# UPS & Brokerage Fees



## JM (Jun 14, 2007)

Just wanted to give you good folks a heads up on the "Brokerage Fees" UPS charges on items shipped from the US to Canada. I order a lot of material from the States and was recently stung with and extra $67 dollars AFTER I already paid in full to have an item shipped to my house. 



> UPS charges the highest brokerage fees in the industry - from what I have read. These fees are often 'hidden' to most customers, since they are not included in the item price or the shipping and are separate from the taxes. For example, if I were to order a wakeboard for $325 USD from UPS, according to their brokerage fee schedule, I would have to pay $35.55 brokerage + $5.85 disbursement (minimum) + $4.25 fee for collecting brokerage charge. Add taxes, shipping and convert this order to Canadian funds and this order no longer looks like a deal. Apparently you can set it up to clear customs by yourself, but trying to figure out how is as easy as turning water to gold. If your order is shipped UPS when you were told it would be shipped with another company, you can refuse to accept the order & charges and it will be sent back to the retailer.



I ordered a product that was on sale but after getting the bill for the extra brokerage fees, I could've picked it up for the same price locally.

Rates for Customs

From now on I'm not going to order from sites that use UPS...I feel burned!

j


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## gwine (Jun 15, 2007)

Wish I could help you because we are coming to Canada for a family reunion the first weekend in August (Sault Sainte Marie). I remember long ago we took my grandfather a television set as a gift so he could take it with him when he and my grandmother went to Florida. Lo and behold, we had to pay a 50% duty just so he could have it. We paid, since otherwise he would have had to declare it when he returned from the states and that would have been more costly. It would probably have been cheaper to buy one up there.

I suppose, though, that if I were to bring something up to you it would still cost to get it through customs. And, as you probably know, you don't want to mess with customs.


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## Kevin (Jun 15, 2007)

An other problem with UPS is that they charge tax when others (even Canada Customs) would not. A local cutoms officer I know told me that they use a "common sense" standard when deciding to charge duty/HST. If a package appeares to be a gift they don't charge. UPS will charge every time. Even if marked "gift" if they can find an other reason to charge, such as sent from a business, etc.

They do this to have an opportunity to collect the "brokerage fees". USPS/Canada Post is probably the best option.

Or order from GCB they have a Canadian shipping centre and they do not charge international rates to Canada. An other option is have the package shipped to a friend across the border and get it next time someone you know crosses pick it up.


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## JM (Jun 15, 2007)

I phoned UPS last night to speak to someone about getting a refund of some of the money, I don't mind paying a fair price but I was robbed in this case. The lady sounded like she was reading from a script and no matter what I said she had a 1 or 2 min. speak ready to answer my objection. 

A friend of mind works just across the boarder and brings things back all the time, you still pay duty but no extra fees. It would've cost me $23 bucks extra for duty instead of the $67 dollars I ended up paying.

I'll use USPS and Canada Post from now on.

j


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