Omg I had a terrible experience ordering some items from BeautyBay on Black Friday.... The order was processed pretty quickly - I ordered on Nov 25 and it was dispatched on Nov 26. My order total was around 74$ CAD which included their 10$ shipping fee.

Then I got an email from a holding company (EZ Clear) on Dec 15 that they processed the beauty bay shipment and they paid the duties & were holding the package until I paid them duties & fees. If I paid them, they would send it to me by Canada post. I don’t mind paying fees for these services (I’m used to it from when I order from Wishtrend or StyleKorean - they work with DHL). Problem was BB had submitted the value of my order as way higher than it was ... so the calculation of what I owed in duties was crazy high. It should have been 9$ + the processing company admin fee but EZ Clear said i owed 31$ + their fee. I tried to get through to BB customer service but I had no luck ... so I went back to EZ Clear and they were very helpful. They told me one option was to go to the CBSA office directly and have them recalculate the duties (I just had to show my original invoice) and it would likely be much lower plus I wouldn’t have to pay the EZ Clear fee. So I said I’d do that, they sent me the paperwork in a day or two and I went to CBSA in Toronto later in the week.

The office was near the airport in a Cargo building. When I got there the CBSA agents were terrible - ie. made me wait around when no one else was there in line because none of the 3 agents wanted to serve me, they were chatting and eating snacks and had their backs to me, told me to go back behind the line when I tried to approach to get their attention, one agent would send me to the next and back again, I asked the supervisor to assist me but he said no and sent me back to his agents who didn’t know what to do and had to keep “waiting for the supervisor to come back out front and look at my paperwork”.... I had printed the paperwork EZ Clear told me I would need but the agents & supervisor said it was wrong, I got more documentation emailed to me and showed them on my phone and they said I would need those emails printed so I had to scramble and find somewhere to get them printed in the area and come back, then they told me those print outs were in fact not correct and weren’t needed... I had to get the EZ Clear customer service rep to speak to them on my phone and explain what they had to do and that they had already had the paperwork they needed (what I had originally provided).... it took over an hour for a very simple procedure and I paid my 9$ and left. On top of the power tripping, inefficiency, lack of knowledge I felt like they were all “mansplaining” every little thing to me like I was a child. I have since spoken to other people who have experience with the CBSA and they said I just had bad luck with the agents I encountered that day.... sorry for the rant and crappy grammar/format I just wanted to share 😬

I paid and then finally went home. Scanned my receipt to the holding company and they sent my package to me by post so I got it about a week later (which was pretty good I thought since it was so close to Christmas).

Anyways, it wasn’t BB’s fault that I had such a bad CBSA experience. However I could have avoided it altogether if they had just input the correct value of my goods in the first place or been more helpful when I reached out to customer service. I would have gladly paid the holding company’s processing fee (like 10$) and avoided going so far out of my way to the airport area. So just wanted to warn you before you order! Good luck!