***Chain Reaction Cycles - SCAM***

PB Forum :: Canada - East
***Chain Reaction Cycles - SCAM***
Author Message
flag uncle-gee
Posted: Mar 5, 2021 at 16:10 Quote
Most sellers: No prepaid duties and no taxes. So it's a hit or miss if customs charge them or not when crossing the border. Most of the time they don't, so on average it's advantageous this way.

Jenson: Have to prepay duties and taxes. A real turn off to see a foreign business collecting for another country. This is like being more catholic than the pope. But at least you know the final cost up front.

CRC: you have two choices:
a) Prepay duties and taxes (like Jenson); or
b) Don't prepay duties and taxes (thinking the shipment is going to end up with the national courier and it's going to be a hit or miss situation if customs decides to charge) BUT here is the scam... the package always ends up with Skynet who charge not only the duties and taxes, but ALSO suspiciously high and unjustified handling fees; moreover Skynet does not provide the importation documents which you need to get the duties and taxes refunded in case you return the item for refund. Should you decide to return the item for refund and ask Skynet for the importation documents to get the duties and taxes refunded, Skynet will say that for the "convenience of customers" (BS) they organize the refund of the duties and taxes. Fine. BUT... believe it or not... Skynet organize all that for an additional FEE. They will never give the importation documents. Anything that says shipped through Skynet I don't buy anymore. it's total SCAM.

Also, Skynet is just a "middleman" in the whole delivery process... It's UPS that will knock at your door. Big Grin
And if you call UPS... they know nothing about Skynet.

Any sane person would logically go with the "Most sellers" initially mentioned above.

Otherwise, Jenson or CRC option a) is more or less for tax-fetishists. (Those who wont sleep at night if their item did not get fully taxed)

Finally CRC option b) is basically to bend over
flag volcomaustin
Posted: Apr 30, 2021 at 16:51 Quote
Its because of covid the prices are hhigher whats so hard to understand its supply and demand right now. pay the extra cost and get your stuff reliably or save $20 and have a hard/unreliable time... not a tough choice here. If you can't afford to pay duty and express then don't order parts. Good rule to live by if you cant buy it 3 times you cant afford it.
flag DownHooligan
Posted: Apr 30, 2021 at 22:25 Quote
volcomaustin wrote:
Its because of covid the prices are hhigher whats so hard to understand its supply and demand right now. pay the extra cost and get your stuff reliably or save $20 and have a hard/unreliable time... not a tough choice here. If you can't afford to pay duty and express then don't order parts. Good rule to live by if you cant buy it 3 times you cant afford it.


This has been going on waaay before COVID.
flag cmcrawfo
Posted: May 1, 2021 at 6:48 Quote
DownHooligan wrote:
volcomaustin wrote:
Its because of covid the prices are hhigher whats so hard to understand its supply and demand right now. pay the extra cost and get your stuff reliably or save $20 and have a hard/unreliable time... not a tough choice here. If you can't afford to pay duty and express then don't order parts. Good rule to live by if you cant buy it 3 times you cant afford it.


This has been going on waaay before COVID.

It also has nothing to do with the cost of the actual goods. It’s about hidden and manipulated shipping/duty fees levied by one particular carrier.

So maybe he means, if you can’t afford to ship it 3x don’t buy it?
flag rexluthor
Posted: May 2, 2021 at 9:02 Quote
Smallest order I’ve ever placed and likely last order I’ll ever place with CRC:

A bottle of Squirt chain lube and a Campagnolo bb clip (no lbs had this cheap little spring clip). Total order $15.48 CAD.

shipping $8.99 CAD

Duty, taxes and whatever else SkyNet charges for: $12.98. (it was brockerage plus a 55c payment processing fee)

I'm sure CRC switched to all orders being trackable just due to incessant customer service contacts for "where's my order" or "lost order" when it was taking a long time. Hard to blame them.

Charging anything beyond the shipping cost (paid up front) on a sub $20 order is done by only one carrier and that is skynet. I'd happily come back to CRC in the future but won't use them again as long as they are using skynet.

