Well gents, I made the plunge and attempted to order cigars from online in the States and have them shipped to me up here past the Maple Curtain as you all love to call it. I ordered a package each from Cigar.com and AtlanticCigar.com both in equal value and purchased at approximately the same amount of time.

AtlanticCigar.com

I found they had a decent website to work through, although a lot of items on their website are currently not in stock and/or you must contact to get the actual prices since they do not have them listed on the website which was a bit annoying. I placed my order online and there was no out "of the ordinary" instructions for shipping to Canada. It took about 6 days after this order being placed before my order was actually finalized. I had 3 replacements offered to me (one at a time rather than all done via one email -including one item that i ordered based on a reccomendation from one of the Customer Service representatives I spoke to on  the phone THE SAME DAY!) with about a day between each email and the corresponding reply. I have heard in other postings regarding AtlanticCigar that they do this quite often so if you are ordering from them, my reccomendation is to make sure you are flexible with the end result, however, know that they will contact you prior to making a replacement so it is not a surprise when it shows up at the doorstep.

48 hours after the order was finalized, i received an email with the tracking number and wa able to follow it to the door approximately 8 days later.

Quality of cigars was great, no bugs, no cracks, no rips and packaging was appropriate for the long journey.


Cigar.com

As I think we all know here, the Cigar.com website is one of the easiest and nicest website out there to use for cigar orders. Pricing on Cigar.com I found to be better in general and they had a much better selection of Sampler packages and a greater selection of brands and cigars in general. Cigar.com requires you to contact them via phone or email if you are placing an international order so I tried the email avenue. I received a response to my inquiry within an hour and was then basically provided personal service to place my order. All items that were shown as "In Stock" on their website was ACTUALLY in stock so there were no replacements. My order was finalized through Jeff via email later that afternoon and was informed my order was on its way. 5 days later a knock came at my door and voila there was my order along with a Cigar.com magazine.

Quality of cigars was great with all in perfect condition and packaged appropriately.

BIGGEST THING: Cigar.com charges $12 FLAT for shipping ot Canada (or at least at the current time of my order that was the flat rate). Does not matter the size of the order which is GREAT. AtlanticCigar final shipment charge was near 20 bucks and the actual pckage was smaller than the Cigar.com package, however, worth the same amount. Customs are customs so thats all relative.

That's the point for notes.

Now time for me to blab.

AtlanticCigar.com had a website that allowed me to order cigars, they let me know they wanted to make changes, i accepted, they shipped and billed me and i received quality cigars in a timely manner. Done. No complaints. Average

Cigar.com had a BETTER website that allowed me to order a WIDER RANGE of cigars at a BETTER price, they did not make any changes, they shipped and billed me LESS and I received quality cigars in a MORE timely manner. Done. No complaints. Above Average - Excellent.

I felt that Cigar.com provided much better service to me and because I actually spoke to someone regarding shipping across the border I felt like I knew what was going on with my order as it was sent across the fine line of customs. With AtlanticCigar.com because there was minimal contact or information being sent to me I never quite knew what was going on with my order other than small updates regarding its location. For anyone up here, you know what I mean about having a leve lof anxiety ANY TIME you ship somethign across Customs into Canada so it was nice to have that extra information provided by Cigar.com

My reccomendation for ease of mind, ease of wallet and to have a greater selection is to go to Cigar.com and place your order for shippign across the border into Canada. Call or email them there and ask for Jeff, he is knowledgeable of the shipping requirements for ease into Canada and knows his stuff about cigars, that's for sure. Just make sure that you don't email him every day saying - "Hey Jeff ,can you throw the daily deal on my order? Can't miss out on the deal on the double espressos!" or else he will never be able to ship it out to you!

If any Canadians are thinking about ordering across the border, PM me and I will send some contact information, etc.

Does Holt's deliver to Canada?  They have some great deals (grudge match and 6 packs to go), and I have had no issues with them (aside from their description getting me to buy a pack of Boardwalks,    )

QuoteJackal - 10/14/2009  12:14 PM

Does Holt's deliver to Canada?  They have some great deals (grudge match and 6 packs to go), and I have had no issues with them (aside from their description getting me to buy a pack of Boardwalks,    )

I contacted them but they won't ship to Canada yet....... that's what the lady on the phone said so who knows

Were both stopped by customs? Both opened and tariffs charged? How much, relative to the value of each order? You must have an enormous army of customs workers in the Maple Republic.

Quoteljlemer - 10/14/2009  1:36 PM

Were both stopped by customs? Both opened and tariffs charged? How much, relative to the value of each order? You must have an enormous army of customs workers in the Maple Republic.

Both packages DID stop at customs as all packages are - customs can charge an arm and a leg and i believe the rate that you pay for duty, etc. can be dependent on the value etc of the goods. The fees incurred were what was expected.

For more details or actual numbers just pm me.

I'm not in Canada, but I read somewhere (a post here a CG, IIRC) that someone in Canada orders cigars from a vendor here in the States and that particular vendor lists the items as something else (not as cigars) on the customs declaration, thus saving the customer some money.  According to the poster, the deliveries have never been a problem.

For US consumption, I find that Atlantic has far better prices than Cigar.com.

Generally speaking, I think cigar.com has terrible pricing.

It's kind of funny - cigar.com and C-Bid are located in same warehouse.  You pull a six pack of Gurkha Centurions from the shelf for c.com and price it at $90 .  you pull the next six pack off the shelf for C-bid and that goes for $25

QuoteROTHNH - 10/17/2009  3:13 PM

I'm not in Canada, but I read somewhere (a post here a CG, IIRC) that someone in Canada orders cigars from a vendor here in the States and that particular vendor lists the items as something else (not as cigars) on the customs declaration, thus saving the customer some money.  According to the poster, the deliveries have never been a problem.

You CAN have them marked as something else to try and play that sneaky game - however, if marked different from what the package actually entails, if opened, customs will destroy the contents and you still have to pay for your order.

QuoteFNA - 10/23/2009  1:46 PM

For US consumption, I find that Atlantic has far better prices than Cigar.com.

Generally speaking, I think cigar.com has terrible pricing.

It's kind of funny - cigar.com and C-Bid are located in same warehouse.  You pull a six pack of Gurkha Centurions from the shelf for c.com and price it at $90 .  you pull the next six pack off the shelf for C-bid and that goes for $25

If AtlanticCigar HAS the item in stock! I had issues even getting something from them that they informed me that morning OVER THE PHONE they had in stock. Two days later, i get an email saying they want to maek a change to that item.

Interesting point regarding the warehouses though.

I've never been impressed with the normal Cigar.com prices.  However, they have some great sales, and there Daily Cigar Deal is almost always a steal.

nwb

"I read somewhere (that someone in Canada orders cigars from a vendor here in the States and that particular vendor lists the items as something else (not as cigars) on the customs declaration...

You CAN have them marked as something else to try and play that sneaky game - however, if marked different from what the package actually entails, if opened, customs will destroy the contents ..."

Not to mention that is that it would be actual wilful and knowing smuggling, the mis-marking of the packaging evincing an intent to defraud the government and could very likely incur criminal charges against the shipper.