I just ordered a $99 part and apparently I owe UPS $126.66 in "Brokerage C.O.D. due"

I've always sucked it up and paid in the past, but this one is truly ridiculous. Anyone had success fighting the UPS brokerage amount after the fact?

Sorry to hear that Jeff, my wife works at UPS I'll ask her

You CAN fight IF you have the package. If they still have it, you are probably SOL

I've tried before, they wouldn't budge on it, $90 charge on a motherboard I paid $45 for ugh, good luck.

$126 on a $99 part?! How does that even make sense?!

Huge rip-off. I'm guessing you've already found this link?
http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shipping/cost/zones/customs_clearance.html

You probably got dinged for a couple of those costs

In the end it comes down to how much you want the part. You can say something like "Well I refuse to pay that much, I'll give you blank amount instead. If that's not enough for you, you can return it to sender". But, of course, here's the catch: is having the package returned to sender an acceptable option? The only "leverage" you have is planting the idea in their head that they likely won't be getting ANY brokerage if it's returned. I guess it's a contest to see who's got a better poker face.

If you already have the shipment, take what you bought out of the box, put something heavyish in there and send it back?

I've had luck with going through Bay City brokers, even after a package has cleared, saying that I already told them that I had my own broker, and my brother has had luck with them cutting the brokerage fees in half. All depends on who you talk to I guess.

Hey community. Here's my rule of thumb. frack UPS and DHL with the biggest thing you can find!!!
USPS or FEDEX are the only options for getting items across the boarder with out walking funny after the driver leaves.

Exactly what I'm thinking. I could see maybe $50 on the very top end (some tax, some brokerage, some duty) but $126.66 ???



Thanks for the link, I'll review it when I get the breakdown of the costs from UPS.



I'll certainly try, but I can't imagine the person at the UPS desk or the driver has any authority to change it. I'll just get alot of that "Sir, I understand your concern but please stop punching me in the face" I think my only hope is some sort of appeal process where I can get it adjusted after the fact.



I agree with this, except that 90% of the time you don't have any choice. Most shops have an account with one of the other (usually UPS, sometimes FEDEX). Ditto for stuff on eBay, usually people don't want to do anything differently for us Canadians. These costs aren't theirs to bear so they don't care. And like Paul said if you need the part you need the part...

...and thanks all for the ideas and input

I have found they are VERY willing to negotiate if they have already delivered the package. The only leverage they have at that point is to threaten to "blacklist" you. If they still have the package in THEIR possession, I have found they won't budge. I once had them send something back (it was sent to my Canadian address instead of my US address by mistake). It took weeks (got lost in New Brunswick for a while, even though it was supposed to be going west), and they charged a small fortune for the return shipping. In the end I would have been better off just paying the brokerage.

Not sure about FedEx, but I think USPS has recently upped their shipping rates for international shipping HUGE. Some of my suppliers tell me they are no longer shipping USPS internationally because the pricing has doubled and tripled, making it WAY not competitive..

FedEx are also pretty good at ripping you off. I sent a package into the GTA for around the $10. mark through my shipping brokerage, and the customer did not claim it in time. Without notifying me, they returned it to me, and tried to charge me something like $43. for sending it back to me.

My buddy that works for UPS has deliveries all the time with crazy COD bills from brokerage/customs/processing fee's. If the customer doesn't want to pay it, he tells them to phone UPS & complain, majority of the time the bill is reduced. This was a few years back, not sure if its still the same.

If you don't have a broker Fedex is the way to go if USPS isn't an option. I have had some larger $ value things shipped from the US & UK Fedex & the brokerage cost was quite resonable.

As Ziggy said, Fedex can be a pain on the other end. We have an account/use UPS at work. We don't have a Fedex account, in the past some customers wanted us to send it Fedex on their account. We do & Fedex then send us a bill for calling them for a pickup.

I agree with Johnny.

USPS or FedEX for international shipments.

I recently ordered a pair of hockey skates shipped up from New Jersey. Their website specified they use UPS and I requested they use FEDEX..to hopefully avoid high brokerage fees.

And although it took a little longer clearing through customs..All I had to pay was tax @ 13% hst on the parcel at my doorstep.

Those skates are regularly $799, got them for $483 shipped to my door

Sounds like you should have spent that money on your car .

I've personally never had an issue with FedEx, as previously mentioned. They're my fav <3

As I recently experienced, FedEx charges the HST plus a $10 fee on each shipment.

My skate completely broke. And although I'm in a 1 month off season, I play 3-4 nights a week. So I was in dire need of new skates.

Trust me, I prefer spending money on the car!

@ Rob, I think you're right. There was a $10 S&H fee or something to that effect.

I avoid both FedEx and UPS like the plague because of past fees. I once had a package that cost me 100$ with 120$ in brokerage/duty and blah blah blah. Told them to come back another day. They sent a new guy, he left the box at my house without any fees. They called me back and sent me letters to get their money and I politely told them to stick it where the sun don't shine. They make money on our backs for doing close to nothing. It's absurd!

Heck the guy in my region now knows that if he tries to overcharge me with these fees, I'm going to, at least, make him drive to my house 3 times just to get my moneys worth and make UPS lose some as they are required to do it if requested. I HATE THEM!

USPS is the only way to go in most cases.

The driver doesn't have authority to change it. You have to call. The person you call doesn't care and won't help unless you have leverage and even then, sometimes they'll say you're ok and then you'll get a letter in the mail from a collection agency. I make them go to the moon and back to get their fees that way they have to pay workers more and thus resolves in them breaking even on charges. My mini revolt on them. I'd suggest doing that if you can't get them to lower it (which you probably won't be able to do).

