It's the same here in Canada ordering from the states. Duty on top of exchange rate. A 50$ blanket from u.s can be 150$

That's why you mark it as "gift."

It's illegal for companies to mark things as a gift when sending to customers

How did you order it? If it was online, wouldn't you have known the total cost beforehand?

The company sending it has nothing to do with import taxes, that happens at the other end. Some of the fees are also totally random (at least in the UK) so you cant predict them.

Yeah we get dragged over the coals all the time up here in Canada too eh, anything listed in American dollars can be pretty much at least doubled to become the amount in Canadian dollars that we have to pay in order to buy the item... And our politicians are too brainless/spineless to do anything about it, to make life easier for Canadians...
If you are upset about the charges on your blanket, be thankful you don't have our gas prices... ~$1.20/litre, which is $4.54/gallon...
But, thank you for shopping Canadian, and I apologize that our government made it so expensive for you.

$1.20 a litre for fuel is a cheap week in Australia. More often than not it's closer to $1.65

Super Canadian polite of you to apologize for your government. Although we Americans have to do it all too often now too...

That's expensive gas? Here in the UK it's twice that...

We're up to £1.20 in the UK, which is Can$2.04

At least you guys are guaranteed healthcare

I misread this, saying that it was a gift to you from your sister. Now that's a hefty FML.

You got to mark it as "gift" or "samples" to avoid taxes and tariffs. Everybody knows that.....

Gifts don't help exchange rates or shipping.

Companies aren't legally allowed to mark things as gifts.

As a Canadian I gotta say- im sorry to hear that, eh. That’s just insane. But also we understand the pain. Our dollar is absolutely horrifying so if we buy anything USD we can usually hear the cries of our bank accounts as we press the checkout button.

It sucks but why didn't you check shipping costs before you ordered?

I would go to complain because shipping should not cost that much.

Why didnt you just go to the mall or your local department store. cuz surely that blanket wouldn't be worth $200.

I don't understand how you would get a bill for shipping. if you bought the item on line or from a catalog shipping would be charged and paid before shipping.