# Ah ha moment regarding Stew Mac recently....



## Swervin55 (Oct 30, 2009)

I received an order last month from Stew Mac and for the first time in memory, I was charged duty by Canada Customs. When I looked at the import sheet it declared the goods were shipped from Sweden. So I appealed by letter with all supporting documentation. Canada Customs declined my appeal saying there were no supporting documents to prove the shipment came from the US. I emailed Stew Mac with an explanation of the problem and this was their response today....

[Quote:Thank you for contacting us. All of our international packages ship to Sweden before their destination. The custom duties and fees were more than likely assessed from the Canadian customs.]

This raises a couple of questions:
1. Why has this never happended before?
2. How does routing Canadian shipments through Sweden make any sense?


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## gtrguy (Jul 6, 2006)

I'm seeing this more and more- if a company can save a penny by working a deal with another postal service they will. As far as the duty- it's assessed based on the county of origin (where it was made) and not where it was shipped from.


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## BlueRocker (Jan 5, 2020)

I bought a link kit for my Champion generators last year. Called their Canadian office in BC and paid for the item, got a tracking number. Item was shipped from California through Heathrow airport in the UK then to Toronto and Halifax.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I first learned about this via the infamous case of Canadian Geographic magazine. Subscribers were scandalized to find that, although published in Ottawa, shipping containers of the magazine were shipped to Columbia, where they were mailed out from. 

Postage rates and cutoff points for this rate vs that vary from country to country. So country X may have favorable rates for printed material or parcels within such-and-such dimensions or weight. Nations are obliged to honour the delivery of mail sent from other countries, regardless of how cheap the postage is. If some country charges a penny a pound to mail parcels, Canada Post still has to pay their people to deliver a 20lb parcel from that country without charging the recipient any more...apart from duty.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

Yes, all smaller shipments from Stew Mac go to Sweden before coming to Canada. Larger Items come Fedex. I agree it makes no sense at all.

I've always bitched about what that does to delivery times, but this is the first I've heard of customs evaluating a parcel as if it came from Sweden, not the US. Pretty sh!tty


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## 1SweetRide (Oct 25, 2016)

And the environmental cost.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

here's a link to the thread about Stew Max & StewMax shipping

StewMax Membership


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## Swervin55 (Oct 30, 2009)

At least this helps explain why the last two shipments from SM took a month.


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## Swervin55 (Oct 30, 2009)

Lincoln said:


> here's a link to the thread about Stew Max & StewMax shipping
> 
> StewMax Membership


Thanks Linc. I read the entire thread. Had I been more astute and read this thread when it was posted, I probably wouldn't have pursued StewMax membership.


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

That's crazy that they ship it overseas to come next door, unreal.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I haven't ordered from them in months, because they have defaulted to DHL-only, but previous to that, when I ordered from Tayda - who are based in Thailand - many packages would first go to Germany and then be shipped from there. Depending on package size, some would come via Singapore.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

And they've changed the rules along the way too. The first year I could order speakers with free shipping. This year however, they want a shipping surcharge for speakers.


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## teleboli (Aug 19, 2009)

Corporate weasels doing their weaselly corporate thing. 

I stopped using Paypal because of their different but equally silly practices.

Who'd like to join my ever growing 'shut down' list? Step right up.


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## Doug B (Jun 19, 2017)

sulphur said:


> That's crazy that they ship it overseas to come next door, unreal.



Me thinks we need to get a GuitarsCanada boycott going against StewMac. There are Canadian companies to order from with no duties at all!


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

Doug B said:


> Me thinks we need to get a GuitarsCanada boycott going against StewMac. There are Canadian companies to order from with no duties at all!


You probably can source a lot of stuff up this way by now. It seems to be getting better.
Back when I was placing orders from them, our dollar was on par, so that was many moons ago.


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## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

BlueRocker said:


> I bought a link kit for my Champion generators last year. Called their Canadian office in BC and paid for the item, got a tracking number. Item was shipped from California through Heathrow airport in the UK then to Toronto and Halifax.


That's nuts.


