Familiar with UPS Canadian fees?

[BassBomb]

I just ordered something from a website in the states and they are shipping via UPS Standard (to Canada)

I paid abut 95$ for freight and 410$ for the items.

I was wondering if anyone knows about brokerage fees / customs fees / duty that UPS will charge me.

Will they automatically take it from my credit card (the store has not charged me yet on the card for the products), or will I have to pay these fees once at my door?
Do they take cash and/or credit cards?

Total weight was approx 100lb, they were sent as multiple package w/ tracking numbers from Chatham NY. They are currently at FT Erie in Canada.

TY

 

[Paperdoc]

I'd bet UPS could answer this for you, and do a better job than any of us on ATOT. Call them.

 

[nickbits]

http://www.thefinalcost.com/

 

[KeithTalent]

When I've had to pay those fees they usually just leave a slip in my mailbox that says something along the lines of 'your item is a available for pickup at XX location. There is a $$ brokerage charge to pay when you pick up the package'. I think I paid abour $40 when I bought my Sennheiser cans, which were around a couple of hundred bucks at the time.

KT

 

[BassBomb]

According to final cost im looking at an extra 100$ tacked on ... USPS seems like a better choice for next time

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: BassBomb
According to final cost im looking at an extra 100$ tacked on ... USPS seems like a better choice for next time

From my experience USPS is always the better choice when shipping over the border.

KT

 

[sdifox]

UPS is going to rape you, if you have a choice, contact vendor and switch to USPS!


oops, too late.

 

[BassBomb]

Originally posted by: sdifox
UPS is going to rape you, if you have a choice, contact vendor and switch to USPS!

Too late now, its already crossed the border

But I do intend to purchase from them next time, I'll make sure its USPS

 

[meltdown75]

when i bought my PS2 console from FS/FT the guy shipped UPS. they tried to ding me for $50 worth of brokerage fees and threatened to take it to a "collections agency" if i didn't pay. this was about a month after i received my item and was the first time i heard about it. they were simultaneously informing me of the charges and warning me of a collections agency coming to get me.

because of that i decided to sic my angry wife on them, and i never heard from them about it again. that was last August.

 

[BassBomb]

I will see soon enough. Im hoping they do what KT said where they just tell you the fees and you go get it from location. That or direct charge to credit.

I don't want to pay at the door because I don't normally have that much cash with me, and my Mom would probably flip

 

[BassBomb]

I went to a local UPS Store to see if they know how much the charges are, apparently its going to come out to ~112$ which is like

It really sucks but still better than buying in Canada. We will see the official amount tommorow morning! It's still sitting in Ft Erie

 

[eelw]

Yeah, UPS brokerage fees suck. Forced to pay an extra 25% for what? A few signatures and a few days extra delay.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: KeithTalent

Originally posted by: BassBomb
According to final cost im looking at an extra 100$ tacked on ... USPS seems like a better choice for next time

From my experience USPS is always the better choice when shipping over the border.

KT

Too bad they offer no tracking to canada, which is why I ship to canada with UPS only.

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: Shawn
Too bad they offer no tracking to canada, which is why I ship to canada with UPS only.

That's a good point. Of course, the recipient pays dearly for that 'service' ...

 

[n7]

You are gonna get raped, as you found out.

I found out the hard way too many times that when you order from the US, you only use USPS.

I will never get anything from teh US w/o it being USPS, since it's just not worth it, at least never thus far for me.

 

[Paperdoc]

I have a lucky situation that many in this town use. The US border is a 40-minute drive from my house, and there is a gas station / store / motel business about half a mile south of the border. They run a large package receiving business - they handle hundreds of packages per day! I order from any US source and give them as my address this business. (I have that address registered with my credit card company as an Alternative Address.) It gets delivered there and they hold it. Any tracking service is valid because it's being delivered in the USA. When the tracking system confirms it has arrived, I drive down there at my convenience (it is just held there until I pick it up) and pay them $3.00 per package to hand it over. Then I fill up on cheaper US gas and head back.

At the Canadian border I fully declare what I've just done. For small things they may just forget about it. For larger things they want to see an invoice to confirm the pricing, including shipping costs. They figure out import duties (sometimes almost none), and PST and GST and collect it all. I am NOT paying any fancy broker fees that way, just the government taxes I'd pay anyway. And if my gas tank is nearly empty to start, the money I save on the fill-up almost pays for the gas I used to make the round trip.

 

[BassBomb]

Where do you live? I should so try that

 

[Paperdoc]

PM sent to you.