Why I love sellers who use UPS as their carrier...

[Capocheny]

Greetings all...

Here's why I absolutely LOVE buying from people who use UPS as their preferred shipper...

Imported a US$100 (CDN$115.37) camera bag from the United States => Canada. The breakdown on the charges were as follows:

Duty $12.69

GST $16.64

Brokerage Fee $39.10

Brokerage GST $2.35

=============

Total COD CDN$70.78

That's an additional $70.78 charged on a bag that costs $115.37... the majority of which is derived from the Brokerage Fee and Brokerage GST!

Any questions as to why I LOVE dealing with people who use UPS as a carrier? :>8

Cheers

[Daniel Grenier]

Fed Ex is just as bad. I no longer buy anything from the US unless it is sent USPS/ Canada Post. They charge a mere $5 for brokerage fees. UPS et al charge at least 10 times that. Outrageous fees for a few second's worth of work.

[Darin Boville]

Fed Ex is just as bad. I no longer buy anything from the US unless it is sent USPS/ Canada Post. They charge a mere $5 for brokerage fees. UPS et al charge at least 10 times that. Outrageous fees for a few second's worth of work.

There a class-action lawsuit you can join!

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/061024/K102418U.html

--Darin

[Enrico Faini]

Luckily here in Italy the brokerage fees for both FedEx/UPS are not as high: slightly more than €10
Even if they were higher most people would still be more than willing to pay them since anything sent via USPS usually takes between two weeks and a couple of months to clear customs

[Greg Lockrey]

Luckily here in Italy the brokerage fees for both FedEx/UPS are not as high: slightly more than €10
Even if they were higher most people would still be more than willing to pay them since anything sent via USPS usually takes between two weeks and a couple of months to clear customs

And that's if the Customs doesn't go on strike. Or doesn't that happen anymore since you became part of the EU?

[Ted Harris]

Educate your sellers. And remember the down sides as well. The down side being the inability to insure some forms of USPS service beyound ~ 650 USD. As someone who ships stuff to Canada all the time I have cometo understand the angst of everybody on the Northern side of our border and never think about using anything other that USPS for shipping unless it is absolutely critical irreplaceable documents, negatives, transparencies, etc. I get around the insurance loss issue by carrying insurance for items in transit as part of my business insurance (never had to file a claim on it so no commen there).

Many sellers just plain don't know the grief they are causing their customers in Canada so you gotta tell them. BTW, the charges are much less agregious for shipping to the EU, etc.

[Patrik Roseen]

I too try to avoid UPS after some expensive and timeconsuming experiences.

Not only are there extra costs such as customs and administration fees almost doubling the cost for whatever I have bought...for some reason they always insist on trying to deliver the items to my home during normal working hours while I am away, leaving a note that they will try again in a few days...with the same stupid result ofcourse. Then they suggest that I either come to their central location (far away) or that they can deliver to my workplace. Eh, they forgot to tell me the extra trip to my work would cost me another 30 bucks.

That's why I love USPS and the like.

[Nick_3536]

You should have asked for UPS air/expediated or what ever it's called this week. No brokerage fee.

[Emmanuel BIGLER]

In France, I am not at all happy with items shipped from the States by UPS.

My experience is exactly the same as Patrik's in Sweden so I'm happy that, for once, it is not a kind of French Cultural Exception

Yes the fees are higher, delivery is in theory, fast, but I would not object if customer service was there.

When a parcel comes to me from the US postal service, it comes through our French postal service, soon to be privatized but this is another story ;-);-)
If I am not at home, which is normally what people working our of their home are supposed to do in day time, I get a note that the parcel is kept at my local post office for 2 weeks. To me this is perfect, the local PO is 1/2 mile from home.

With UPS, I get urgent notes that if I do not make another appointment with UPS (the company that finally delivers the parcel is kept secret), it will be sent back to the States within one week. On the UPS note dropped in my mailbox, I have no local address to know where my parcel actually is. I have to phone to a non-free UPS phone number at my own expenses, to a calling center located wherever UPS needs to locate it, in order to make another appointment with an unknown carrier.
For UPS parcel #1 I had to get it shipped to my work in order to get it before it would be sent back to the States ! The second time I was on vacations and if my sister had not looked after my mailbox and phoned to UPS, and took on her free time to wait for the carrier, the parcel would have probably been sent back to the States.

Awful !

So to me : it is a definitie no-no to UPS shipment from the States. If a US seller refuses to ship my items with the US postal service, I'll simply not purchase from him, period.
I have no problem with items coming from Germany through the excellent German post office. No problem with items coming from England (and the UK of course ) through the Royal Mail. As an extra, I usually get a portrait of Her Majesty for free, a definite 'plus' w/respect to any other carrier

As far as Fedex is concerned, I remember that they have a local companion carrier where the parcel is kept. Usually it is located 10 miles from home, and the company changes from time to time, but at least there is a real phone number of the people who actually keep the parcel and a real place where I can get it within a reasonable delay.
So to me private carriers for items coming from the States mean a very bad service with respect to the various European Post Office services.

[Ted Harris]

I will add again that when shippingto most of the world and the need for something more than the world postal system (another discussion entirely) is required I use DHL almsot exclusively these days. I find that of the major express carriers DHL is best equipped to handle international shipments to almost anywhere in the world. Of course, there are horror stories with them as well but overall I rate them B+ to A-.