Sep 25
“Fear Mongering” Gazette strikes again!
This morning’s article by Ann Sutherland “Buying Winter tires in the U.S. presents slippery questions” is nothing but unbiased fear mongering. It appears the Gazette is attempting to “scare” Canadians into staying home to get “gouged” at their local tire store!
We are hoping Canadian Consumers are smarter than that, but it would have been nice to see someone report the proper facts.
In her example she did not indicate what the true savings would be for the $99 Michelin X-ice at Sears in Vermont.
We called and the installation and balancing is around $16.00 each after tax ( 6% in Vermont) . One might decide to buy the tires and have them installed and balanced in Canada.
So the real savings are:
(Purchased in Canada) $166.50 plus tax times 4 = $751.75
versus
(installed in the U.S)
$99.00 + 16.00 installation + 6% vermont tax +6% exchange times 4 + 5% Gst and 7.5% PST = $ 583.40 representing a savings of $168.34
Duty must be paid on any tires not manufactured in the U.S., Canada or Mexico.
Many astute shoppers are well aware that the savings are so significant that they do not need to lie at the border to save a couple of more dollars on Duty.
The reporting on the winter tire issue has just begun. The Gazette has failed miserably!
We encourage our members to write in to the Gazette at letters to the editor letters@thegazette.canwest.com, let them know how you feel!
George Iny with the APA is now getting involved and has indicated to me that they will be letting Canadians know they are getting gouged!
September 25th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Readers can do their own math. The Gazette is not trying to scare anyone. On your website you catalogued the trip to Massena in one day with no eligibility for a goods exemption. Nowhere does it say you declared the tires and paid duty or taxes.
Readers can make up their own minds, what their time is worth, what a drive to the US will cost.
Thank you for your thoughtful note.
A. Sutherland
September 25th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Ann, thank you for your short note. Please be advised that we declared everything at the border that was expected of us and it is documented in our article.
If you click on “The following is our price study” in our posting you will see we have included all our costs.
As per your input we will change our posting to be more emphatic. We do not encourage Canadians to skip out on paying duty or taxes. If we are saving over $300 why would we want anyone to take a chance on 20 or 30 dollars.
We still maintain that the you and the Gazette had a wonderful opportunity to let the Average hard working Canadian know that he/she is being priced gouged and you turned it into a “duty issue”.
September 25th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Your figures are interesting but you don’t seem to have calcualted the fedseral GST and the provincial sales tax on the U.S. Tires. You’d still have a significant saving, but that would add about $60 to your bill wouldn’t it? Or am I missing something?
Paul Waters
The Gazette
September 25th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Hi Paul, thanks for your note. The federal gst is included in our study -$21.00. And I have taken Ann’s advice and edited the entry to be more emphatic about paying the taxes as we crossed the border.
The border agency at Malone NY does not collect PST. (we were told that the Quebec government expects you to mail them the PST when you do not re-enter the country via Quebec) which would amount to $32.76 in our specific case and we will update our story to reflect this.
But the Gazette fails to tell real story. You indicated in your email to me that the that regardless “you would still have a significant savings”!
why didn’t you folks just say that on the headline…
“Canadians save significant $$$ shopping for Winter tires in the U.S.”
After closely following your reporting over the last year on Car Prices etc… we can understand why you are trying to protect your revenue base.
Just the other day one of your manager’s went to great lengths to tell me just how many U.S. ads the Gazette refused last fall. … they did not want to upset the Canadian Car Manufacturers that were gouging Canadians…
We understand that you do have an ethical dilema. Do you report the true facts to your readers, do you stop discriminating against U.S. car dealers and tire stores that want to advertise, or do you continue to protect the hand that feeds you…
We wonder what your readers would expect you to do?
Thanks again for your email. This controversy will not go away until the Canadian Companies decide to play fair with Canadians.
Robert Lamb
September 25th, 2008 at 10:57 am
We lay out the facts. Readers can make up their own minds what they want to do. Words like gouged are strong ones.
Thank you for writing.
A. Sutherland
September 25th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Thanks for writing. And the reporter has no input on the headline, that is an editor’s job. Don’t see the headlines until the paper hits the front door the next day.
A. Sutherland
September 25th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
This is just another example of advertising revenue dictating what the story is. In the case of the Gazette I believe that they are misleading their readers for the benefit of their advertisers. Why did Ms. Sutherland not obtain and refer to the data of carswithoutborders?
September 25th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
I purchased my Michelin X-Ice (225/60QR-16)back in March/2008 for $66 per tire, on Tirerack, they charged $37 for shipping; total order was $301USD. There was no sale taxe as it was ordered on line. Our Canadian $ was on par at the time. Since we stay 2 nights visiting family, we did not pay GTS&PST
The others costs are:
- $40 CAN installation & balancing at my garage
- $80 CAN gas to pick up tires at my relative in US (Should not even count because we visited them anyway)
TOTAL cost is: $301+40+80 = $421 compared to $820 at Costco in Canada. I saved $399 on four identical tires.
Let consider someone not staying 48 hours in US, then GST and PST (13% of $301 = $39)must be added.
On the same trip, we purchased four Bridgestone Blizzak 225-55-16. We saved exactly $495 (no gas cost of $80)
September 25th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Anne Sutherland & Paul Waters,
I just checked on Tirerack for your Maxima 2000 with tire size 215-55-16, you can buy four Bridgestone Blizzak REVO1 for $66.
Adding $48USD to ship the tire to Burlington. Your total bill will be $312USD.
These sames tires in Montreal will cost $176 x 4 = $704CAN.
With today conversion rate of 0.965; $704CAN purchase almost 9 tires in the US !!
