What are your policies when it comes to any Canadian brokerage fee, pricing, and/or exchange rates?
If you are shipping your order to a Canadian address, this information is for you!
Paula's Choice, and in fact all online companies (whether they have a physical presence in Canada or not), are taxed on all orders we ship into Canada unless the merchandise subtotal on the package is under $20.00. For clarity and convenience, Paula's Choice chooses to charge Canadian taxes up front. Essentially, for Canadian orders, we collect the GST or HST (as applicable), a flat rate brokerage fee of $5.00, as well as shipping charges at point of sale. Orders that are under $20.00 are not subject to any of these charges except for shipping. To read more about importing by mail and orders under $20.00, please click here: http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/import/courier/menu-eng.html
This $5.00 brokerage fee we charge is not a government or customs fee. This is a flat rate, per-package fee which is collected to cover a portion of the fee charged to us by our shipping carrier for handling the cross-border transactions and customs clearance of the package. This means that, unlike online orders from other companies you may have placed in the past, there should never be any "surprises" at the door of extra charges assessed to you for customs fees, duties, taxes, etc. Please note that the brokerage fee is non-refundable should you choose to refuse or return a package.
Additionally, while the prices of our items are the same for Canadian clients as they are for U.S. clients, please note that our prices and your order total throughout checkout are always displayed in U.S. dollars. We are sorry, but we do not have a way to display your total in Canadian dollars at this time. We will simply charge your total in U.S. dollars to your chosen method of payment, and then it is up to your bank to determine how much this charge converts to in Canadian dollars, based on the current exchange rate and any currency conversion fees they may charge. If you wish to know what your total will be in Canadian dollars, you will need to contact your bank, advise them that you are placing an online order with a U.S.-based company, provide them with your order total in U.S. dollars, and ask them what Canadian dollar amount you can expect to see on your billing statement for this order for most accurate results.