800 bucks for skates? link to said skates? They must be made of some sort of precious metals or something exotic

http://www.hockeyboss.com/bauer-vapor-x7-le-sr-ice-hockey-skates.aspx

LOL

At that price, do they skate for you at least?

You think those are bad, goalie skates are too damn expensive...

My last pair lasted me 4 years and they cost about $150. The pair before that were a gift to me and they lasted 10 years, they were in the $800 mark. My feet aren't growing any more so I'm hoping these will hold up for that length of time...knock on wood.

All goalie gear is expensive. I used to play goalie for about 4 years and sold all of my gear about 2 years ago. I lost a lot of money doing that but I had enough of Jr. A players taking slap shots at my head.

In Soviet Russia, Skate skate you!

Goalie here, not sure which cost more, the equipment or the dsm, pretty damn close honestly. Half decent set of pads start at $1500.

Its criminal for sure, I wont buy things unless I know its being shipped USPS and if they wont ship that way then I wont buy it from them I will go elsewhere. I got dinged like this on a bike helment luckily it was still worth it in the end.
Sorry but as we all know UPS U POOR SUCKER

I forgot to update this. Most of the reason the fee was so was the seller put the value of the package at 3x what I paid. To be honest that's not far off the true value, I got a good deal, but really he doing it to "win the lottery" if UPS lost his package. This is zero cost to him so why not...

But UPS also decided that Duty and Brokerage should me MAXED for this package, just because.

There are a few things you can do in this situation

1. Have the seller fax a revised invoice with a reduced amount of the package and they'll recalculate the values
2. Even after the package arrives you can self broker - UPS will help you find the forms on their website and then you're on you own to take it to "customs" (they wouldn't tell me where this is) and get the papers completed.
3. Phone UPS and get an immediate $20 rebate by telling them you've never heard of brokerage (that part is important) and then keep them on the phone for 90 minutes repeating the options over and over and over and over and over again (that part was just for me)

In the end I got screwed.

I don't feel like reading the entire thread again, so forgive me if the answer is back there somewhere, but my question is: did you already have the package in your possession when you were instructed to pay these fees? What form did these instructions take? A phone call? An email? The driver in person?

When the driver comes to pretend to knock on your door, just before he runs away he leaves that slip of paper with the total amount due printed on it. It's only a total amount though, there's no break down.

When you finally get a hold of the package or pick it up at the distribution centre you get the break down of how much is tax, duty, tax on duty, brokerage, tax on brokerage etc.

The package isn't in your possession until you pay the fees. I believe if you choose the "self broker" option (#2 above) they still won't release the package until you can prove you've done that, and you've paid the tax.

I do "self brokerage" on a regular basis, but have no idea how that works if you don't have the goods with you. A couple of times I have ordered a shipment right from China, and I asked at the customs office at the Queenston-Lewiston bridge (where I clear customs every week)if I could "pre-clear" the goods there. They looked puzzled and said no, how would that work if they wanted to inspect the goods? In those cases, I have to go to the customs office at the Toronto airport. I GUESS if they want to examine the goods, they will go to the warehouse (near the airport) where the goods are stored. I have NO idea how it would work if UPS has the goods.

My boss travels a lot and I know he has used something called "goods to follow" but I think you have to be out of country for a week+ for that to work.

I think you are probably correct. I think that might also apply only to personal goods, not sure if that applies to commercial goods also?

It most likely is personal only. I know everything commercial gets more complicated, we import/export granite and it's always fun and the rules seem to change whenever they feel like.

Bringing this back from the dead, Ordered 1 7bolt L19 head stud from ARP they charged 30.00 US Only ship by UPS 29.03 US, When it showed up 11 days later 24.05 can COD for Customs Brokerage. Thats a total of 90.37 can for 1 Stud 58 dollars and change to UPS, having a hard time sitting down. I think my plan to order 1 a month until have a full set and then do the same for nuts and washers is going to be costly!

If you want, I've heard if you go the more expensive route via UPS (the quick one, not ground) you only pay around 10-20$ no matter what. At least that's what the guy from UPS that comes to my house (rarely) told me as he understood I HATED his company and felt it nice to give me a hint on how to avoid horrendous charges.

Also had 2 usps packages dropped of on the door step today from amazon and 1 worth 50.00 blew away I guess I know it was light and wind blowing about 80 KM here it was gone when I checked about an hour after they came! FML

Guys, get that in your head; UPS have their own brokerage monkey and have their own fee structure for that service. Like it or not it is a fact.

Just pick an other carrier or get it delivered on the US side and bring it across the border yourself.

Their is other solution; one of them is called Ziggy.

Always ask whoever you buy stuff from who they will ship the goods with. Remember that most US shipper are not of the brokerage fees at the border. It is common knowledge that UPS will charge for doing the paperwork on your behalf.

Spot the "whine" and pick an other carrier.

Ghislain

Is this some kind of elaborate scheme? You figured you could save money on shipping if each package was super-small? I'm stumped on this one. Certainly, it's not my business, whatever it is you're doing. Perhaps there's a bigger picture I'm not aware of.

I'm pretty sure he was just joking, Paul

Yep Just joking, bought Ryan Ls set with one missing, now have a full set.

Ah, humour. I see. I thought maybe, but I've seen and heard of some pretty crazy things that people do. Mind you, most of them own Honda's, but not ALL of them.