I’m not much of a shopper and when I do shop it’s in person. I finally took the EBay plunge however and bought a pair of Doc Marten boots brand new, “buy it now” from an EBay store located in the U.S. (I’m in Canada) The transaction was smooth, I paid the international shipping rate for U.P.S and expected that some sort of customs duties might be payable. My boots arrived with a c.o.d. charge of $40.00 (I paid $60. plus $20. shipping for the boots themselves) The taxes were $9.00 and U.P.S charged a THIRTY DOLLAR brokerage fee to collect and remit that to the government. They charged me 50% more to send the government my nine bucks than they did to fly my boots 1500 miles.
Now when I was a kid and would order mail order from the U.S. the procedure was that I would get a notice in the mail, go down to the post office, pay the duties and collect my package. WTF is up with U.P.S charging me thirtyfreakindollars to pay the government nine? Is this the way it works for everything? What if I bought a Pez dispenser and owed the government a nickel? I have no problem with paying the appropriate taxes or duties but there is no way I will pay those bandits this bs “brokerage fee” again. What are my options?
You have very few options, except to choose your shipping company where possible.
I’ve never bought from E-Bay, but I have bought stuff via mail order from the US and other countries. Once, the vendor in the US refused to ship via any other carrier than–well, I can’t remember. Let’s say UPS. Anyway, I had the same experience you did, thanks to the shipping cost and various customs brokerage fees.
Another time though (and you may find this helpful), I expressly told the Australian vendor to send the goods via the post office. My invoice even had the amount of postage itemized. The goods showed up by some courier–again, even though I cannot remember, let’s say UPS. When I got the customs brokerage bill, I refused to pay it on the grounds that I did not contract for a courier; rather, I contracted for Australia Post to pass it off to Canada Post. (Why or how a courier got hold of the package, I have no idea.) I had to send the courier company a copy of my invoice with the postage highlighted, but once they got that and saw “postage” instead of “courier shipping cost,” they stopped sending me bills for brokerage fees.
My advice? Specify regular mail, if you are ordering internationally. Airmail is fine, but do not allow them to ship via a courier. At least with regular mail, you can pick up your package at the post office, pay any necessary taxes and the post office’s relatively small fee for dealing with customs, and avoid the thirty dollar or so brokerage fee that a courier would assess.
Heck, you’re only 80 miles (130km) from the US border. So one option might be to rent a PO box in Buffalo, NY and have things shipped there, where it’s NOT an international sale. Won’t take too many of those $30 brokerage ‘fees’ to make the trip down there worthwhile.
Do NOT use UPS for trans-border shipments!! As you have seen, they charge a rather large brokerage fee. Use US Mail which will then end up with Canada Post. It’s been quite a few years since I got something from the states, but when I did Canada Post charged me C$5.00 plus the GST. Might be higher now, but I highly doubt it remotely approaches UPS yet.
You get charged to pick stuff up in Canada? I’ve had all sorts of things shipped to me, including $500 worth of jackets and clothing and never had to pay any customs. I always thought that it was for items that really cost a lot. I get stuff all the time too, over the last month I’ve gotten two or three things from England and soon from France.
Be my luck now I’ll have to start paying extra for all of it.
I assume it’s kind of a scam on the part of the couriers. As a third party to the transaction they kind of have you over a barell. It’s scummy though since NOWHERE do they indicate these fees will be applicalbe prior to the transaction. Twenty bucks to ship a parcel from Texas, then THIRTY DOLLARS to electronically transfer nine bucks to the government. It’s like a parking garage putting up a big sign Parking-$5.00 then hitting you with a twenty dollar exit fee when you go to leave. You’re farked. You have to pay the weasels. Thanks for the input folks.