Evil UPS!00

[Toxophilite]

Ist world problem!
UPS brokerage, which is charged based upon your items value regardless of the effort involved.
Bought a sailrite kit for a 74sqft lug mainsail in Tanbark
Kit was $513 US including grommet kits
Exchange rate made it 711
Canadian taxes made it $780, UPS brokerage fees made it $850
About $200 less than having it made new locally. Not much saving in the end sadly.
though I will ge the sail a few months sooner and I like sailing all year round when the weather permits.

Exchange rate hurt but expected. UPS usurious brokerage fees are a little hard to take.

I might phone them and ask to self-clear.

[L.A Marche]

When I ordered from the US if they can’t/won’t mail it I shop somewhere else.

[Dikhaut]

Are you sure it was a brokerage fee and not duty, taxes, etc due to the government?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Nicholas Carey]

You're in Vancouver. Get a po box in Blaine and have it sent there. Bring it home yourself. Then no brokerage, no tax. It's roughly $20 a month.

I think mine is expired, but if you want to pay the three month fee thats due you can use it. You'd save a bundle, lots of people do that. PM me if you like, or I can give you an address in Blaine to have it sent to, no charge but maybe take them a bottle of wine or something.

There's a chinese saying, "regulations come from above, we work around them from below"

Or put up a request here on the WBF. Lot of wooden boat guys on the other side of the border not too far from you. Somebody would likely be willing to pick something up and rucker it up to you.

[Toxophilite]

No duty only taxes which I expected to pay. the UPS 'brokerage fee' is charged dependent upon the price. There are work arounds. One can ask to self clear, which means you pay the taxes at a local CBSA office, It involves some emailing forms back and forth. This would require a couple hours of time, though worth it to stick it to UPS. I have had packages sent to Blaine before, though sneaking things past border guards is a BAD idea. I know this from personal experience with vintage guitars..and I was just trying to pay less taxes. they hauled me in, grilled me, made me sweat for an hour or so and then sent me away having paid NO taxes(attempted crime pays! nice guys!) The other work around is, you phone UPS and complain bitterly, they then offer you a 50% goodwill (ha!) discount on their usurious brokerage fees. For me that was enough of a discount to Not bother sending forms around and driving downtown and back etc etc.

Are you sure it was a brokerage fee and not duty, taxes, etc due to the government?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Todd D]

When I have had to do cross border business, I always asked for stuff to be mailed or mailed it myself. Back then the brokerage fee through Canada Post was $5. Of course during my professor days I once had a shipment sent via post arrive with every piece broken. That was rather impressive since what was mailed was a box of rocks. The rocks were well packed in individual sample bags and wrapped in foam with empty space filled with packing peanuts. The box they were in looked as if Canada Post had run was of those vibrating/compacting rollers over it. I envisioned a red machine with Canada Post logos going back and forth over parcels. On the plus side they saved me the trouble of putting many of the rocks through the rock crusher as part of the prep to analyze them.

[Toxophilite]

Now Canada customs charges around $10-15 (can't remember) If I had remembered that sailrite uses UPS I would've asked them to use USPS. Way better.