Can you explain why there is a huge gap ? Where all that monies go to ? It must goes in some pockets…
Nowaday, it seems to me that our journalist dare not ask tough questions.
September 25th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
We actually owe our beginnings to the Gazette - they were the first who carried the story on Robert Lamb and the car without a country - they started the ball rolling with the pretty little Honda - This lead to CarsWithoutBorders - Canadian petitions - changed regulations.
They must have got their hands slapped pretty hard - so from now on they write a different story. A scary venture - very slippery?
The Gazette is perhaps one of the first to report on the tires issue (after monitoring CarsWithoutBorders) but they don’t seem to help consumers - they want to please the advertisers. They wanted to promptly expose the great threat that Canadians incur when buying tires in the US. SHAME on you. I hope the other media that will eventually decide to report on this issue will give the real story. I hope they don’t wait until 70% of the Quebecers have bought their winter tires in la Bellle Province at inflated prices…
Note that this is good for summer tires also.
September 25th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
A number of years ago (probably about 15 years ago), the Border guards on the Canadian side made a big deal about the fact that if you installed items such as tires on a vehicle, they would deem it to be an improvement to the vehicle and charge import duties and taxes on the value of the vehicle rather than the value of the goods. One agent actually told me a story of a poor fellow that had the duty calculated on the value of his motor home for some minor repairs done. This also seemed to coincide with one of the first questions asked when driving back from the U.S.. (i.e., Did you have any work done to your vehicle while you were in the U.S.?).
Anyway, this scared me so much at the time that when I went down to the states to buy tires, I bought them but had them installed back in Canada. Has this policy now been abandoned?
Thanks, Don
September 25th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
I live in Ottawa so I don’t read the Montreal Gazette regularly and haven’t read this article yet. As a general rule, I know that news should always report the facts without reporters’ opinions. I feel that the title of this article presents an opinion so I’m sure the content does too.
I’m not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet but we have to keep in mind that in most cases, Canadian retailers are not the bad guys in most instances of these huge price differences between Canada and the U.S. The multinational manufacturers control the MSRPs and consumers have only themselves to blame for continuing to buy. Education is the key and most of the time the media plays a large role. Too bad it’s the manufacturers that sponsor the media and hence influence the education or lack thereof. Thank goodness for the Internet though and for sites like CWB.
September 26th, 2008 at 7:50 am
Bob, I agree with Anne Sutherland that gouged is a strong word.
In our willingness to appease, may I suggest that we use one of the following in future correspondence:
Extorted, squeezed, racked, wrung, overcharged, soaked, fleeced, plumed, plucked, robbed, or hooked.
My favourite is fleeced, however, you be the judge.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Everybody is free to buy where they want to get the best deal…. OOPS except for cars. AND don’t beleive too much of what you read in the papers.
September 26th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Ok so who wants to start the new website….Tires without borders hahahah
September 28th, 2008 at 8:41 am
I recently bought new tires for my (U.S. Town Car )from the tire rack. Had them shipped directly to the installer. When they arrived he sent an email and I made an appointment to have them installed. I paid 80.00 / tire from the Tire Rack and had a fixed price for the install. I declared them at the border and paid my PST & GST and still saved over 150.00 over the best quoted local price. I use a warehouse on the other side of the border and have had over 120 various items delivered there over the last year saving thousands. It’s not just the cars but parts etc. check out http://www.cbiusa.com (oh and they even take delivery of cars there) (:-)
I will no longer support those who think they can rip us off just because we are Canadian.
September 29th, 2008 at 11:29 am
I ordered 4 Michelin X-Ice tires last year from Tirerack.com. Had them shipped directly to my home in Montreal. You don’t have to cross the border, just costs a few bucks more in shipping! Tirerack showed me and charged all costs up front (taxes, minor duty, shipping). I had them installed locally. I saved about $300 over the local retailer quoted in Ms.Sutherland’s article. I read the Gazette piece last week and laughed at the poor reporting. Very one sided, I would have liked to see an apples:apples comparison. I don’t think the word gouged is too harsh - we are being gouged!
September 29th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
Bought four brand new tires from a big tire dealer in Florida. Company name is Tire Discount. The tires were all seasons as I go to Florida in the fall till spring. Cost me 465.00 installed and balanced. Checked the equivilent tires up here in the GTA and cost was over 600.00 dollars. I agree with Cy that gouged is a strong word and that my favorlte is “ROBBED”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Roger
September 30th, 2008 at 5:09 am
It is not a startling saving - approximately 22%
Is it worth the effort and the wait
I am in favor of saving money - it is still $ 170 no question
If its put on a credit card - then the banks hit you
Nothing wrong with saving money - if you are there i guess so
If not is it worth the drive , the gas and dealing with those nice people at Canada Customs
September 30th, 2008 at 11:51 am
I did this last year - my four Michelin X-Ice that I paid $80 each instead of $140 each in Canada. I must say that I enjoyed the little trip to the States. It gave me and my wife a nice little trip. We went to the restaurant and some shopping while enjoying the roughly $240 savings. If you calculate your time as work at your hourly rate then it may not be worth it, but if you take it a a nice leasurely ride in the US for me it was worth it - and it gives the right message to our Canadian tire stores. We can and we will buy in the USA if you don’t respect the consumers.
October 1st, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Unless you really don´t have the time or inclination, it definitely is worth saving 22% not only for the money, but also as a matter of principle. Whenever I visit my sons in the US, I always have many packages from Amazon.com waiting for me. I refuse to be ripped off if I can avoid it. Why should we allow retailers and manufacturers to steal the appreciation in the Canadian dollar out of our pockets? As I´ve written before, why is a Gillette razor $9.95 in Boston and $13.95 at SDM in Toronto?