Comment on UPS is bullshit for international shipments
baggins@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
Other carriers definitely charge you a brokerage fee to do the customs clearance for you. Some are only around $8 iirc, very reasonable. The only time you don’t get charged is with Canada Post/ USPS de minimus packages.
PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 1 week ago
This is what I’m going by:
shippingschool.com/ups-brokerage-fees-what-they-a…
I’ve had people receive international shipments and have to pay VAT or whatever. That’s normal, it’s understood. What was new was this whole concept “We’re going to charge the recipient extra for this aspect of delivering the package to them, just because they’re in the middle of paying some other fees at the same time and might not notice, and anyway at that point they have no choice even if they do realize it.” They also wouldn’t give the recipient a breakdown of the fee amounts when he asked, I had to get it and relay it to him.
I think it was only an issue because the tariffs are in effect so that altogether he was having to pay an incredible amount of money in total to get his package. But, once it became an issue, I wound up looking into it and found this little booby-trap hidden within the UPS billing structure that no one had told me about.
baggins@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
It’s the fee for them to file the import paperwork for you. Every shipping company charges some amount for it. The customs broker we use at work charges $100 to do it. If you don’t want to pay it you have to call and tell them to hold your shipment at the border until you have it cleared through customs yourself, not a new thing.
I don’t have any sympathy for someone who is clearly aware of how it works and thinks they can just bully their way out of paying charges they’re responsible for. The receiver is presumably also an adult who knows how to drive down to the UPS depot and pick up the package they refused to take delivery of the first time. You’re doing way more than you should to for someone who doesn’t deserve your time.