50% UPS Brokerage fee????

[kazoobers]

I bought an item that was $99.95 US. The Seller charged me $16.00 for UPS standard shipping to Canada.

The package arrived and here is a Brokerage C.O.D. due to UPS for $54.17. What a rip! The seller said nothing about additional fees due IN ADDITION to the $16.00 I paid him for the shipping. By looking under Help in eBay, I see there is nothing I can do about it.

[whsyerfroggy]

No, they can't, but a more fair playing field with the fees would be nice. It's not like the difference can be explained by the exchange rate. Regardless I don't use UPS unless absolutely necessary......I wonder if they would pick my parcels up at the door, hmmmm

[kazoobers]

Those fees can't be right deev_hutch. You are saying my $99.95 item should have cost $19.95 in brokerage fees, but as you know, I paid $54.17 for brokerage fees.

[coinsnmore2007]

" I paid $54.17 for brokerage fees."

Are you sure the $54.17 you paid didn't include taxes due and all the other fees UPS charges?
Establish an alibi and eliminate the motive!

[kazoobers]

could be, but $19.95 to $54.17 seems like a lot of taxes and other fees.

[whsyerfroggy]

with taxes would have come to $38 and change. Was there any duty? Where was item made? cause there could have been duty, on top of the taxes and COD

[kazoobers]

I don't have the bill anymore, but there would have been duty since it was a watch coming from the USA into Canada, plus at that time our dollar wasn't near par so I guess they would have added on the exchange as well.

[whsyerfroggy]

I don't believe duty is charged on items made within North America, but I am not 100% sure. Did forget to account for the exchange rate though.

[adam12adam12]

On a $99.00 order from the States, my friend had to pay over $50 in brokerage, duties and taxes. It's usually comes out to 50% of your order. Not such a bargain now is it.

[deev_hutch]

Note: On most items from the US, there is NO duty payable to the government, only GST/PST. The courier company (UPS) takes the rest of the money in fees.

The brokerage fee is charged on the CANADIAN value for duiy. So, if you bought the item back when the exchange rate was not as favourable, this would have brought the total up to more than $100 canadian.

Also, there are some other “hidden” fees, notably a COD fee to collect the money from you, and a bond fee to “lend” you money for a week (the amount that UPS had to pay in GST/PST to release your package)

For the sake of argument, lets say it was valued at $110 Canadian (exchange rate as of Oct 2006)

So…

Brokerage fee: $29.00
COD fee for collecting brokerage: $4.25
Bond fee (for loaning you money to pay taxes for you): $5.85

Total: $39.10

GST/PST on $110 item: $14.30

GST on brokerage: $2.35

Grand total owing to UPS: $55.75

This seems close to your total.

[deev_hutch]

Please note that in the previous example:

Duty paid to Canadian Govt. = 0
Taxes paid to Canadian Govt = $9.50
Taxes paid to Provincial Govt = $7.15

Brokerage, COD and Bond fee paid to UPS = $39.10

[cool_purple_dude]

Its best to pay up the UPS bill and take it as a lesson learned! Of course, it comes as a shock to many people if they have not been privy to information such as posted online in these forums.

One of the initial instances I experienced was with a replacement sporting goods item; it arrived via Fedex; all was well; the brokerage and tax bill came in the mail a few weeks later - surprise!

Just live and learn, and adjust your purchasing habits from here on in!

[kazoobers]

Exactly cool_purple_dude, but some people on this discussion feel we were supposed to find these things out BEFORE it happened to us. Pretty hard to do when you you never had anything shipped other than the postal service before.

[canuckchat]

kazoobers... we don't think you should know it before it happened to you ... but you should not be expecting your seller to know it either .. they will likely NOT know it or they wouldn't have shipped using a courier service ... so take a lesson learned and in future, be sure to clarify clearly with a seller that they WILL indeed ship POSTAL service and explain why to them, nicely of course!

[j2sammy]

And unfortunately for the seller, when you refuse a package THEY get billed for the UPS charge.

The seller loses the sale, the money for shipping, and gets to pay UPS for nothing.

Everybody loses.

ALWAYS confirm with the seller that your item WILL NOT be coming UPS, and that it will be valued at the ending bid price. Many sellers don't know about UPS until it's too late.

To clarify, the seller is not stuck with the Brokerage C.O.D. amount. They must only pay the cost to have UPS ship the item back to the seller.

[ferret-mom]

but you should not be expecting your seller to know it either .. they will likely NOT know it or they wouldn't have shipped using a courier service ...

And why do you suppose that is the case?

Could it be because UPS buries the extra costs way down in the fine print?

[canuckchat]

... could it be because they don't ask the particulars of using a courier service maybe?

[jakeeangel]

and that they've never experienced it themselves because they have a higher import limit than Canadians....

---

When you find doing what's right hard to do - you've got a problem.

[canuckchat]

ya gotta wonder sometimes....

if these people have a car accident .. do they blame the "hidden driver" that made them swerve off the road?

if they lose their job ... do they blame the "hidden employee" who told the boss to fire them?

if they go negative on their bank balance ... do they blame the "hidden charges" the bank puts on them that then caused them to go negative?

[ferret-mom]

Sorry canuck, but that is really a stretch.

All I know is that if I pay for a service, I remit the amount that is required. Full stop. I should not have to ask whether or not there will be further charges down the road, or ask to read the service provider's manual just to be on the safe side.

When you go through the check-out at WalMart, and the cashier asks you for $7.98 to pay for your purchase and related taxes, do you grill her to make sure that they won't shake you down for extra cash on your way out the door, or do you simply pay the amount that you owe?

[canuckchat]

... so go to walmart.. now that you know not to use couriers...