We all want/need bike parts, but you really have to ask yourself if being eff'd is worth it. By choosing CRC you are saying you're ok with skynet. I can't believe anyone is because they are outright stealing your money.
flag nedD
Posted: May 13, 2021 at 10:53 Quote
rexluthor wrote:
Duty, taxes and whatever else SkyNet charges for: $12.98. (it was brockerage plus a 55c payment processing fee)

$12.98 for tax/duties and brokerage isn't all that bad tbh. What's that like $8 or $9 for brokerage? Back in 2011 (the good old crc days) canada post was charging $7. Canada post definitely charges more now. And CBSA has been more diligent about import customs over the past few years, so even low amount purchases are more likely to get dinged for tax/duties.

I'd say if you're going to order from crc just do a big order ($150+) and choose the duty paid option. Once you hit the free shipping amount all the shipping options are free, with duty paid you are just paying the tax/duties, which crc seems to set at a blanket 15% for everything. Then you just have to cross your fingers and hope skynet doesn't try and charge you more fees. People's experience on this looks to be pretty split; some get extra fee charges, while other's have no problems.

It would be interesting to hear what people ordered when they got hit with extra fees, i.e was it something that should have had duties charged but didn't? Things like clothing, built wheels, full bikes, chemical products. It could be because crc just puts a blanket 15% tax/duties on the duty paid option that things such as this are getting checked by CBSA and then require more paper work by the courier to correct the improper application of tariffs for those items.
flag cmcrawfo
Posted: May 13, 2021 at 14:33 Quote
I have found Jensons to be better for shipping and overall costs. There is also greater availability of products, as you are not restricted by regional sales prohibitions from manufacturers ( sram, I am talking to you)

CRC is dead to me. Between wiggle and skynet , they really eroded any value that was there previously. I wonder if CRC didn’t manipulate things prior to their sale to increase their customer base / value.
flag DownHooligan
Posted: May 13, 2021 at 14:43 Quote
cmcrawfo wrote:
I have found Jensons to be better for shipping and overall costs. There is also greater availability of products, as you are not restricted by regional sales prohibitions from manufacturers ( sram, I am talking to you)

CRC is dead to me. Between wiggle and skynet , they really eroded any value that was there previously. I wonder if CRC didn’t manipulate things prior to their sale to increase their customer base / value.

I've started ordering from Fanatik, Worldwide, and Jenson, no nonsense.
flag nathanieltroy03
O+
Posted: May 26, 2021 at 7:29 Quote
My order rang in at $150.41 from CRC so I chose the free shipping option. Skynet asked me to pay $52.69 in duties, ~33% of my order. yah right.
flag rexluthor
Posted: Jun 10, 2021 at 10:04 Quote
nedD wrote:

$12.98 for tax/duties and brokerage isn't all that bad tbh. What's that like $8 or $9 for brokerage? Back in 2011 (the good old crc days) canada post was charging $7. Canada post definitely charges more now. And CBSA has been more diligent about import customs over the past few years, so even low amount purchases are more likely to get dinged for tax/duties.

Sorry, maybe I did a poor job describing my issue with the skynet charge.

Canada Post may charge their $9.50 (or is it $10 now?) import/brokerage fee and then apply the necessary taxes and duties. HOWEVER, if the order is less than $20, none of that applies: no brokerage + no taxes + no duties. This is 100% true and is also spelled out plainly on the Canada Post website.

Also, UPS or FedEx will not charge brokerage, taxes or duties on a shipment to Canada under $20. I do not know about other carriers. And UPS does a good job of making the aforementioned fact very clear on their website.

So my point was that skynet was already being paid $9 to ship my package. There should be no other charges but there are just because they can. And I call that theft. That's all.
flag Bob-Agg
Posted: Jun 11, 2021 at 16:22 Quote
rexluthor wrote:
nedD wrote:

$12.98 for tax/duties and brokerage isn't all that bad tbh. What's that like $8 or $9 for brokerage? Back in 2011 (the good old crc days) canada post was charging $7. Canada post definitely charges more now. And CBSA has been more diligent about import customs over the past few years, so even low amount purchases are more likely to get dinged for tax/duties.

