I’ve had the same experience (minus the emails to sparkfun). I ordered about $150 from sparkfun a couple years ago and had to pay $86 customs/blah blah/fedex fees. Like you I am in Canada (Toronto). I didn’t like it at all, but I knew next time I would order from RobotShop instead. Choose the usps shipping from swparkfun instead.
Brainwav.