YesAsia in Canada - FYI for fellow Canadians
 

Hi,

So I decided to place an order with yesasia as I was told (thank you) about the fact they use a Canadian drop location, so I could avoid customs.

I ordered "Mind Game" which is an expensive disc, after asking if it would be shipped local. I also decided to use standard/free shipping

It's been a while and I still haven't got it, so I called Yesasia this morning to inquire, more so to find out where it was shipped from as I live in the city in which they used to send their drops

I found out today, they no longer (as of a month ago) use the agent in Canada. They ship all items direct from Hong Kong.

They said they realized that customs was taking longer on containers, so customers were getting delayed shipments. They said that they realize now sending each persons order through customs individually would actually speed things up and avoid delayed shipments.

Since the price of items has not changed at all, they save themselves the customs fee's as we now have to pay them. If I worked for yesasia, that would be a bigger benifit. No more customs fee's for me, higher profit margins.

I really have no reason too order from them now since their prices are higher than anyone's, and I cannot create my own customs forms. Since even with shipping Asian sites are cheaper, I'll take them just to avoid a higher customs charge.

If I end up paying a lot of customs of Mind Game, I'll reject it and ask for a refund only because I asked Yesasian in advance.

For all those who suggested to use Yesasia to avoid customs, I am not mad at you!! I just want to let everyone know before they get caught like I might.

A reminder, here's DVD Talk's link to <a href="http://us.yesasia.com/assocred.asp?CP9E8RT8+">Yes Asia</a>

Well ... that explains why I got dinged for customs on my copy of A Bittersweet Life ... that sucks ...

Well that explains why my last package came straight from HK. But that sucks since I always ordered enough titles from YesAsia to get free shipping and didn't have to worry about customs charges. Oh well, will have to look elsewhere now.

Crap...same as Twitch's, I also got dinged with a customs charge upon getting A Bittersweet Life. The charge wasn't that much as I would assume it was based on the retail cost of the dvd...and Korean dvds are usually decently priced. But if I order an expensive Japanese dvd set, that would probably mean I'd be paying an extra half the cost of the actual item!!!

I personally have been quite happy with YesAsia...and it's too bad that I now have to start looking elsewhere.

I just recieved my first order from them a few days ago and i didn't get hit by customs. The package was marked as gift. I did wonder why it took over a week to get to me though considering i live in the same city as their old shipping location. But i guess i now know. I'll still probably use them becuase of their free shipping and no matter what store i use i'll probably get hit by customs anyways.

A buddy of mine that posts on the forum said that his order from YesAsia actually got rejected by customs. He has no idea why. I'll ask him to post about it when he gets back from vacation.

That pretty much stops me from using YesAsia anymore.

Yep I just found this out today myself - got charged by customs on a YESASIA package. The weird thing is though, the value of the disc was under the $20 customs limit, but they didn't label it at all.. if they had I wouldn't have been charged.

What are the customs rules for dvd import from HK to the USA?

If I'm not mistaken, this reshipping practice, although quite convenient for us Canadians, was illegal. My guess is that YesAsia were pressured and didn't have much choice but to stop doing it.

I don't know how it would be illegal per se, but it could put them in violation of copyright law by having them effectively import foreign discs for resale that had been domestically licensed for sale here. They've blocked the sale of certain titles in North America in the past to stop themselves from crossing that line and this may be more of the same ... importing foreign titles from a foreign store is legal, but importing them for resale is not and they were kind of blurring that line ...

Well, I got my package and I ended up paying duties and taxes. I was not happy.

In terms of the person who's friends package was rejected, I'm wondering if the reason his package was rejected is because there was no return addy? In Canada (or so I've been told) unless there is a return addy the package won't make it into the country. I've have packages rejected before because the return information wasn't readable. I noticed my pacakge didn't have one, so I'm surprised it made it actually.

Want to know something funny? It told me if I had to return it, to ship it to some guy in Missassauga!! So I guess they're still using him to some extent? It wasn't even a business addy.

I don't know, but I recently ordered 3 DVDs from YesAsia and got them in about seven days. They were also very good about fixing a screw-up that occured as a result of paying by Paypal (the Paypal transaction completed but the link did not work, losing all record of the order after payment). I've made several large orders from Korea too (up to 20 DVDs) and I've never had a problem with customs or had to pay any extra charges.

Movıekıng ıs rıght. It was my package which was rejected. I payed through the nose for prıorıty shipping to get the package before I went on vacation. The package took forever and dıd not arrive anywhere close to their websıtes claim. It never arrıved before I left for vacation. I emailed them and they saıd the fırst dvd they sent was rejected by customs and they resent another dvd. Sure enough a week ınto my vacatıon the ın-laws send me a emaıl sayıng I had a slıp from canada post whıch basıcally means customs charges. Sıcne I am stıll out of the country I have no way to pıck up the package (postal offıce refused to let the ın-laws sıgn for ıt). I am guessıng the package ıs on ıts way back to HK.

Thıs basıcally means yesasıa ıs no longer useful for Canadıan customers sınce theır prıces are much hıgher and they are no longer customs frıendly.

Too bad as they were my maın e-taıler for ımport dıscs.

Cheers
Jas

PS Sorry for the typos as the keyboards here are dıfferent than the regular North Amerıcan ones I am used too.

Ugh... Back to DVDHeaven for me.

Damn. I am expecting 9 DVD's any day now (total cost was about $80). Any guesses on how much those customs Pricks are gonna charge me?

Any suggestions on other retailers, that perhaps wouldn't ding me with customs (Asia ones)? Thanks in advance.

Got 3 DVD's this morning and had to pay $10 in customs/handling/taxes. At least the package was undervalued at $22.75 CDN or it would have been a lot worse.

Gotta love that $5 "Handling Charge" ?! They may as well just charge PST, GST and HST (Handling Sales Tax)...

As a general rule, shipments with a commercial value of up to $200.00 can be imported into the US without paying duties (that's why I get my shipments sent to a mailbox in the US and bring them back into Canada myself. It's a good idea if you live close to the border and receive shipments from other countries on a regular basis).

Couldn't agreet with you more...

Yeah, that "handling fee" is disgusting. I just got 2 DVDs and a CD from YesAsia today and it was valued at around CA$23. My total fee was over $10, and half of it was the handling fee. It's ridiculous.

Here's a related question. Over at other Korean retailers, they give you the option of choosing what value they declare on the package. For a 3-DVD package, what's the lowest, unsuspicious value I can choose? $15? With many HK DVDs it's no problem, but a lot of the Korean DVDs look kind of pricey, and you never know when it will be opened...

As far as Korean DVDs my experience is that when the packages are marked around 20$ value and marked as gift they don't get checked by customs. The site I order from sends it registered mail as well and I never had a package checked when it was sent that way. Also, some online stores will print you an invoice to match the 20$ price range no matter how many items you have. So presumably even if customs open it they would not charge extra duty.

I was considering doing this, but I was worried that if they opened it, they'd see it wasn't really a "gift" after all. But I guess they can't really do anything about that, and they only occasionally open the packages, so I should do the same.

Hi,

Has anyone tried and ordered from YesAsia to ship to Canada, namely Toronto lately?

I'm thinking of getting SFLV and Election to qualify for the free shipping.

Am I still gonna get hit with some handling fee or customs/duty taxes?

Thanks.

I get dvds from Amazon (US) and CD Wow and have never been charged any duties. Have I just been lucky ? I thought CD WOW ships from HK (even though its based in UK)