Are there any Canadians out there that have ordered from GSA? Were there brokerage / duty fees payable at a later date? What was the shipping cost like?

Bit late in answering but.. I'm in Canada also. I have not ordered from Global sugar art, but have ordered from other US cake supply websites, and yes, you do have to pay brokerage fees and duty. I have to pay at my door before the delivery person would give me my parcels.

I gave up ordering from the US as its just too costly. My great deal of a lifetime air brush that was originally 200 bucks got extremely expensive after paying $45 shipping, a brokerage tax of $50 and an extra brokerage fee of $75. None of it made sense so called the company. The reply I got was "gee, we didn't realize Canadians got charged so much extra?" Then the gentleman I was talking with was kind enough to give me a 6 dollar credit towards my next order.

A magazine I ordered on piping that cost $7 US from another cake site cost me an extra $14 dollars for shipping & handling on top of the original $9 shipping cost. All in all it became a very expensive magazine.

Any orders I make now I do through Squires in the UK or Flour Confections in Canada. Theres no duty or brokerage fees when ordering from the UK. (not so far anyway) as we're conected. You know, the Queen and all!

Heres the links if you'd like to check them out.

http://www.flourconfections.ca/

http://www.squires-shop.com/ibf/index.php?p=home&loc=CA

Another good Canadian site is Golda's Kitchen in Mississauga, ON. http://goldaskitchen.com/

Sometimes when ordering from the U.S. if they will ship USPS you aren't charged all those extra fees. UPS is a courier, so that's where you run into all the extra charges. HTH

Goldas kitchen is not the greatest for shipping if you live in BC. I wanted a single cutter, just a small one at 5 dollars and the base rate for shipping to bc for that was $10. Not something I'm willing to pay within Canada.

I have ordered from Global Sugar Art many times. They have great service. Their shipping is a bit much, but I figure it would cost me more at other places.....like Golda's. Golda's is great if you need something asap, but their prices are a lot higher for some items. With the dollar being a lot better, I don't mind.
I have never paid any brokerage fees with GSA. Just the shipping they quoted me. I usually get it within a week or a bit more.

I don't know what you paid for shipping, but there is an automatic $7.50 handling charge on international orders through GlobalSugarArt according to their website, and the cheapest shipping through USPS to Canada that I could find was $11.45. (and that was just for an envelope sized package) Almost $19.00 before I've even decided what I want to order.

The good thing is that you can usually find things there that our Canadian suppliers don't have. And yes, their prices on a lot of things are a lot less. I guess it would depend on how much I really wanted something whether or not I'd pay the extra twenty or so dollars on top of my cost.

I have never oprdered something from Global Sugar Art simply cause i dont have a credit card or paypal ....

I do my shopping in person at Flour Confections and I love there store although I wish they had a bigger area to house a larger selection.

I also go to McCall's in Etobicoke... they have a great selection of everything you can think of and even somethings you wouldnt think of LOL.

I do admit that living in Durham Region and Driving out to McCall's does not make shopping there a great value with gas being as high as it is... but luckaly my sister lives near them and she does my McCalls shopping for me and I just pick it up from her

But I do find that although McCalls has an awesome selection that Flour Confections is competatively priced and have been a loyal cust since they opened their doors.

If they dont have what your looking for they will certainly try and find it for you!

You can also shop online with them at both McCalls and Flour Confections.

Hope this helps

G_Cakes...Flour confections is moving to a larger location. Their store front will be facing Brock Rd. I'm not sure what date they are moving...sometime this month or in November is what I think they said. So, I think they will have a larger shopping area then.

I have been looking through the GlobalSugarArt site and they do have a lot that I might be interested in. I might give a try ordering just to see how much it might cost. Short of that, maybe a weekend cross border shopping trip will be in order...about 6 hours to Plattsburgh, NY!

I am in Calgary, and order often from Global Sugar Arts. I find they have things that I just can't get here.

I have never been charged a $7.50 handling fee, just the shipping fee. I also have never been charged brokerage.

I find if you order from the States, and get it shipped USPS, and if the value of your order is under $100.00, there will be no brokerage or customs fee.

If your order is more than $100.00 and shipped USPS, there is a small brokerage fee (under $5.00) that Canada Post charges you, along with whatever duty you need to pay.

I never order from a place that ships UPS, as their brokerage fee is unbelievable. I once ordered an $70.00 item, and paid $40.00 in brokerage fees to UPS.

Didn't mean to write a book here, but my shipping from Global Sugar Arts is usually about $7.50 - $8.00, I usually order just cutters or other things that would fit in a shipping envelope. My last order was a Scherezada Blonde Mold by RVO, retail @ $19.99 and $7.51 for shipping. To me, totally worth it.

I have tried to place an order three times and no luck so I finally gave up. No emails with the shipping estimates, not sure what's up but I try to just find stuff elsewhere. Flourconfections.ca has a lot of the same stuff. I also shop at Goldas and their shipping is very fast.

I have also heard that it is cheaper to order from England than the US.