eBay

bikerbarbie · ‎10-25-2013

For buying used products on this site i have been buying from here for 13 yrs and yes, every now and then i have to pay a duty charge if the item is over a certain amount, but these charges are BUNK!!

30.00 broker fee for a 10.00 item , do you not want international sales?

Fix this or people will be leaving as Kiijii Craiglsit and many others will take over just as quick....

reallynicestamps · ‎10-25-2013

Most shippers do not charge any brokerage fee when the item does not require brokerage. That is, if the value of the item is under $20.

Nor does CBSA or Revenue Canada bother collecting sales tax on such low value items. Occasionally an item is charged in error, and CBSA has an appeal process for that.

What was the eBay transaction number ? Which shipper was charging?

Is it possible that your seller falsely marked the item as a 'gift"? Is it possible that you actually paid more for the item than was marked on the customs slip? Is it possible that you got a huge bargain from a seller who started an auction much too low?

In any of these circumstances, CBSA has the right and the duty to open and re-assess the import. (There was a thread last year about a lady who bought a vintage Louis Vuitton purse for a very good price and had it reassessed at $4000 by CBSA. She had the paperwork to prove her actual cost was under $200, as I recall, but it was a battle.)

treasure.hunter.d · ‎10-25-2013

The biggest problem in this area is couriers like UPS. Their brokerage charges are obscene. I bought an item at auction a few weeks ago expecting the local UPS store to send it to me via United States Postal Service. They flat out refused and as I had already purchased the item I was on the hook for it. It cost me $50 to have it shipped and when the UPS driver got to my doot he wanted another $75 roughly in fees. $43.95 in brokerage fee, $15 dollars in taxes and the rest in duties which I shouldn't have paid but the shipper marked the package incorrectly with the wrong excise code. All this for an item that was $102.00 after CDN to US exchange!

Now, had that been sent USPS as I intended I would have been on the hook for $9.95 brokerage fee to Canada Post and the taxes.

Anyway, i called UPS and freaked out on them and they agreed to refund my brokerage fees and I have filed the paperwork to the government to get my duties back but if not I would have been paying almost $130 to get a $100 item to me from the US, all because of UPS and their ridiculous fees. Other couriers are similar.

it's total **bleep** and quite honestly I believe the CDN government should be looking into it and placing limits on what theyc an charge.

Cheers,

thD

afantiques · ‎10-25-2013

expecting the local UPS store to send it to me via United States Postal Service

That seems to me to be like asking Pizza Hut to send you a Big Mac.

marnotom! · ‎10-25-2013

@bikerbarbie wrote:
For buying used products on this site i have been buying from here for 13 yrs and yes, every now and then i have to pay a duty charge if the item is over a certain amount, but these charges are BUNK!!
30.00 broker fee for a 10.00 item , do you not want international sales?

Like Reallynicestamps, I'd like to see the listing number for that particular item. Something seems amiss here.

treasure.hunter.d · ‎10-26-2013

@afantiques wrote:
expecting the local UPS store to send it to me via United States Postal Service

That seems to me to be like asking Pizza Hut to send you a Big Mac.

You obviously do not have much, if any, in the way of experience dealing with UPS stores I would guess.

It's actually a service that is offered by every UPS store I have ever dealt with except this one. I buy a lot of stuff from auction in the US and deal extensively with UPS stores and this is the first one that has ever refused to send a package via USPS.

Cheers