I am refusing to pay UPS brokerage fees! any tips?

[Landior]

Hello,

I had previously posted a coupon code for parfum1.com
I am writing to tell you that I received a notice from UPS today regarding my order from parfum1.com. They are demanding over $22 in brokerage fees for an order that is valued at less than $40US. I was not informed of these fees at the time of my transaction. I have contacted parfum1 about this, and I will contact UPS and make it known to them that I did NOT assign them power of attorney to act as my broker for customs clearance. I do not believe I am legally obliged to pay this fee, since I did not agree to it at the time of purchase, nor did I give UPS permission to act as my broker. I am prepared to cite any and all legislation that is applicable. They will not get away with their attempt to scam me.
If this fails, I will file a dispute with mastercard (which was the form of payment used in this transaction).
Please let me know if you have any suggestions. They are much appreciated. Thank you.

[bcteagirl]

Good luck.. I just had to pay 150$ to UPS today.... let me know if that works.... I really do wish you all the luck.

[bcteagirl]

As a note, they make a habit of charging an arm and a leg, so for others ordering from the states it would be good always keep in mind to tell people 'NO UPS'.. they are really horrible.

[Landior]

thanks so much, bcteagirl. I will definitely let you know. I do not see how this contract can stand up, given the fact that I did not agree on it. The agreement is not legally binding unless both parties are fully aware of all terms and conditions surrounding this agreement. I am disgusted with UPS for doing this, and Parfum1 should have mentioned this if they had knowledge of it (as I understand it, many companies are not made fully aware by UPS of these brokerage fees). Had I known about this cost, I would not have purchased from them. I was not given a chance to select my method of shipping, and I never agreed to pay anything above taxes and duty.
I will let you all know how this goes.
In the meantime, for anyone in a similar situation, I recommend you contact your credit card company or bank (depending on your method of payment) and remind them of the fact that you never agreed to these fees, and you never gave permission to your delivery provider to act as your broker. They need your written consent. I wish everyone else in similar situations the best of luck! please let us know what happens!

[Landior]

ok, here's an update:
I contacted Parfum1.com by phone, and the customer service was wonderful. The representative I spoke to was very sympathetic, and offered to give me a full refund. I feel bad that I have to send it back, but I did not agree to the final price, and a company will probably have more success negotiating with UPS than I will.
I am going to recommend that Parfum1.com use U.S. Postal Service for International orders, and I will also let them know what a great job their representative did. I feel sorry for these representatives, as they must have to take the flack for something that is beyond their control (I made sure I was very pleasant with my CS rep, as I appreciated the fact that she was taking my call and that se was not responsible for this whole mix-up.
Hopefully, Parfum1 will switch to USPS. If they do, I can recommend them, because the savings are great. Unfortunately, since UPS is their courier, the unexpected brokerage fees may not make it so much of a deal. With UPS you are usually looking at paying 50%+ of the package price.
I hear that people are looking into a filing class action suit in Ontario like that filed in B.C. against UPS. I hope this does happen, as I do not see UPS being able to carry on such a practice if this suit does go through. Since sellers and customers are often not made aware that such a brokerage fee will be applied, neither party should be obliged to pay these fees. When establishing a contract, all terms and conditions should be presented, and it should be certain that both parties understand and agree to these terms and conditions. The fee, therefore, should be disclosed to the seller who can then inform their client.
I am sending a complaint to UPS about how unpleasant it is to be surprised with such a substantial fee for them signing a few forms and paying duty and taxes (which would have been very small on my package). They should make sellers aware that such a brokerage fee will be charged, as many of these sellers are not made aware of this. That way, the seller can let their customer know about the fee at the time of the transaction, and the customer can make an informed decision about whether or not to go through with the transaction. I feel really bad for all those people who have been bullied into paying these fees (UPS will refuse you your package if you do not pay their hefty brokerage fee), feeling they had no other choice. I hope this post will help people know ahead of time what they are getting themselves into.
For those of you who would like to do the customs clearance yourself, please not that you must go to the point of entry of your package (which in my case was Fort Erie, which was too far). I was unable to do customs clearance through my local customs office. You could instead find a customs broker with a lower fee than that of UPS (UPS has the highest fee of any of the courier companies, accodring to CBC Marketplace, so I imagine there are customs brokers out there with much lower fees). In some cases, it is mere seconds of paperwork involved in customs clearance, from what I have heard. When you arrange for the customs broker, also make sure that you have a way of getting the package to the city or area where you live. There are often delivery companies that frequent these areas on a daily basis, so they can pick up your package for a fee that, even when combined with your customs broker's fee, is lower than that of UPS. I have heard several stories of people being made to pay brokerage fees that were equivalent to 100% of their package price.
I hope this helps! Good luck

[abfab]

I never buy anything from the US unless they will ship via USPS. That way you only pay a flat $5 to Cda Post plus GST.

I made the UPS mistake once... they charged customs (GST), a brokerage fee, a brokerage COD fee, a GST COD fee, plus GST on their fees!! Never again.

[frugiedh]

Yup. I found out about brokerage fees the hard way too. Our parcel showed up at our door with brokerage fees totalling more than the product was worth AND they wanted payment right then! We were so shocked and so whatever I order off Ebay now, HAS to come by mail only and I only order small things. I prefer Purolater for shipping. We have had great results with them overall in our small business AND their customer service people are great on the phone.

[Prue]

I am so glad I found this thread. My grandmother is away on vacation & I just received a parcel for her and the UPS guy charged me $84.83 which I assumed was a customs fee. Seemed a little odd given the item was valued at $234.99 - I mean thats over 1/3 of the value! So anyway after reading this thread I went up and got the invoice and sure enough only $32.86 was customs - $49.02 was UPS for a 'broker fee'!

