Dealing with Canada custom

[lecale]

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[Dayanara]

I hate DHL.

Bought a backpack for my husband for his birthday in January. Backpack was from a US website, cost 30 bucks, plus 25 for shipping. That alone hurt, but I knew my hubby would love this bag (and thankfully he does, hehe).

I get the shipping notification from DHL after work one day and it said I had to pay fees. Tried calling and of course cannot speak to anyone, must go to the website. Go to the website. They want an additional 37.56....WHAT?!?!?!?!

I fumed for a while and then paid for it because it was a gift. But if I ever see anything being shipped via DHL ever again, not using it. The charge was for customs fees, which was barely anything, but the majority of the cost was the brokerage fee plus tax.

I have also had an issue with Fedex of paying for the duties (taxes actually) on my behalf shipping me the package and then I get a bill in the mail a month later. The charges they paid were 3 bucks, the bill I got was for 15. Fun.

I am very careful now of shopping on foreign sites, I try and find out how it is shipping before buying it. Regular mail, never had too big of an issue, but anything that involves a courier or a shipping company I try and stay away from. Limits where I can shop, but I would rather not pay double the purchase price.