Quote:
Originally Posted by DementedReality
you paid for shipping, not customs clearance. do you got a restaurant ask for pepsi and expect they will just give you a donut too?
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I think a better analogy here is you ask how much for a Pepsi, they say $2- then there is a $3 surcharge for the glass useage. However they don't tell you that part until you've already taken a sip of the drink.
When I ship something and ask for a quote; I am asking them how much it will cost to get the item into my hands. They won't tell you that you owe for the fuel the truck used that day; or the lease on the aircraft they used. Those are all a cost of doing business; so the company works those into the price.
What makes the brokerage fees seem like a "rip off" is that the is an unexpected charge that is 50-200% of the original price paid. Meanwhile there is another option that could have been used that would have been 20% more had it been paid in advance.