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## player99 (Sep 5, 2019)

I let my Stewmax expire. Their products are over the top expensive.


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## brokentoes (Jun 29, 2014)

Should be renamed Screw Max'D


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## zztomato (Nov 19, 2010)

mhammer said:


> I haven't ordered from them in months, because they have defaulted to DHL-only, but previous to that, when I ordered from Tayda - who are based in Thailand - many packages would first go to Germany and then be shipped from there. Depending on package size, some would come via Singapore.


I had some issues with them over their move to DHL. I spoke with a couple of people at Stewmac and was told to just request FedEx when I place an order. It seems they are now using Fedex again and may have even stopped DHL all together. DHL is even worse than UPS for cross border shipping- I didn't think that was possible.


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## Lincoln (Jun 2, 2008)

I've had good luck with DHL. They always have the lowest rates, and more importantly, the package is on my door step in 2 days from Arizona, even through covid. They hit me for about $20 on a $100 package (border fee + GST) but I've been hit way harder by UPS. I've paid $80 to get a $100 UPS package across the border.


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## gtrguy (Jul 6, 2006)

Lincoln said:


> I've had good luck with DHL.


Same here. Much lower fees than UPS/Fedex and they make it easy to pay online before the package arrives so there aren't any delays.


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## sisidori (Nov 12, 2017)

Dropped stew mac long ago. Solo Guitars in Vaughan os my go to now. Better pricing, no currency exchange needed and faster/ cheaper shipping.


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## Fred Gifford (Sep 2, 2019)

every time I ordered from Stewmac I always paid the extra for FedEx and it was at my door in 36 hours, beats shipping it to Sweden


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

If it was ONLY the shipping costs, DHL would be great. However, they would not deliver to my home, necessitating a 40 minute drive there and 40 minutes back (they are located on the complete opposite end of the city from me), were going to charge me a flat brokerage fee of $20 (plus GST on that), for a package of parts that was worth $19.47USD when it left Thailand. The brokerage fee was because someone at DHL calculated duty owing on materials that are not manufactured anywhere in Canada. Postal service was not as fast, but I pay no duty, no brokerage fee, and the stuff comes direct to my mailbox. Not a helluva lot of incentive there to use DHL. I assume they provide an optimal solution for *somebody*,or else they wouldn't be in business very long. But that somebody isn't me. Never again.


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## TheYanChamp (Mar 6, 2009)

mhammer said:


> I haven't ordered from them in months, because they have defaulted to DHL-only, but previous to that, when I ordered from Tayda - who are based in Thailand - many packages would first go to Germany and then be shipped from there. Depending on package size, some would come via Singapore.



Singapor2 has #2 largest port in the world. Germany #19, but its on the way west. I'm not sure if port hubs are also air-freight hubs?

Regardless, the waste is ridiculous. Its like commuting to work via the next province over. I wonder how much the shipping unions lobby those government's to be able to reduce tariffs and subsidize shipping enough to make that economical.


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## zztomato (Nov 19, 2010)

I've been using the Stewmac free service for a couple of years now. I was quite surprised to find out that small packages end up going to Sweden. What a ridiculous waste of energy to save a few cents. It also takes upwards of a month to get here.
However, if you order something long- like fretwire, it goes in a bigger box and seems to arrive within a week. I've ordered a few things from them that I can't get locally - probably 5 packages over the last two months- and the two that had fretwire in the box I got right away. The other boxes that were all small took a month.


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## Shawn B. (Aug 10, 2012)

I have had the same issue; multiple times. Worse, I have called customer support, and the agent made no comment when I informed him the package had a Swedish postmark. This certainly explains why he wasn't surprised. I have also had issues with DHL and brokerage charges-after my last Stew Mac order (one on which they paid shipping because I had been shipped the wrong product) I got a phone call from accounts receivable at DHL--a month after the package had been dropped at my door (and after the driver had said "no charge"). 

I will not buy from Stew Mac again. I've been ordering from Next Gen, Amazon.ca, and Solo Music for the most part. They can't match Stew Mac's selection, but at least my packages arrive in a reasonable time and I know what my shipping will cost in advance of my purchase.


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