Getting ripped a new asshole from UPS duties on items from the US

[PoorGuy]

I already learned my lesson. I was charged $83 CDN on duties and taxes from the brokerage company UPS uses on a $205 US computer parts purchase from an individual last year.

Unfortunately I've won a contest from the US that was open to North America. Unfortunate you say? That's because I've won computer hardware that retails for $800 CDN. The contest company will pay for UPS ground shipping, but I'm responsible for duties and taxes when it comes across the border.

A friend has told me a tracking number will be given to me and I can call my local UPS to clear the package myself, saving me the brokerage fee, but with a $800 declared value, won't Canada Customs rip me a new asshole?

He also said that it's not up to me whether I can clear the package myself or not, but up to the local UPS outlet and their proximity to the Canada Customs HQ?

I'm PoorGuy and I already blew my monthly entertainment budget at the 5 on Wednesday night.

 

[visiting]

Poorguy,

$83 does not seem bad to me, I use UPS a great deal to clear my packages.

Note.
Unless it was addressed to a company, there are 1 or 2 taxes in that 83$ which gets collected by the broker. If you cleared customs yourself, would still have to pay it. Then there could be duty, I am not sure if there is duty on your item(s), and if their is, how much it is. UPS has a chart, depending on how much the value is, to calculate their fees. With brokerage fees there are 2 other charges. The first is a disbursement fee around $5.85 approx (UPS has to pay Canadian Customs on your behalf,) I am sure you go get charged this, but the COD fee which is around 6-7$ is to collect the 83$ in the first place, you could avoid by paying by credit card if you make arrangements before you get the shipment.

Yes you can clear it yourself, depending on where the Customs office is, you will have to go to UPS get the documents, then go to customs fill out the papers, then either have customs fax the release to UPS, (in this case UPS would deliver the packages the next day), or go yourself pick-up the package, with the release from customs. The funny thing if every time I have clear shipments myself from UPS, when I went to pick up the papers, they had already completed the B-3 Form, so I just had to copy the info at customs, had it in, and wait for it to get processed. Customs is pretty easy if your not on the commercial side, as they will help you much more, but in this case I think 83$ is really not that big of a deal

Let's say... the invoice says...800$ Your charges are..
$800 x 6% = 48$ Depending on the value on the commercial invoice, it actually sounds a little cheap actually. Then depending where you are, a second tax, so it does not look like there is any duty on your item, if UPS charges you lets say $23, plus $5.85, plus $6.50 = 83.35 (in this case, Your in Alberta)

But chances are the company sending it to you did not declare the item as 800$, maybe they said 200$ (USD) then maybe there is a small duty on the product.


Anyway, you may be paying around 25-30$ for UPS to do the work. At this point you have to figure out what your time is worth. I think the fastest I have done this and customs and UPS were pretty close 2km away, it took me 2 hours. I have also had 5-6 hours, (items getting inspected)


Good Luck

 

[VanCan]

Poorguy;

There are services in the US border-towns (Blaines, Sumas, etc) that will receive your package and hold it for a small fee, about ten dollars or so. You can then pick it up and bring it over yourself. For the life of me, though, I don't remember the name of any of them at the moment.

 

[Randy Whorewald]

This has happened to me before numerous times. When buying ebay stuff, I now try to locate an item in Canada before looking in the US (or elsewhere). This often works in my favour pricewise too since a lot of Americans won't bid on items located outside the US so the item is generally not bid up by as many people.

 

[visiting]

Also note, UPS or Fedex ETC do not charge brokerage fees on Air shipments....

Having had run-ins with UPS before (and I absolutely refuse to deal with them because of this brokerag BS) I can tell you that yes while the taxes ARE collected the lion's share of that charge is brokerage fee.

For what those crooks are charging for the "privilege" of collecting the taxes and clearing something over the border, I'll take the trouble myself.

Do yourself a favour man, refuse the thing and have the shipper resend it some way that doesn't involve UPS.

Even if UPS carries your shipment, you are free to use any broker. But note, most brokers would charge much more than UPS. UPS has a chart of their charges, FEDEX, DHL, ETC ETC are pretty much all in the same range.

You can ask UPS to tell you what they are charging you, when they call you to ask you who your broker is. Unless you have an agreement with them to Automatically clear a shipment, they will call you before.

You may want to use Canada Post, as they will not give you an option not to use them once the package has arrived in Canada, but their charges are less then UPS, but per box. In the US they do not trust USPS as much as we Canadians or Europeans do their systems. But sometimes Canada post does forget to charge duties and taxes for packages.. and then their are low value shipments, that are gifts etc etc that do not get charged.

Poorguy;

There are services in the US border-towns (Blaines, Sumas, etc) that will receive your package and hold it for a small fee, about ten dollars or so. You can then pick it up and bring it over yourself. For the life of me, though, I don't remember the name of any of them at the moment.

If your trying to save money, I am not sure paying a company to receive your package, then having to drive down, and still have to clear your shipment is going to save you money when the charge is 83$.

This has happened to me before numerous times. When buying ebay stuff, I now try to locate an item in Canada before looking in the US (or elsewhere). This often works in my favour pricewise too since a lot of Americans won't bid on items located outside the US so the item is generally not bid up by as many people.

Funny, I recently purchased a Phone from Ebay, and because some Vendors do not want to sell outside the US, I have a US address set up, turns out the vendor in this case had the same set-up, so I was able to get the phone from inside Canada.


