Any time I order something from the US (mostly piping related, these days), I prefer when the seller ships by the US Postal Service as whenever UPS is used I get hit for extra “Brokerage Fees” which amount to a substantial amount.
Last time I bought something which cost approx. $150 plus $10 shipping to the seller. UPS charged me $66.60. Of the $66.60, $22.48 was sales tax, which left a total of nearly $45 of fees on something which cost $150!!
One time, the seller sent me something using the post office. This time the price was $300. There was sales tax of approx. $45 and the post office charged me a brokerage fee - $5!!!
OK, the post office takes a few extra days, but when you’re not home to receive your package you can go to the local post office to collect it, not the UPS depot on the other side of the city!!
I’ve been fuming about this for months. Finally this morning, I heard on the radio that there’s a class action against UPS and FedEx in Ontario and Quebec for just this sort of thing.
Wow, I didn’t know about that – I’ve generally used USPS because their stuff seems to arrive in better shape (I’ve had such bad luck with UPS that whenever I see the 1-800-PICK UPS on the back of their trucks, my brain automatically replaces the P & the I with another consonant-vowel combo). Anyway, thank heavens for the suit – those charges seem excessive. What next … banks charging people 30% interest???
(and that’s said with genuine rue)
Thanks for the info! I’ll “vote with my feet” and continue to trek to my P.O.
This has come up many times. UPS is the worst for shipping to Canada - slow and very expensive. Fedex is the fastest, but most expensive. USPS Global Priority services is a bit more expensive than surface mail, but it’s pretty fast, and your packages are tracked (I have a lot of trouble with packages “disappearing” in Canada Post).
I’m the guy who shipped PJ his expensive brokerage-fee’d package. My opinion of UPS has taken a nose dive as a consequence. I shipped it UPS thru a Staples office supply store. My apologies to PJ. I’ll avoid these guys in the future.
I went back and looked at the fine print on the shipping paperwork. “International packages may be subject to duties, taxes, and brokerage fees as determined by the destination country, to be paid by the receiving party. These duties and taxes cannot be prepaid or estimated by Staples.” This is their “gotcha” clause. Very frustrating.
There’s not need to apologise to me. You didn’t do anything wrong. As far as I’m concerned UPS is a great service for shipping in the US. It’s in the cross-border shipping that problems arise.
My anger is directed exclusively at UPS for what I consider double-dipping. Anyway, my lawyer is now on the case.
By the way, the valved reed-cap you sent me is great.
I’m still waiting on an insurance settlement with UPS as they ran over a package of mine or something. In any case, it crushed the reed cap of my B chanter.
I live in Alaska and when shipping through UPS I might as well be in a different country all together. On one item that I bought, the shipping was actually more expensive than the item itself (upon discovering this I asked the seller to ship USPS which, gratefully, he did.) I try to avoid them at all costs.
Yes, the UPS brokerage ‘gotcha’ is massively annoying, and very much a ripoff over the post office. After one such charge a decade ago–never quoted to the shipper and billed to me the recipient by surprise at the door–I have made a point of telling everyone who’s ever shipped to me that I won’t accept UPS.
