If you have someone with a Washington state address available to buy, receive, and handle warranty service/returns on your stuff it might be worthwhile. Otherwise you will be unable to buy online from the US in many cases, lack warranty protection, and face trying to get any gray market large appliance serviced at your own expense from day 1.

If it was easy everyone would do it.

Here is a recent thread on the kitchen forum on exactly this topic.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ordering from Canada

We are also in BC and tried to buy a range through an American web site. As another poster mentioned, the problem was, DCS said it would not warranty the product if it was shipped to Canada. Even though I was going to buy a 3rd party warranty for it, the retailer refused to ship it to us.

I was bitterly disappointed (it was an *amazing* deal), but I suppose they did me a favour. The 3rd party wouldn't have guaranteed it either. And who wants a $5000 appliance without any warranty at all?

My 0.02 is to be sure you know all the pros and cons before you buy a major appliance from a US retailer.

Thanks for the info everyone. The products I'm looking at are for Miele and I phoned the canadian side and they said that Miele honours a one year warranty on anything you bring in from the states, as long as you have the bill of sale to prove it. Can i ask, skali, where did you find your amazing deal?

Smileycanuck - Miele has a UMRP price policy in the US so all of their authorized dealers are supposed to be selling at a minimum price or above that. In my experience UMRP policies have been an absolute joke with the exception of SubZero/Wolf and Viking. Miele's was a joke as well, but they recently put more teeth into their policy and looks like they are now enforcing it. So what I'm trying to say is that you may not find US appliance dealers giving it away like you would have 1 year ago. Make sure you deal with someone reputable who will stand behind the purchase.

I'm looking at older models that must be clearing out to make room for news ones. I'm planning on ordering direct from the Miele usa website so i'm hoping the products will be in good working order. I was just at a local dealer here in BC and they basically said exactly what you stated about UMRP...which is why we are looking for deals in the states. If we were to buy up here we couldn't afford it because they don't seem to carry any older models. The guy said that they don't even own the Miele models in their showroom, they actually lease them for a 1.oo a year. So the price on the canadian website is the price...no deals:(

Smileycanuck; The range was at shopperschoice.com. It was a scratch and dent model -- a 36" range for the same price I ended up paying for the 30" model. Sigh!

We also have a Miele dishwasher, but never even considered buying it in the U.S. Given Miele's UMRP policy, I wonder if you can actually save that much once you factor in the shipping, duties, taxes, etc.

When you buy one article that has a fixed price along with another article that DOES NOT have a fixed price, the fixed price company cannot control how much discount your retailer gives you, on the second thing.

You benefit from buying both at the same time in the same place.

When we did our kitchen remodel 4 years ago we bought a Fisher Paykel double oven from Gauchenaur's in Pennsylvania and saved "THOUSANDS. I called FP to inquire about the warranty and they assured me that warranty was covered anywhere in the world. So I bought it and had it shipped to Lloyd's Electronics in Lynden Wa.(we live in Langley so its convenient and have used this depot for many items over the years)

As it turned out we did have trouble with the ovens and they had to be replaced but had no trouble at all with the warranty aspect of it.

If you wanted more info on the shipping/border etc. just
ask.
My daughter bought her FP dishdrawer and farm sink the same way but has not required warranty on either.

Fred Mc.