Shipments going to the US valued under 200$ USD do not normally get charged taxes, and or duties. Customs may check them, but if everything is ok, they pass with-out charges. In Canada, we have the same procedure for a 1$ item as a 100,000$ item. And items must have a value, even if you get it for free.

 

[Jodie]

A friend has told me a tracking number will be given to me and I can call my local UPS to clear the package myself, saving me the brokerage fee, but with a $800 declared value, won't Canada Customs rip me a new asshole?

He also said that it's not up to me whether I can clear the package myself or not, but up to the local UPS outlet and their proximity to the Canada Customs HQ?

If you can get around the whole brokerage issue, you'll be fine. Most items coming across the border from the US are only subject to PST and GST, not duty. Taxes are charged on the $CDN value of the item, and you need to be able to prove what the item is worth (i.e. with a receipt, packing slip, etc.) or else they will charge you tax on the full retail value, as determined by them (which will inevitably be more than the item is actually worth).

A suggestion to get around these issues in the future: sign yourself up for a parcel receiving service at a retail shipping outlet in one of the border towns. It's free to sign up for; you just have to fill out a USPS form (I forget which one) authorizing them to receive parcels on your behalf. These places charge a nominal fee on a "per parcel" basis, so you only pay if you use the service. This also gives you a US address so you can order things from places that only ship to the US, and often get free shipping on big ticket items.

 

[badwolfcgy]

I do not purchase anything from the US if the shipping is via UPS.
UPS are the worst for ripping off people with outrageous duty/brokerage fees.
I had to pay $75 fees on a $50 item.

What can Brown do for you today? FUCK OFF and DIE.

USPS is more reliable and much cheaper than UPS.

 

[therealrex]

Whenever I buy something from the US off ebay I always choose someone who will send it through the US Post Office. I'd rather wait 2 weeks than get ripped off by those cunts at UPS and I've never had any lost or damaged packages and a lot of times no customs fee at all.

 

[carefulone]

A suggestion to get around these issues in the future: sign yourself up for a parcel receiving service at a retail shipping outlet in one of the border towns. It's free to sign up for; you just have to fill out a USPS form (I forget which one) authorizing them to receive parcels on your behalf. These places charge a nominal fee on a "per parcel" basis, so you only pay if you use the service. This also gives you a US address so you can order things from places that only ship to the US, and often get free shipping on big ticket items.

I use a service in Point Roberts, Washington that charges me $2.50 US per parcel (larger, heavier items are more). The only problem is that their hours are Monday - Friday 8:00 a.m. - 6:30 p.m. - they aren't open weekends.

The other problem that I sometimes encounter is that many vendors who accept PayPal insist on shipping only to a "confirmed" address - and my US address could only be a "confirmed" address if it was my billing address for a credit card.

 

[stevey d.]

U S P S

i always use U S P S.

 

[visiting]

Well, Not that I love UPS, who the heck likes Brown, it looks like shit anyway, but I have a brokerage account with them, and everything goes very smooth with them, but like I said before I give them some volume, so I have a flat rate.

I think the biggest problem mentioned above is their COD fee which if you pre-pay when they call you to confirm your broker, they will not charge you. Also there is the disbursement fee of some almost 6$ Not sure how hard that would be to have waved. All I know if mine is waved.

 

[D Duk]

You can set up a cheap account at Hagen's of Blaine. $3 US to store your package for 1 week (up to a size limit) and includes a phone call to let you know it arrived (no monthly fees, just use it when you need it). Once you have registered with them you use your name but their street address (no PO box) therefore all services will deliver there.

Packages under $50 US value, unofficially CCRA will generally allow through without a problem or charges.

Bring all receipts to verify the price you paid (otherwise CCRA uses market value).

Also a tip from the US customs officers, "all items picked up are for personal use" otherwise you have to get a commercial ticket to cross to the US to get your item (another $5 US if you don't answer this question correctly).

As for PayPal, my Hagen's address is now confirmed even though it is not my billing address. I suspect that after x number of successful transactions and no complaints, eBay automatically confirms the address (I don't know how else it got confirmed).

 

[Pimmel]

You can set up a cheap account at Hagen's of Blaine. $3 US to store your package for 1 week (up to a size limit) and includes a phone call to let you know it arrived (no monthly fees, just use it when you need it). Once you have registered with them you use your name but their street address (no PO box) therefore all services will deliver there.

Packages under $50 US value, unofficially CCRA will generally allow through without a problem or charges.

Bring all receipts to verify the price you paid (otherwise CCRA uses market value).

Also a tip from the US customs officers, "all items picked up are for personal use" otherwise you have to get a commercial ticket to cross to the US to get your item (another $5 US if you don't answer this question correctly).

As for PayPal, my Hagen's address is now confirmed even though it is not my billing address. I suspect that after x number of successful transactions and no complaints, eBay automatically confirms the address (I don't know how else it got confirmed).

i've got the same setup in Blaine too, i don't think it's called Hagen's though. I did notice a while back that some Vancouver companies use the same address as i do as a US mailing address. It's a great setup, i just tell the US border guys that i'm going shopping in Bellingham, which i do, but i make a quick 1 minute side trip to pick up my stuff. i buy some ebay stuff, just print out your payment and the auction and show it to the border services, they get quite amazed at some of the stuff and how cheap you can get it. i just pay the GST and PST and i'm done, none of this stupid brokerage service stuff.