You can save the brokerage fee if you have the time and live within a reasonable driving distance of the holding facility and a Canada customs office. You pick up the paperwork, take it to the customs office at PIA, for example, pay the duty, taxes, etc and return the processed paperwork to the courier company which then delivers your stuff.

Go to www.totousa.com and click on find a dealer. Put in your postal code and the website will direct you to a dealer in your area. If that does not work you can always call Toto customer service at 1-888-295-8134 and speak to someone about it. Customer service is option #5.

The info was in a Toronto newspaper article a year or more ago. Of course now I've forgotten where. It dealt with bypassing the brokerage function of courier companies. If you can get your stuff sent through the American and Canadian postal systems it's very simple but many sellers like to use couriers and it gets complicated. From what I can remember, it is all based on the invoice information that the seller physically packs with the item and copies that are electronically entered into the system. I think you can request one too from the seller and also request "no brokerage". You even may be able to head directly to customs if things are more streamlined now, I don't know.

You would need to nail down the exact hoops you must jump through and how by talking to your courier and the customs people first. While the idea seems attractive, there is an old saying "If it is so easy everyone would do it". Could you get stuck with some kind of storage fees if the shipment is held up for some reason you can't control? Who knows?

Here's a link with some general info.

Here is a link that might be useful: some info

We bought our Toto Ultramax one-piece toilets from Taps. The elongated comfort height was $756, the elongated regular height was $665. Not sure if that's considered expensive or not but it sounded reasonable to us (for a high end toilet, that is)...and not sure if they carry the washlet.

How close are you to the border? If you know someone in the U.S. that would allow the items to be shipped to them, you could simply pick up the items at their home, then deal with Customs when you drive back into Canada.

I'm in Seattle, but I have lots of friends in Vancouver. They order stuff and have it sent to me, then come down for a weekend visit and pick it up. When they return to Canada, they just declare the goods, and pay the customs tax. For expensive items, they often save a bundle, and they can avoid the expense of dealing with the UPS customs broker fees.

Hmm, this is interesting. I want to order my kitchen sink and maybe some bathroom sinks off of overstock.com but there are several things that they don't ship to Canada. Or so they say. I have had something mailed general delivery to the nearest US post office and driven to pick it up, could you do that? I am a 3 hour drive from the border but with a major item it's worth the drive sometimes.
I will be interested to see what others have to say!

Our company, Bowjet Washlets, specializes in the sale of Washlets in Canada. We are in the Vancouver area. We offer full installation including the electrical. If you are outside of Vancouver, we can ship to you. We are very reasonable. Email bowjet.ca or visit us online at www.bowjet.ca Good Luck!!