I was away for some time and it's hard to catch up with all these new threads. Just wanted to ask something, is ProntoPro available in Canada yet? How fast is it? Thanks

I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba and ordered my Pronto from one of the US shopping sites using a service called borderfree (http://www.borderfree.com). They let you go to any shopping site and you purchase using Borderfree's shopping cart. They give you a quote in Canadian dollars and purchase it on your behalf and ship it to your house. I got my remote in about a week and a half (mostly Canada Post's delay) and the originally quoted price is EXACTLY what I paid, no extra charges or fees, which surprised me. Whenever I have purchased directly, Canada Customs has always charged me a handling fee but I didn't have to pay this when buying through borderfree. I really had a great experience using their service and they sent me a total of five emails detailing exactly what was happening with my order.

Hi Tony..

Since I have shipped about 200 or so Prontos to Canada via USPS Express Mail, out of curiosity I just went to Borderfire and signed up to get a comparison.

I then created the basket, took the tutorial, and selected PCMall as the vendor since I knew that PCMall also owns eCost and that they were the lowest internet price I had found on my last pass to check pricing.

After selecting the TSU2000 with the DS1000, I then logged off and waited for the email to arrive with the price quote in Canadian dollars. I should add that I used a zip of: T2E 5Z1 for Calgary since I had just shipped the same pronto "bundle" there on July 24th and it arrived yesterday in the hands of the buyer.

The email arrived pretty quickly and I went back to the link to collect the quote. At that point I had to choose either ground at 7-14 days for CA$33.75 or Priority at 4-7 Business days for CA$58.75. The GST was shown at CA$37.54 although as a straight %-age it should have come out to CA$33.43 so I can only "guess" that some from of brokerage is included in the GST already. This brought the total _delivered_ cost including GST (and brokerage???) to: CA$ 573.87

To give you a comparison to eBay, that I am intimately aware of: Dutch auction that I cited for the above shippment to Calgary _including_ 3-day Express Mail as noted...: CA$466.54 the GST will get billed to the recipient later but will be CA$18.83 and there will also be a CA$6.00 brokerage fee in that same bill from PBB Global Logistics for a total of CA$491.37

The bottom line savings was CA$82.50 compared to Borderfire. If a buyer used a traditional purchase, called Buy It Now on eBay, then the savings would have been prox CA$30.00 less, but still substantial.

I can also tell you that Priority Mail as compared to the Express Mail I used on my side of the above comparison costs less, but I have found that the incremental savings is not great enough... a few dollars, to offset the longer delivery times.

Additionally, Express Mail automatically includes US$500.00 insurance. With Priority Mail you have to specify the amount over a much lower threshold, and it is an area that a shipper can cheat on. So, you have to be more careful in selecting it that the shpper/seller verifies full coverage on the purchase value.

I am not presenting this information to challenge you in any way. Just to add information for the benefit of others considering a purchase from Canada.

-Bruce
alpha2data
on eBay

Sorry.. two notes.

There is a very slight error in my GST amount as I forgot to covert that one number. Add *1.54 to it to make it CA$

Second, at last I enquired, FedExp was the contract carrier for the USPS Express Mail service, but at far better rates than a person selecting them directly to ship to Canada.

-Bruce
alpha2data
on eBay.com

Well this is quite the coincidence, I'm the brand new Pronto owner that Bruce has mentioned above!

I considered many options buying this remote such as:

1. buying the Marantz which is available in Canada (it's really really expensive up here, I think A&B Sound has it for around $800)

2. using BorderFree (I couldn't find a dealer at a good price, I didn't look very hard though)

3. wait until my next trip to the states

4. do without

Needless to say none of these were as good as dealing with Bruce. I feel I got a pretty good deal and it was very easy and fast. I highly recommend buying from Bruce.

A couple of notes, to the calculations above, my credit card statement shows 1.56 exchange so I paid a bit more (damn Canadian dollar!) I haven't received my invoice from PBB Global Logistics but I expect it to only be around $40. Purolator was the carrier used in my case.

Thanks again Bruce,

Glen

Hi Glen...

How is it going?

Yes, Purolator is the carrier _in_ Canada, but FedExp is the contract carrier for the USPS _to_ Canada last I was advised here in the lower 48.

Until after Friday the 13th of July, the routings for a short time were temporarily all going through Ontario. That caused problems in Canada. The USPS changed back to routing Western Canada through B.C. after that date.

That is why you got delivered from the New York region to Calgary in two days. Aslo, I try to ship directly from the international airport when possible. I drive the shipments to the postal facility right on the airport grounds.

On the 1.54 vs 1.56 it is hard to keep track, although it appears the 1.56 has been around for a couple of months and I should have used that.

-Bruce
alpha2data

I don't doubt that you can get it cheaper via the auction route, but I just wanted to know EXACTLY what the thing was going to cost me up front. I have been burnt in the past by additional shipping/handling charges. Using Borderfree, I was able to make a decision based on the final number. I bought a RU890 which is the european version of the Pronto 1000. I control 9 devices (4 tabs per device) plus several customs screens using Daniel's muti-tab interface and still have over 50% available memory. I paid 368.00 CDN total. I figure this will satisfy me until I HAVE to get colour. I'll watch for alpha's auctions when the time comes and we'll see what happens. Thanks for the info.

Hi Tony...

Just an FYI as many people don't seem to be aware of this.... eBay almost a year ago now, not sure of the exact time it started, put into its system something that has the same functionality as a traditional sales channel.

At the Seller's option they can list a minimum bid price, a reserve (minimum selling price), and, most important, something called a "Buy It Now" price.

A potential buyer looking at auctions can see, on an item like the Pronto, a fixed price the seller is willing to sell the item for _instantly_.... the "Buy It Now" price. You should also be able to see, the cost to ship too. If Canada is not listed, because the rates are easily done on a flat rate basis, then I would not buy from that vendor.

Where you can get taken with shipping is if other than USPS is used because the brokerage will mostly likely become a "gotcha". I would hope that any reliable reputable seller who has knowledge or experience with Canada and who has the interest of the Canadian customer in mind, would not do that to them.

Last.. if you were looking from eBay.ca as opposed to .com, you would be seeing all the pricing in Canadian dollars automatically.

-Bruce
alpha2data

This message was edited by alpha2data on 08/01/01 17:32.48.

Bruce is right,

I purchased my Pronto 2000 from him and I am located in Canada. Received my Pronto in 2 days (from Purolator), and a later statement from PBB logistics for PST, GST and Duty charges for a total of $65.00 Canadian. His shipping method is the best to avoid high brokerage fees (it costed me $6.00 CND).

Bruce, I sold my Pronto 2000 a couple of weeks ago in the MarketPlace forum (was not expecting to sold it in three days...), in the hope to get the ProntoPro.
Would you let me know when you will sell them?

I'm just curious how long did it take for the statement from PBB take to get to you. It's been a couple of weeks since I got my Pronto and I haven't got the statment yet. Not that I'm really looking forward to another bill to pay ;)