Paying and taxes
What you pay
Four lines, all on the checkout screen before you press the button:
- Part price: from the quote you accepted.
- Shipping: set by the maker, or nothing if you're picking up.
- Taxes: on the part and shipping together, at your delivery province's rate.
- Total: what hits your card.
Minimum order is $5.00 CAD. Everything is in Canadian dollars.
Tax by province
| Province or territory | Applies |
|---|---|
| Alberta, NT, NU, YT | GST 5% |
| British Columbia | GST 5% + PST 7% |
| Saskatchewan | GST 5% + PST 6% |
| Manitoba | GST 5% + PST 7% |
| Québec | GST 5% + QST 9.975% |
| Ontario | HST 13% |
| NB, NL, NS, PEI | HST 15% |
The rate follows the delivery address, not where the maker is. A Montréal maker shipping to Toronto charges Ontario HST. Pickup orders use the maker's province, because that's where the handover happens.
Tax applies to shipping as well as the part. That's how CRA and Revenu Québec treat delivery charges on taxable goods.
Paying
Card, through Stripe. You're sent to Stripe's checkout page, and card details go straight to them. PrintFlows never sees or stores your card number. We get the last four digits and a yes or no.
Visa, Mastercard and American Express. Some wallets too, depending on your browser.
Where the money sits
PrintFlows holds it. Not the maker.
The money stays with us from the moment you pay until:
- you press Confirm delivery on the order page, or
- five days pass after the order is marked delivered, with no dispute open.
Then it's transferred to the maker's Stripe account. Open a dispute before that and it stays put while we look at it.
This is the mechanism behind everything else on this site. It's why cancelling before printing is free, and why a dispute has teeth.
One thing to be clear about: funds held by PrintFlows are held in the ordinary course of our business. They aren't in a trust account or segregated. The terms say so in section 6.4.
Our fee
PrintFlows keeps 15% of the part price, paid by the maker out of what they quoted. It never applies to shipping or tax, and you're never billed for it separately. There's no listing fee and no charge for asking for quotes.
Receipts
Emailed as soon as payment goes through, and downloadable from the order page any time. It shows the tax amount and the province it was based on, which is what you need if you're expensing it.
Promo codes
Enter one in the order summary before paying. It's validated on the spot. Discounts normally come out of PrintFlows' fee, so the maker still gets their full amount.
If your card is declined
Nothing is charged and the quote stays open. Usually it's an address mismatch or your bank blocking an unfamiliar merchant. Try again, try another card, or call the number on the back of the card.