Apparently a guy in British Columbia has filed a class-action lawsuit against UPS, for the ridiculous “brokerage” charges they demand from the recipient of any US->Canada shipment. Frequently the brokerage fees will be more than the shipment is worth.
Unfortunately, the case is in BC only at this time, but if one starts up in Ontario, I’ll be there. Those bastards have fucked me one time too often.
FedEx used to be better, but they started doing it too (I guess they could smell the money too). The only viable option remaining is the regular postal service (which charges a flat $5 for the same service). That is cool, I’ve had good luck with simple US Postal Service shipments of CDs ordered from the US. But some stores refuse to ship that way.
I want to buy a Technivorm coffee maker, only available from the US, but haven’t been able to figure out a good way to do it without paying off those gangsters. I think there may be an option whereby I drive to a customs office and clear the package myself. That would likely cost me more in gas than I save in brokerage fees, but it would be worth it.
Update: Man, close to 200 comments so far, almost all of them from very angry people. I’ve have since learned more about doing your own customs clearance, including some relevant information straight from Canada Border Services Agency.
UPS wanted me to pay $60 in brokerage fees on a shipment worth $200! I refused to continue to get gouged by this company so I refused it at the door. I called UPS about this and they told me I had no choice or find my own broker. I looked around and found another broker by the name of Bay City Brokers from another blog site that a user has used.
Anyways long story short they cleared my shipment for a brokerage fee of $16.00, I don’t know how UPS justifies such a huge fee. Just so everyone knows we do have other choices. They have a chart on their website at baycitybrokers.com you can look at which compares fees. Hope this helps!
The best solution:
As UPS/FedEx are looking for any corner to rub people and they know complete cost of shipping for all of packages to Canada or U.S but they prefer to hide this from the sender to encourage sellers with a competitive shipping rate after shipping they know how to rip the recipient off at destination with brokerage or advance bull crap fee! This is absolutely their responsibilities like to deliver your item to your door free of any extra and hidden cost like any other shipping company.
I personally refuse to pay this fee and I contact the seller immediately in order to resolve the problem and get it paid by seller as I paid the shipping cost when I purchased my item. If seller doesn’t pay I would dispute my transaction through PayPal or my credit company! Why? Coz I am being rip off with a hidden cost of shipping, believe me it works 100%.
I think if everybody does the same, very soon nobody uses UPS or FedEx service because of this issue.
Guess what happens next, they have to cut the B.S off and deliver your package free of ridiculous brokerage or advance fee or else they would be out of the business.
The best solution:
As UPS/FedEx are looking for any corner to rub people and they know complete cost of shipping for all of packages to Canada or U.S but they prefer to hide this from the sender to encourage sellers with a competitive shipping rate after shipping they know how to rip the recipient off at destination with brokerage or advance bull crap fee! This is absolutely their responsibilities to deliver your item to your door free of any extra and hidden cost like any other shipping company.
I personally refuse to pay this fee and I contact the seller immediately in order to resolve the problem and get it paid by seller as I paid the shipping cost when I purchased my item. If seller doesn’t pay I would dispute my transaction through PayPal or my credit company! Why? Coz I am being rip off with a hidden cost of shipping, believe me it works 100%.
I think if everybody does the same, very soon nobody uses UPS or FedEx service because of this issue.
Guess what happens next, they have to cut the B.S off and deliver your package free of ridiculous brokerage or advance fee or else they would be out of the business.
As soon as I came over to UPS “Brokerage fee” class-action Ronblog I can only see part of it, is this my net internet browser or the web web site? Should I reboot? Cheers Macey Lindsay
I was charged $78 brokerage fee for a $600 package. Called customer support, told them I’ll cancel my next 10 shipments with UPS (BS!) if they don’t refund my brokerage fee. Got the full amount back.
a few years back my father and i ordered a set of ford replica mirrors for his pick up as we were rebuilding it. the total was about 150$ us and then the ups dude comes to the door and asks for 78$ i nearly shit my pants it was so obscene. I called my father as i did not have the money at the time and he sadly paid it but not until after i gave the ups douche a piece of my mind on how they just raped us. I am not waiting for a package and see that the brokerage data was processed and i am not please to see that cause i know the dude will be asking for something. i am prepared to refuse the package and call my credit card company and inform them of the undisclosed added fees.
if someone is starting another class action i am in with fucking bells on email kinkydrummergirl@hotmail.com
Paid $50 shipping and just got a $100 brokerage charge for $200 worth of used rc equipment. Totally bummed, could have bought it all new locally with that money.
Just was told that I have to pay $69 when my non taxable $200 safety glasses show up. Brokerage fee plus taxes that should not have been paid? Haven’t received item yet. $50 is a nice round figure, ridiculous amount however for a service that wasn’t even done properly. This is definitely a money grab on UPS’s part that all Canadian’s should be aware of when ordering items online from the U.S. A nice little hidden charge. I have no objection to paying taxes but have no desire to do business with companies with unscrupulous business practices and hence will be cancelling my UPS account. Be aware of who your item is being shipped with when ordering online.
Shipper,
After carefull review of the situation regarding UPS and their policy of adding an extra charge for their “standard delivery” I wanted to pass this information for your benefit. There was a class action lawsuit filed against them and won, however, is currently being appealed by UPS in the courts of Ontario, Canada. I read online the judgement against them, a lenghty 119 document, citing reasons why brokerage fees are not lawful, etc. It appears that UPS only charges the hefty brokerage fee for their base service, attempting to recover competitive low costs against other courier services. Thousands of complaints are aimed at them constantly, attested to by the blogs people have spoken through . Its seems to be a common story. The unsuspecting customer is always shocked when the already paid item arrives at their door COD, requesting exhorbatant levies, often near 100% of the price paid for item. My policy now is to never order anything online whereby the shipper uses UPS for the delivery.
andrew