Be careful.,Seller ships with DHL....Huge costs at Canadian Customs!!! Wish I knew before!!!

[4donny]

Just wanted to let others know the problems with DHL....DHL...charge horrendous charges at customs for items to be cleared....I talked to the driver,,,and was told if I refuse the item and self clear I might lose the item....as they may send it back to its destination.....Just be careful....if your seller is using DHL.....My item was valued at 30.00...and I paid a 19.67 clearance fee....Ten dollars minimum charge...4.00 miscellaneous fee and 4.67 taxes....Wish I knew before!!!!  Unfortunately lots of sellers ship DHL.....Be very careful!!! The seller I purchased from ships DHL....Factor a huge extra customs charge,,,,,If I knew I would not have ordered....

[maximus7001]

Tell them you will broker it yourself.

[astra1963!!]

you are lucky one. I ordered item 28.00 dollars and have to pay to DHL 19.46. I will never use company that ship with DHL.

[reallynicestamps]

Tell them you will broker it yourself.

True, but remember that since you have no experience at this that your costs in travel, time and frustration, may be more or equal to the charge from the shipping company.

The current minimum wage in Ontario is 18 cents a minute. You can work out the value of your own time.

At least the GSP tells you what you will be charged before you bid.

And UPS and Canada Post charge you on the doorstep before they hand over the parcel.

FedEx and DHL are much sneakier.

[lal5654]

The way that carriers like DHL making money is nasty, people are fully aware of shipping charges at the time of ordering, but PROCESSING FEE and TRANSACTION FEE (those are the terms DHL using now) are invoiced without informing in advance. I don't think that is the way of doing business under free market. 

[mater721]

"The way that carriers like DHL making money is nasty, people are fully aware of shipping charges at the time of ordering, but PROCESSING FEE and TRANSACTION FEE (those are the terms DHL using now) are invoiced without informing in advance. I don't think that is the way of doing business under free market."

I agree with all but the last sentence.

Because it is a Free market they can do it that way.

[komics4sale]

I am another of the the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who was "burned" by these Carriers.

I was quite upset for the first few days of having to pay an extra $20 for an item that would have been $0 if sent via regular US Post Office.

However after a few decades have passed, I am somewhat glad I paid that $20.

I now consider it was valuable lesson that cost me $20.

Since that day, I have never bought anything that was shipped using a courier service.

Additionally, I have preached about these "couriers" to many friends who have never been bitten.

I would like to think that my feeble efforts has cost the couriers many times more than that $20 they "legally stole" from me.

I had to put in "legally stole" as I know I would be getting some flak about how is it that the couriers stole from me when all they're doing is mandated in their job as they don't have the latitude to bend the rules as much as the government carriers & customs agents.

[djkoala]

it is now $25  that dhl charges for $30 item.

[femmefan1946]

Zombie thread.

But a useful one, that might remind Canadian buyers why the GSP is sometimes a Good Thing.

*Borrows Captain America's sheild, dons asbestos undies.*

[bobenis]

Yeah I just got stung for $31 on a $80 item....almost 50%.

$10 of that is taxes and the rest is "DHL Fees".

They are crooks as, just like UPS, they charge a hidden fee to COLLECT the payment from you at the door.

Yes...they ask you to pay them for taking your money (UPS charges $7)...that is where this all becomes a huge scam and I think all these private couriers should have a class action lawsuit slapped on them.

Sure, charge a fee for your "hard work" of entering some numbers into a program and have it do all the work but fees for collecting payments is utterly ridiculous. 

[reallynicestamps]

Welllllll....

I remember from my days learning typing, way back in the last century, our teacher telling us that it cost $3 to type and mail a letter. And at that time the ON minimum wage was 65 cents an hour.

I agree that the DHL cost is inflated, but it includes a lot of behind the scenes administration including by not exclusively, wages and benefits for employees, IT to keep those handheld devices working, bookkeeping costs to identify what duty and taxes are required, and the costs of remitting the collected import fees to the appropriate governments.

Is it worth $21?

Canada Post charges $9.95 for the same service and there is a lot of talk about how inflated their charges are. And the GSP /Pitney Bowes charges ~$5USD.

[marnotom!]

