I paid $28 USPS priority mail international from US to CAN, but received the item via FEDEX. Fedex charged me additional $10 advancement fee

[hogfool1]

Is it fair to ask and receive reinbursement for the FEDEX fee? The additional charge total came to $15.36 with taxes. If I knew they were sending via fedex, I could have provided my account number and avoided the fee, but the item listed USPS as shipping method.

[femmefan1946 · Accepted solution]

Yes, while the seller did not necessarily know that FedEx charges customs brokerage fees, he said he would ship USPS and then changed the service without discussing it with you.

But I don't quite understand your arithmetic.

If the item was over $20, Canada Post would have charged you exactly the same customs and taxes plus an $8.50 service fee. If you only paid FedEx $15.36 there wasn't much difference between the two services.

While Canada Post often misses charging these fees, we have to be prepared to pay them.

Sellers are often very wary when a buyer tells them to put a shipment on the seller's courier account, because there is a common scam involving charging shipments to an employer's account. When the bookkeeper sees the unauthorized charge it is reversed. The crooked employee keeps the goods and the shipping cost is charged back to the seller.

[dmil8030 · Accepted solution]

Hello 'hogfool',

What you paid was a brokerage fee, - a charge for doing the paperwork to pass on the tax to the government.  When items come by Canada Post they often just arrive on your doorstep without charge.  But not always, - and CP charges $8.50, so if it had been assessed via the post, the difference would have only been around $1.50.  Moreover, the seller didn't know you had an account enabling you to save $10, so it's a small mistake, really.

In my opinion, it is way to small to quibble over.  Quite likely the seller does not know that Canada has such a small import limit, - 20 bucks.  Not when Americans can bring in up to $200 before Uncle Sam wants a share.  So for the same shipping fee, the seller may have thought he was being kind sending it with the courier.  It arrived pretty quick, didn't it. 🙂

Or maybe the seller simply forgot and chucked your item in with all the state-to-state shipments, not giving you a nanosecond of thought.  Either way, the difference is minimal, and with time you will encounter far more egregious gaffs than this one.  I sincerely think that a couple bucks is not worth mentioning, especially when it is likely no malice was intended by the seller, and he certainly is not pocketing any extra for himself. 

Look on the bright side, -- he could have sent it UPS. 😄