don't use ups for shipments from USA

[brucebeh]

Lesson Learned the hard way, DON"T USE UPS, especially if its something coming from the united states.

Let me explain, so I was browsing around and found a PSP for a great price.

Went ahead and bought it, now, I could either use USPS (United States Postal Service) or UPS. With USPS, it would take at least a few weeks since they do things extremely slowly; dont ask me why.

With UPS, it would be fast, less than 1 week, so I went ahead and chose UPS, it was also cheaper than USPS too.... well not exactly, apparently, when you use UPS to ship something from the states to canada, you have to pay something called a Brokerage fee (NOTE: This only applies to ground shipping, air shipping has this fee waived, but theres more).

The brokerage fee is pretty expensive, for an item that costs $150 to $200, the brokerage fee is $39, what that fee is for is for UPS to hire someone to write all the papers and take the package through customs for you, then, there's also duty/taxes that you MUST pay for, so living in Alberta makes me only pay GST (thank god).

Basically, adding all these fees and crap together, I'm paying $62 EXTRA on top of what I already paid for the item, the item was $200 and I'm paying $62 more, how ridiculous is that?


IF I chose the USPS route, I would be paying for the item, + $5 "brokerage fee" and also Tax, that's it, no insane rip off fees.

Anyway, PLEASE don't use UPS for shipments coming from the states, you'll save yourself a lot of money!

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Nothing new around here. This was heavily discussed before, and updated last month.

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...ight=brokerage

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...ight=brokerage

[browna]

I payed the extra $20 ($45 US total) for UPS expidited shipping for a $700 order from the US.
Expedited includes brokerage...so no brokerage fees, and shipping to my door from Ohio took only 32 hours.
Only thing charged was GST.

[brucebeh]

Woops, sorry, didn't realize there were already threads about this.

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

Nothing new around here. This was heavily discussed before, and updated last month.

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...ight=brokerage

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthr...ight=brokerage

[La Flames Fan]

That's why you can't value anything above a certain amount...Say $45 US. It's duties and taxes, and it's not just UPS, it's Canada Post.

I once had a ring sent up to me in Canada that cost $4500 US, and Canada Post wanted me to pay $1100 dollars JUST TO ACCEPT THE DAMN THING.

This isn't just UPS, it happens to FedEx, and all the other carriers. My advice is if you buy anything on eBay etc, be sure to say to the shipper to value things at most $40 dollars and say it's a gift...That way you won't pay all that crap.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by La Flames Fan

That's why you can't value anything above a certain amount...Say $45 US. It's duties and taxes, and it's not just UPS, it's Canada Post.

I once had a ring sent up to me in Canada that cost $4500 US, and Canada Post wanted me to pay $1100 dollars JUST TO ACCEPT THE DAMN THING.

This isn't just UPS, it happens to FedEx, and all the other carriers. My advice is if you buy anything on eBay etc, be sure to say to the shipper to value things at most $40 dollars and say it's a gift...That way you won't pay all that crap.

You should check what's allowed under NAFTA. I think jewelry is exempt but some things like American made guitars and computer IT parts are tax and duty exempt because of NAFTA.

And no, you don't put any value at all. Merchandise has a maximum value of $20 before they charge duties and taxes on applicable items. Packages marked as gift are allowed $60. Nonetheless, I once bought a $300 item, he marked it $30 value - Canada Customs OPENED THE PACKAGE - read the e-mail the shipper had printed off and threw into the box and it happened to have what I paid him on it and Canada Customs CHARGED ME THAT AMOUNT.

Basically what you do is make sure there is no receipt, invoice, price tag included by the sender (Customs will invariably charge off those prices even if it says otherwise on the customs declaration).

Then have the shipper mark it as "merchandise return" or "repaired/broken merchandise" or even "items from home" and then "no commercial value".

The only thing is that you can get such things insured or claims, etc. since you say it has no commercial value.

[Ference21]

Originally Posted by La Flames Fan

That's why you can't value anything above a certain amount...Say $45 US. It's duties and taxes, and it's not just UPS, it's Canada Post.

I once had a ring sent up to me in Canada that cost $4500 US, and Canada Post wanted me to pay $1100 dollars JUST TO ACCEPT THE DAMN THING.

This isn't just UPS, it happens to FedEx, and all the other carriers. My advice is if you buy anything on eBay etc, be sure to say to the shipper to value things at most $40 dollars and say it's a gift...That way you won't pay all that crap.

Don't forget that the guys at customs can open your package to see if you are understating the value. I bought something off of eBay in which the seller put down that the value was $20 and a gift but I had to pay duties as if the item was valued at $50.

I've also heard that customs screws you over when you buy things that are imitations or fakes of designer items but they tax you as if the item was authentic too.

[brucebeh]

Originally Posted by Ference21

I've also heard that customs screws you over when you buy things that are imitations or fakes of designer items but they tax you as if the item was authentic too.

WTF?!

That's stupidly ######ed, i've never heard of that... what's wrong with buying fake...

[Ference21]

Originally Posted by brucebeh

WTF?!

That's stupidly ######ed, i've never heard of that... what's wrong with buying fake...

I don't think they'll tax you ridiculously if the item is an obvious fake but there are a ton of well made fake designer items such as LV bags that look like the real thing.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by brucebeh

WTF?!

That's stupidly ######ed, i've never heard of that... what's wrong with buying fake...

Because they are copyright infringing products probably subject to free trade and international laws? I read that some sellers from China were removed from ebay because of free trade investigations.

[flamingchina]

What are the brokerage charges with USPS like?
I have an item being shipped to me by them.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by flamingchina

What are the brokerage charges with USPS like?
I have an item being shipped to me by them.

Originally Posted by brucebeh

IF I chose the USPS route, I would be paying for the item, + $5 "brokerage fee" and also Tax, that's it, no insane rip off fees.

....

[MacDougalbry]

I learned all of this stuff in 1985 when I was 15. Just be thankful that they don't also charge the pre-GST Manufacturers Sales Tax (it was 13.9% I think) and additional duties (usually 2%-5%) like they used to.

As for telling e-bayers to mark things as gifts, this is one reason why so many US eBayers now refuse to deal with Canadians... too many hassles for the seller when the item gets delayed at the border to be opened. I actually ask sellers to declare the full and real value of the items on my packages because I found that anything that got marked as a gift got opened and half the time something was missing (usually just something minor like a driver disk, cable, etc) or damaged even, but the real annoyance is it seemed like "gift" items get thrown into a different queue at customs because they always took longer to arrive (like a month etc.). Also, what ends up happening to the sellers is that they get blacklisted by Canada Customs and all of their packages get delayed. What I can't get over is the Canadians who give American eBayers negative feedback when they refuse to play ball on the marking things as gifts issue. No wonder they think we are all jerks.