Trevor; why doesn't H and A ship to Canada?

Your northern cousins are missing out on some sweet deals here! Any chance H and A will change its policy and ship to Canada?

Bubber, you're wasting your time. I've asked Trevor the same question and it appears to me that Canada may not reside on the list of countries that H & A wants to sell to.

PM me and I'll give you the name of a state-side Honda dealer that WANTS to sell to us Canadians..!:D

I think probably import and export taxes, etc. Probably a bit of a headache

Has anyone asked H&A why they won’t sell to Canada? I’m just a little one man show that machines billet door sills on the weekends and I’ve sold more that a few to our fine club members to the north! There’s a little weirdness with my UPS shipping but it doesn’t stop me from getting my buddies the goods they want.

It is nothing personal. And it also isn't a decision that we just randomly came up with one day.

- Honda won't allow us to export any of the items.
I do realize that some dealers do export. That is their decision and by doing it they risk losing their franchise with Honda. A lot of places do things that we wouldn't be comfortable with. It is part of our dealership contract with Honda that we not export any items. Yes, Honda hasn't gone after them but at the same time they haven't gone after any of the other online stores for using "Honda" in their domain name and yet for some reason they went after us for using it so we aren't up for poking Honda with a stick just to get a few more sales, we're tired of hearing from Honda's legal department.
> If Honda cancels our dealership agreement then we are out of business, the risk just isn't worth it.

- Some of the items don't actually interchange.
Even though the vehicles come from the same place they do sometimes have differences, especially with things like wiring and connectors. We ran into that problem with some vehicles back when independent lots in the US were selling Canadian models and buying accessories from us. Honda provides no information on what will interchange, because they don't want any of the parts to cross the border. Even if most of the parts work, if the one you order doesn't then that is the part that matters.

- There would be no warranty on parts shipped outside the US.
Although some people are okay with this, we aren't. We won't sell an item we can't stand behind.

- Shipping charges can get high and even increase after the item is shipped.
Even with NAFTA they still charge fees for the parts crossing the border (especially since many of them aren't made in the US, Canada or Mexico). It isn't fun ordering something and thinking it is going to cost $20 in shipping and having it show up with an additional COD charge for brokerage or duty. We've had people tell us to just mark it as samples or gifts but that is fraud and we aren't into fraud.

- We don't have a method for processing international credit cards.
This even stops us from processing orders that would ship to drop addresses within the US. I've heard from people on these boards that have had their card number stolen and used to have items shipped to addresses in the US. When that happens the card company takes all the money back from the vendor and hits them with an extra fee at the same time. The card holder is covered but the vendor never is. A few too many of those transactions and a company is done for.

Yes, there are methods to deal with several of those problems, however Honda's ban on it is still there and we won't violate that so the expense and time to work through the other problems still wouldn't get us to where we could do it.


-Trevor

Phew! I am glad you said it was nothing personal. For a moment I thought that you didn't like me. ;)

Thanks for the reply Trevor.

Cross border shipping can get ugly, especially in low volumes.

Cross border shipping can get ugly, especially in low volumes.

Not if it's done right the first time and these procedures are continuously carried out thereafter. With free trade amongst our two countries, cross-border shipping is now a breeze. Trust me, I know.

Trevor, I knew your answer already before you elected to post one. It somehow amazes me that most other American Honda dealerships have sold, do sell and will continue to sell to Canadians regardless of this so-called "agreement" with Honda.

Regardless of H & A's decision not to sell to Canadians, rest assured that we'll continue to purchase our parts and accessories from one of your U.S. competitors.:p :D

this so-called "agreement" with Honda.

The 'so-called agreement' is our legal contract with Honda that allows us to sell their cars. If we voilate it, we risk not being able to do that.

The other dealers can do what they want and risk what they want. As I stated above, Honda hasn't went after any of them for using "Honda" in their domain name. We used to have it in ours. Does it make sense? Not to me. Do we want to try to start another battle with them? No way.

-Trevor

Guys.. it's like that bad Chuck Norris flick from the 80's coming to life. I think these guys are secretly outfitting their trucks for Jihadists residing in Canada. That trailer hitch makes a dynamite RPG or machine gun post.... Roof racks... those guys will strap suicide bombers to the top. Kayak rack.... think Scud missile launcher....... don't do it Trevor.. save our children... protect our land. Do your duty..

All of this begs the question: Why isn't there an outfit up in Canada doing what H & A does? They would have the whole country to themselves. Absolutely everything (except electricity and water) is more expensive up here even after converting the dollar.

FWIW, I ordered the Honda trailer harness from one of our American friends and saved about $90.00 CDN compared to what I was quoted from a dealer here. They wanted about $280.00 plus 13% tax. There was no duty to pay on the harness, all I paid was shipping and a brokerage fee to Canada Post after they rec'd the package from USPS.