I am going to make darn sure that everyone I know hears about this so that they make sure they only deal with people/companies that will ship USPS! This was an ebay transaction so I would have never thought they would send it UPS - the guy probably thought he was doing her a favor and that it would get here faster.


UPS Broker fees

[bcteagirl]

Ugh... sorry to hear that...

[Prue]

Thanks! I probably should have waited to tell my grandmother when she got home - probably not the best news on the 1st day of vacation

[jshebib]

I never buy anything from the US unless they will ship via USPS. That way you only pay a flat $5 to Cda Post plus GST.

I made the UPS mistake once... they charged customs (GST), a brokerage fee, a brokerage COD fee, a GST COD fee, plus GST on their fees!! Never again.

Good summary of the fees. Problem is the biggest fees seem to be fixed and they go to the government. I would encourage everyone to complain not just to canada post but also to government (revenue and customs).

We want FREE trade.

[dawnikus]

oh boy, what a thread! Has anyone told UPS that they want to clear their own packages?

Basically what you do is call UPS or tell the courier dork who is at the door that you want to clear your own pkgs. They will give you a form to fill out (or more depending on the # of pkgs) and you are to take them down to Canada Customs. Canada Customs does their lil thing and you can take your forms back to UPS and get your pkgs that way. Only thing you should have to pay on it is the duty and taxes (if applicable)

My husband & I have been doing that for the past few years. We save a lot on brokerage fees I tell ya.

Hope this Helps,

Dawn

OH yea -- If you are talking to small companies in the USA that use UPS as a shipper, you could mention that DHL does not charge brokerage fees however their hours of operation aren't as good as UPS or FedEx.

The problem with shipping USPS is that it takes longer for it to clear through Canada Customs and in some instances like Christmas and other holidays it will take a lot longer to get to you. In my case it was 6wks.

I order a lot of stuff through eBay, some of it can clear Canada customs just fine and dandy. Most of it I just have it shipped to a Broker in Pembina, ND called Norman G Jensen. They charge 3.25(USD) per pkg and hold it there for you. Just gotta remember to bring your receipt(s) with you just in case when coming back into Canada you have to pay taxes (or who ever has gone there to get it for you). For anyone else in Canada, maybe look into a Broker nearest you.

[Landior]

Good summary of the fees. Problem is the biggest fees seem to be fixed and they go to the government. I would encourage everyone to complain not just to canada post but also to government (revenue and customs).

We want FREE trade.

Hi Jenny,
I just wanted to clarify that I recommend Canada post and U.S. Postal Service. They charge a flat rate of 5$. They do not surprise you with ridiculous fees. The biggest fees in my case were brokerage fees that do not go to the gov't or Canada Customs, but directly to UPS for just signing a form or two. It was ridiculous! They make lotsa $ on this. What bothers me the most is that people send gifts via UPS, not knowing that the recipient will be charged about half the cost of the present itself! Avoid UPS at all costs!
I have shipped and received business packages via Purolator, and have never had clients charged surprise 'brokerage fees' and have never had them charge me. so I ship with Purolator if I am in a rush. If not, I go with Canada Post or USPS.
btw, about brokering your own package: I tried, but I would have had to drive all the way to Fort Erie (point of entry) to do so; my local customs office could not do it. I chose to send my package back
who should we speak tlo to make this process easier? Thanks for the response Jenny and everyone else in this thread

[docbosh]

I ran into a similar problem with UPS myself only a few weeks back. I had ordered a few water filters for my fridge, I bought 6 at once to justify the shipping cost, so that they'd cost significantly less buying in the US.

When they arrived UPS wanted a COD of about half of the value of the filters... I was flabbergasted to say the least. I called and want to know what the deal was. They told me I could clear the items myself.

Here is my advice, I have an old high school buddy who works for Omnitrans Customs Brokerage, he is a classifier, and it’s his job to classify items in a specific manner to pay the lowest brokerage fees possible on items.

One mistake is the commercial invoice said Appliance Parts, which these weren't they were just filters. I should have asked the sender to redo the invoice with a different description, some thing like water filter, water treatment, yadda yadda yadda.

Here is what Greg (my buddy) had to say to the idea of clearing items myself.

UPS closes at 8 pm so it is cool, I can just go down and get the paperwork and go to Customs after work… not really, Customs Canada closes at 4pm that means time lost to go there during my working hours.

What he warmed me most about it the need to have all paperwork for Customs done perfectly. If there is even one small mistake they can seize the items, and then you are stuck having to pay the seizure fees on top of any duties, and taxes. So while it seems likes extortion to pay such high fees, it is the business of the brokerage firms not to make simple mistakes.

This might sound like justification, it isn't really... The amount I paid brought the cost of the filters in line with what I would have paid for them in Montreal; the only big difference is I didn't have to drive all around town to get them.

It might not seem fair that the cost of everything hasn't changed with our rising Canadian dollar, but that is life. I suggest trying to buy within our borders to avoid the problems whenever possible.

Admittedly the USPS versus UPS argument does hold some water.

The additional $5 brokerage from Canada Post is sometimes it's worth it while other times it's not. Strangely the busier Canada Post is the less likely it is they will bother to levy a fee. I bought identical sets of GeoTrax for my daughter, one came through near Christmas, and the other just after New Years. The package at Christmas was delivered with no fees attached, and the package after New Years cost me $11CAD, on a $15USD item...

What I have heard is that if you switch to UPS Express or Expedited, the brokerage fees are free, you have to pay any taxes and duty if there are any. The question is what is cheaper the shipping or the brokerage.

Glyn

[blistex]

Good luck.. I just had to pay 150$ to UPS today.... let me know if that works.... I really do wish you all the luck.

oh wow for waht?
i hope it wasn't the free samples we are ordering lol