Lousy customs

[JonnyStarks]

First off, I live in Canada.

I've been interested in getting into paintball for some time, and have been looking into paintball guns and accessories for about 2-3weeks (I make sure I know as much as I can about what I'm buying and make sure I can get the lowest price)

On the latter point, I found that my best place (apparently) to buy my brand new paintball setup would be God's gift to the packrat, Ebay.

The best people to buy from were in the States, so I had to convert the money to CDN dollars and it cost a little more to ship, but I still came out pretty well, getting the gun, a mask, a CO2 tank and a hopper for less than it would cost me to get the gun here.

So I put my order in and hope that the package gets here before Friday (I'm hoping to go out sun to play) and to my surprise I see a little UPS sticky on my door when I come home. The note said that the first delivery attempt failed, and that they would try a second attempt tomorrow. "Swell," I think to myself, as I have the bulk of the day off.

Then, as my eyes wondered to the bottom of the delivery notice, I see "Brokerage C.O.D. due: $66.66!!!!"

So, all of a sudden my incredible find on Ebay turns into not such a hot deal. I'm still kinda confused about just what that COD charge is, since I've already paid for the item via paypal, so I'm assuming that its a customs fee?

In any event, this is really just to vent a little frustration, I still haven't even gotten the package yet, but I plan to ask the brown shorts guy just what the deal is.



Cliffs!:
- I live in Canada
- Ordered paintball gun from the States off Ebay for a good price
- UPS missed me when they tried to deliver, left a sticky
- sticky said that I still owe a brokerage COD fee off $66.66
- I'm confused, and a little cheesed

 

[HappyPuppy]

Waaaaaaaaa!

 

[amdskip]

Seller shoulda shipped it usps, little or no customs IIRC.

 

[Lars]

Wow. That is a lot.

 

[Bootprint]

Some of that bill will be for the pst and gst, but I bet over half is for a brokerage fee.

With Purolator, they use another company to do the brokerage. So you don't get the bill until a month later, with very little info that it's for the package you got from Purolator.


Damn, these Jrun server problems.

 

[DaiShan]

Yes it is called a brokerage fee, basically UPS charges to negotiate getting the package across country lines IIRC. Best bet is always USPS shipped as a gift valued at $5.

 

[Kelemvor]

Definitely call the shipping company right away and ask them what that charge is. If it's something that you thought was being paid for in the paypal transaction, you can always refuse shipment and request your cash back from PP. And place reject the fee on your credit card if that's how you paid.

They have to be able to tell you what the fee is for befor eyou pay it.

 

[Trygve]

Would the same thing happen if something were shipped by FedEx ground? I've got to ship a package to Canada later today and FedEx's online rates were substantially cheaper than USPS and said nothing about any brokerage fees...but I don't know if they would.

 

[Linflas]

My mother in law sent down a wool sweater she knitted for my wife a few years back. USPS left one of those yellow slips in our mailbox telling me I had to come to the post office to pick it up because there was customs duty due on it. When I went to the post office to get it they wanted $26.00! I asked what would happen if I refused to pay and they said it would be returned to the sender. Since we were going to Montreal in 3 weeks time I decided to refuse it and they returned the package to my mother in law. We picked up the sweater while there and brought it back across the border with us when we returned. I still don't know how they came up with the $26.00 figure on a made from scratch item.:roll:

 

[JonnyStarks]

Update:

Well, I was too anxious to wait for any kind of delays from where I was so I ponied up and paid the fee. Sure it was alot, but I still didn't do TOO bad pricewise.

But its a lesson learned, so I guess next time I'll use USPS, I only did UPs this time because I was in a bit of a hurry to get it, and I've had some problems getting something from the states via USPS (a brooch for my mom that I orded for Christmas and it came sometime late February)

 

[WobbleWobble]

Originally posted by: Trygve
Would the same thing happen if something were shipped by FedEx ground? I've got to ship a package to Canada later today and FedEx's online rates were substantially cheaper than USPS and said nothing about any brokerage fees...but I don't know if they would.

Yes, FedEx ground does not include brokerage. When sending to Canada, FedEx Express is my preferred method, brokerage included. You still have to pay duty/taxes, but that's a given.