Sorry, maybe I did a poor job describing my issue with the skynet charge.

Canada Post may charge their $9.50 (or is it $10 now?) import/brokerage fee and then apply the necessary taxes and duties. HOWEVER, if the order is less than $20, none of that applies: no brokerage + no taxes + no duties. This is 100% true and is also spelled out plainly on the Canada Post website.

Also, UPS or FedEx will not charge brokerage, taxes or duties on a shipment to Canada under $20. I do not know about other carriers. And UPS does a good job of making the aforementioned fact very clear on their website.

So my point was that skynet was already being paid $9 to ship my package. There should be no other charges but there are just because they can. And I call that theft. That's all.

I came to this thread because I just got an invoice for $12.98 for my order of $18.99. I sent them a message asking what the charge was for with the relevant passage from CBSA:

Memorandum D8-2-16,
3. In respect of imported goods, other than goods imported from Mexico or the United States, that are transported into Canada by courier: when the value for duty does not exceed CAD$20 per shipment, these goods are non-taxable under the Goods and Services Tax/Harmonized Sales Tax (GST/HST) under Schedule VII to the Excise Tax Act and are granted remission of all customs duties, excise taxes, and provincial sales taxes (PST).

Surprisingly enough, no reply.
I paid shipping, that is my handling fee and clearly there is no processing to be done.

The last time I ordered with prepaid duties it got sent to Ontario and then back and forth between different warehouses for two weeks before it was sent out to BC on my 2-4 day delivery promise. I am done with CRC, it seems like I'll just have to pay this one then get a charge back from visa.

No more CRC for me Frown
flag DJ-24
Posted: Jun 11, 2021 at 18:00 Quote
CRC has turned to shit since they were acquired by Wiggle. I've been buying all my parts from Bike24 in Germany. They have great selection, good prices and reasonable shipping.
flag nedD
Posted: Jun 14, 2021 at 17:53 Quote
rexluthor wrote:
So my point was that skynet was already being paid $9 to ship my package. There should be no other charges but there are just because they can. And I call that theft. That's all.

Fair enough @rexluthor. I didn't know about this $20 limit tax/duty thing. Guess it would cost the gov more to collect the small amount of tax/duty than the revenue it would generate. So yeah, skynet is acting unethically trying to collect extra fees in cases such as this.

And to add my recent experience with crc for this thread; I placed an order shortly after I posted here to see how it would go. Did pre paid duty shipping. Long story short, after two weeks and no tracking status update I contacted crc. They looked into it and said dhl lost the package, so they offered a full refund. Waited another ten days to get the refund to my credit card. I guess not the worst outcome but I literally watched parts sell out at other places I could have gone to.

So no more crc for me. Not worth the hassle or stress.
flag pirati
O+
Posted: Jun 16, 2021 at 10:58 Quote
Just adding my experience with my latest (and last...) CRC order to BC.

- I choose to not pay import taxes at CRC checkout, expecting that (like in the past) shipping would arrive through Canada post
- received text and email messages from SkyNet asking to pay fees
- tried to pay through their website (that doesn't look very professional), but my CC did not seem to trust their payment through Moneris
- finally paid by calling them with my CC details
- reveived an invoice from them for my payment
- they confirmed that delivery will be made by UPS

The fees were reasonable , but are now unavoidable. On top of that, dealing with SkyNet was just too much hassle.

CRC used to be my go-to online retailer, but customer service just has declined so will not consider them for future purchases.
flag Pumpero
Posted: Jun 19, 2021 at 12:50 Quote
I’ve never been charged duty and taxes for ordering a cassette and chain from chain reaction in the past.
Two days ago I ordered them again for 110$ which includes 10$ for shipping.

Today I got a text and email from SkyNet Express that I have to pay $26.18 for duty and charges.
Is this a scam?????
Never payed anything extra for the same items in the past.

 


Copyright © 2000 - 2024. Pinkbike.com. All rights reserved.
dv42 0.031221
Mobile Version of Website