Interesting.  Last week I picked up a package marked COD by the post office.  Turns out it was something I'd ordered from the United States and was handled by DHL's logistics division before being handed off to Canada Post for delivery to my town.  DHL wanted "only" C$10 in processing charges on top of the C$3+ owed in taxes.

[dollarbella]

DHL is a scam, my order was $48 and they charged me 36$ in fees. I was shocked it cost that much. When my items shipped by Canada post, I never get charge any fees no matter how much it cost.

[maximus7001]

Just do the following:

"If you broker the package yourself, you avoid all "the courier" fees. Here's how:
Print out the final value (what you paid on ebay)
Call "the courier" with the tracking # and tell them you want to broker the package yourself.
When it gets to their depot in whatever city you live in, they'll call you and you can go down and pick up the paperwork from them.
Take that and your copy of your auction total to the nearest Canada Customs office. Pay the duty and taxes owed and they'll stamp your papers.
Then you take it back to UPS and they give you your parcel.

For example, in Winnipeg, UPS Depot is on Dublin and Rt. 90 (DHL is about a mile from UPS). You go to the clear door on the route 90 side of the building and pick up your paperwork. Take that to the Canada Customs office on Wellington (couple blocks from Rte 90 in strip mall). Once they stamp it, you go back to the UPS Depot to the door on the opposite side of the building and they'll give you your parcel.

It's a little more work, but at least you avoid paying brokerage."

Last time I did this it took an extra 19 minutes and I had my packages in hand.

The above quote originally came from a post here on the forums a few years ago and has been modified slightly.

[eric987123]

Reasonable you say ???

I order a cell from the US to Canada that I paid $50. DHL charged me $60 for brokerage fees !

Either you work for DHL or have never dealt with them.

[xenotime]

This seems to be among the many examples of the Great Canadian Cash Grab. These "brokerage" fees rarely exist in other countries. If you do a search for UPS or DHL Brokerage Fees, 90% of the posts are from Canada. A friend of mine who lives in Australia gets courier packages all the time and has never heard of this.

[femmefan1946]

Australia has a $1000AUD duty free allowance.

Canada has a $20CDN duty free allowance, as do most European countries.

And don't forget if an import is duty free, it may still be subject to sales taxes. And if you look closely at a breakdown, often there is no duty only sales tax and the shipper's 'customs brokerage fee", which starts around $25CDN.

Used items for example are not dutiable, but are taxable.

I believe cellphones are not dutiable (although they are not manufactured in a NAFTA country) but are taxable.

Canada Border Services Agency officials have made the informal, illegal and sensible decision to ignore imports that are low value because it costs more to assess and collect the (LEGAL) fees than could be collected.

[djkoala]

George Saint Pierre?

[reallynicestamps]

Well that was obscure.

GSP on these Boards refers to the deservedly maligned Global Shipping Program, a seller protection program that is overused by US sellers of cheap items due to their xenophobia and paranoia.

It can be useful when the purchase is valuable and bulky, but for the most part is not buyer -friendly.

[vromanis]

The method DHL uses is a rip off! All shipping charges should be specified up front! When we bought a $70 dollars item abroad, DHL requested that we pay $40 upon delivery on the top of what we already paid for shipping. Customs fee was a small portion, rest were multiple fees to pay to DHL and taxes on those fees. We refused to pay. They sent item back. Vendor re-sent item with another company. We received an item through Canada Post - no charges! DHL - greedy cheaters! Since then we never buy from vendors who use DHL.

[femmefan1946]

All shipping charges should be specified up front!

The charges are made up of Canadian duty, Canadian sales taxes and a 'customs brokerage' fee, which for most couriers starts around $25CDN.

When the seller buys the service (you paid him to do this but he is the shipper of record), DHL doesn't tell him this.

The seller just pays what seems like a fairly reasonable amount that covers just transport and handling. He  may be ignorant, but he is basically innocent.

We received an item through Canada Post - no charges!

Well, technically.....

You should have been charged the same duty and sales taxes as well as a $9.95 service fee to Canada Post, but CBSA and Canada Post public servants have decided that it makes no sense to collect these import fees when it costs more than the fees collected to assess and charge them.

However, when an item is not bulky, USPS First Class International Parcel  is the best shipping method and the Global Shipping Program a poor second best.

Unfortunately, our American cousins don't know that. Or don't want to know that.