I made an international purchase over the telephone. Value of purchase was roughly $150. Add on a shipping charge, confirm the electronic transaction, obtain a tracking number and I blissfully think I'm done. Wrong. Package arrives at my door with COD charges attached. I immediately think GST (a Canadian federal tax) and sure enough a small portion of the charges is in fact GST. I'm fine with that. GST is just a fact of life in this country but about 80% of the charge is for something called brokerage. I am familiar with this fee. I paid brokerage to bring my Fender SFVR amp into Canada many years ago. That was a long time ago though and I was sure that old dinosaur fee system was long since dead. I've made countless international purchases in recent years and have never had to pay brokerage fees. Ever. My one experience with brokerage was in the mid 90's with the amp and I always attributed that to weight or size or something because I have never run across that charge again.

The package that came to my door yesterday was less than a pound and could have easily slid through one of those mail slots you see in some people's front doors. I asked the driver why the charge was so high and he showed me the itemized breakdown of the charges. A little under $10 for tax and over $40 for brokerage. Suddenly my $150 (+$15 shipping) purchase just jumped to $215. I would not have made the purchase for that price. I'm now paying $55 to ship a small light item roughly the size of a calculator! Excuse me? The driver sees my frustration and recommends I decline delivery based on non payment of COD charges which will force the shipment into a second attempt at delivery and give me a chance to fight the charges. He tells me not to tell them that he told me to do this. I agree to his plan. He gives me a delivery notice slip, scans it and circles the 1-800 number on the back and says call in a couple hours after he has filed his paperwork for the day.

I call the number and negotiate my way through the gauntlet of automated choices designed to block people from actually getting the service they paid for and finally arrive at a human being to talk to. I inquire about the charges and ask to have them waived as the driver suggested. The woman explains to me that the $40 is to handle the paperwork for international border crossings and that the fee is based on a percentage of the value of the package being shipped. This makes absolutely no sense to me. If it's paperwork how in the world does the value of the shipment factor in? I explain to her that I have had countless cross border purchases in the last 15 years without ever seeing this brokerage charge and I also ask her just who gets this money anyway. She explains that UPS gets the money to do the paperwork and that the reason I am being charged this amount is because the parcel crossed the border on the ground. If I had chosen to ship via air freight there would be no brokerage fees. I remember from the phone call with the vendor that the difference in shipping charges would have been an addition $7 for air freight over the minimum $15 ground service and I explain this to the UPS woman. She has no explanation for the discrepancy. I ask again who is collecting this fee and for what service and she again says UPS gets the money for doing paperwork. I say, "Rip-off." She begins to offer a URL I can go to to get all the particulars and I interupt her and say,

"No thanks. I'll pay your extortion charges this one time because I want the item and I don't want to be forced into haggling with the vendor about refunding my money but this is the absolute last time UPS will ever get my business. Thank you for the information," and I hung up the phone.

Word to the wise. Choose air and never use UPS.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

hey BMW-KTM

Just read your story and totally sympathize. I learned the hard way a few years ago about UPS. My wife wanted some special kind of envelopes for our wedding invitations 5 years ago and I bought them online. The dealer sent them via UPS. Total cost was around $50 after shipping charges, then I was handed a bill for about $40 for brokerage!!!!
Never again. I now ask sellers to send via USPS if they use UPS, or I just use a seller that does use USPS

Like you said, how is paperwork any different for a $10 time or a $500 itme? yet the fees are based on value!!!! NUTS

Brokerage fees are a complete rip off. Same story for me here when ordering an infant football jersey for my baby about 6 years ago. $35 item ended up costing me an extra $20 in fees. It's the worst.

Thanks for the heads up.


Caution if you're under 13 and male: stay away from priests.

I paid UPS $125 for over night service from Quebec to Oregon. It took 31 days.

I was told after the fact had I chosen ground.. 2 weeks and $43.

How can this company stay in business?

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

That really bites. Especially not finding about it until you're trying to take delivery - it would have felt like extortion to me.

@TTSC you can't generalise about all priests - I don't get why you'd put that in your post

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Steve

I worked for UPS this past December delivering packages for the Xmas holidays. I was assigned to a driver who has 25 YRs experience. Maybe this doesn't contribute to this thread, BUT I was astounded at the LACK of care for customers packages. We were delivering some days up to 100+ deliveries. ,and I didn't get home until around 8:00PM. This guy would get frustrated with the load and was kicking and throwing some packages in the truck(Most labeled FRAGILE). Astounding stuff. UPS is not a good company to get your gear..Go with FEDEX if you can..Very turned off over that..

I posted a version of this story to my FaceBook page and a friend who used to work for UPS responded with horror stories but he said FedEx was just as bad and they also charge brokerage fees. The general consensus from the many who have commented seems to be that you need to use USPS.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

I work for a company that uses UPS to ship in the U.S. The costs are not too bad, But all international shipments, (including Alaska, Hawaii, And Canada) go USPS.

you dont have to live in Canada to get taken in by UPS. Thay also do a nice one on this side of the border as well. Next time if your close enough, take a nice drive down here and make your purchas. spend the day. make sure you dont purchas gas on this side, or you will spend all your savings at the pump.

Over 13 is ok, or what?

Eyebrow raised:

Nutter

Once had friends who worked at the UPS depot at jane st and steels, its a part of the jane / finch corridor in To, man unreal! ship a guitar through there and your a monkeys uncle. talk about kettin kicked around, fragile is spelt throw!

The part that burns me is that Canada Post does not impose this charge, USPS does not impose this charge, Customs Canada does not impose the fee, in fact no government agency on either side of the border is responsible for this brokerage charge. It goes straight into the coffers of UPS for doing what USPS and Canada Post does for free, ie: tag, sort and document a parcel crossing the border. It's just part of the job of shipping across borders and since UPS is in the shipping business (and presumably are aware of the ins and outs) how can this possibly be a variable that they can't account for at the time of the initial shipping quote? One wonders how it can even be legal since the sender prepaid the shipping. It's out & out robbery.

_________________

Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.