sweaner wrote:OK, how about this: "I drove my Brewtus to WLL for a repair and am just bringing it back home."

They know that trick. They'll answer back, "Why didn't you declare it when you entered the US? OK, you have 7 days to show me your Canadian receipt, then you can have it back from our impound."

They can confiscate anything they find suspicious and it takes some time (and lots of paper work and fines) to get things back. You can also end up with a record on tax evasion.

Recently, I bought something on E-bay. I picked it up in the US and declared it at the Canadian border and paid taxes (being an honest guy) and they actually checked E-bay to confirm the price I stated was the actual price!

Be careful. I know lots of people who were not so honest, and not so lucky.

When you go to the facillity open the package and get the guys to show you the way everything works and have them help you do a set up and pull a few shots .

When you get to the border just tell them you picked up a USED machine ............

I have imported 2 espresso machines into Canada from the US, and did not have to pay duty on either machine. In the first instance, the duty was not charged, and in the second, it was charged (and paid), and then I submitted a form to recoup the duty. The import Tariff tables actually (or at least used to) exclude espresso machines from the 9% appliance duty fee, as they are considered commercial machines. Certainly a BIII could conceivably be used commercially. Here is the relevant Coffeegeek discussion about citing the relevant portion of the tariff table to either avoid or to recoup duty charges:

https://www.coffeegeek.com/forums/world ... ast/147412

As for the brokerage, you can import the unit yourself, and pay no brokerage. This can be done either in person or through paper-work that accompanies the machine. Alternately, you could ship via USPS, which charges a flat $5 fee for brokerage, or air-cargo the machine, where brokerage is covered by the freight charge. The USPS option can only be used for packages weighing less than 60lbs, so a BIII would be out of the running.

As to the currency issue - you will just have to wait a while for that one.

Mark

use usps as shipper - no duty - no broker - just pay gst/pst.

TheCod Father wrote:When you go to the facillity open the package and get the guys to show you the way everything works and have them help you do a set up and pull a few shots .

When you get to the border just tell them you picked up a USED machine ............

They still make you pay tax on second hand purchases (isn't Canada wonderful). I hear the government is going after the bigger E-bay vendors next to collect uncharged taxes.

I too am "shopping" from Canada. One of the factors for considering Salvatore is that it is American made, which means no duty. But the Canadian Dollar really sucks, no doubt about it. With the price of oil so low it is probably going to stay that way for awhile through this next year. I usually get stuff shipped to a friends house in Seattle and then declare it myself at the border. It is so true that honesty at the border is by far the best policy, but one can never know what to expect.

ok...next question: vibiemme domobar super available in canada? looks to be another nice machine that is not available here!!!! grrrrrr.

Vibiemme used to be available at a good price at http://www.coffeephilter.com. Although, it seems the website disappeared about the same time the Canadian dollar fell.

The Canadian online dealers I'm aware of are:

www.caffetech.com
www.espressotec.com
www.espressoplanet.com
www.greenbeanery.com

Although I'm sure there are more I missed.

There are also many local dealers that don't sell online. I'm sure there must be someone that carries Vibiemme in the Toronto area.

it looks like coffeephilter started out in 2007....our dollar only got stronger (although vs. the euro it was pretty steady). the canadian $ vs the euro now is pretty bad, which could explain the price increases some retailers are showing...was it recently that coffeephilter died? it looks like they may have been the ONLY vibiemme retailer in canada....

from the measurements i've seen it may be too tall to fit (reasonably) underneath our cabinets, so it looks like it's between the quickmill andreja and rocket giotto....

The Rocket is very short and I think the price has not yet been increased at Espressotec. Although, having compared the Quickmills and the Rocket, it seems like the Quickmills are slightly higher quality (IMO). The again, the Quickmills have all seen the price increase and are going for about $200 to $300 more than the Rocket Cellini/Giotto Premium Plus.

The Quickmill Andreja Premium can also be made quite short by removing the top rail.

For the money, I don't think you can beat the Oscar by Nuovo Simonelli (a very nice HX machine). I've seen them for only $1000 (almost half the price of the other HX's in Canada and actually about $200 cheaper than in the US!). If you can live with look of the plastic case, I think it's an amazing bargain!

http://www.caffetech.com/product.html?id=236

I think Mark Prince is evaluating it now for a upcoming review. When that happens, I'm sure the price will go up.