Why Canadian Device Returns Get Charged as International Shipments

If you're a Canadian company looking to retrieve a laptop from an employee who is also in Canada, you'd expect that to be a domestic return. Same country on both ends. Fully local transaction.

For most US-based device return services, it isn't.

This isn't a policy decision or a pricing trick - it's just how the infrastructure works. These services operate out of the United States. Their return kits ship from US warehouses. The moment that kit travels from a US origin to a Canadian address, the shipment is international. That classification carries through to how the entire transaction is priced.

So even though your employee is in Canada, and you are in Canada, and the device never leaves Canada - you're billed at international rates. Because the service itself isn't Canadian.

What That Means in Practice

Most US device return services list their pricing prominently. What's less prominent is that the rate shown is the US domestic rate. Canadian shipments are typically priced separately and higher, because from their system's perspective, Canada is a foreign destination.

On top of that, the pricing is in USD. Once you convert to CAD, you're looking at a meaningful difference from the number you saw on the pricing page. The gap between what looks affordable at first glance and what you're actually spending can be 35-40% once currency is factored in.

For companies doing occasional one-off retrievals, this might not register as a major issue. For teams doing regular onboarding and offboarding, it adds up - and it's easy to underestimate because the comparison you're making at the start is against a USD domestic rate that was never going to apply to you.

The Alternative Is a Service Built Around Canadian Addresses

LapDrop operates entirely within Canada. Our kits ship from Canada to Canadian addresses. Returns come back to Canadian addresses through Canada Post. There is no cross-border leg, which means there's no reason to classify any part of the transaction as international.

The result is straightforward: a fully domestic return is priced as a fully domestic return. In CAD. No conversion required.

$99 CAD for a standard retrieval - the same regardless of which province your employee is in. That's the number, and it's the number you pay.

If your team is in Canada and the device is in Canada, the service handling the return should be too.