once previously but the amount was much lower, so I paid it and let it ride.

I do not know if they still do this or not but I refuse to give them another opportunity.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Too bad it doesn't seem to work coming back the other way. The last time UPS delivered something to me from Canada it cost me a fair amount in duties payable to UPS.

Was the item made in the US or Canada? If so, you shouldn't have to pay. UPS is the biggest scammer around.

[AuditorOne]

It was originally made in Germany by Zeiss Ikon. It was a very nice 400mm Tele-Tessar for my Contarex set. The lens was already a little more pricey than I wanted and then UPS is telling me that I need to pay them before they will hand it over just fried my bacon (a euphemism to describe that I was just a tad upset.) UPS certainly lost my business at that point. I think the only thing that UPS brings me anymore are items coming domestically from Amazon.

I won' go so far as to consider them rip off artists. I think that they are a very reliable delivery service but the company has some very questionable ways of making additional money for international shipping. They get paid on one hand to ship, and then they get paid on the delivery end by the people they are delivering to. Pretty good business model as long as people are willing to pay. I'm not.

[Fred L]

That lens will be dinged for duties going either way but yeah, I never buy from anyone if they insist on UPS and I've passed up on plenty of stuff over the years. USPS (preferred) and Fed Ex work for me.

If that came into Canada, I believe I'd be dinged 13% (?) and once in a blue moon, they don't charge duties