I never thought much of them before other than they had funny uniforms.
One day in summer 2006, they delivered my Louis Vuitton pink cherry blossom pochette cles I purchased on eBay. The seller declared the full $215 value, which I was fine with, but guess how much they charged me for customs and brokerage? $78. And over $40 of that was brokerage fees. Absolutely ridiculous!! I get stuff sent to me by CanadaPost (from USPS or whatever national postal service) and I've had times where I don't get charged anything for declarations of $200!! I had a bag sent to me valued at $875 and I didn't have to pay a cent to receive it.
I was pretty choked. Essentially I was paying well over $300 CAD for the cles due to US/CAD exchange. But, I brushed it off.
I've avoided UPS since, but they did deliver two of my textbooks ordered online and I was charged $5 for brokerage fees on a $100 textbook. Fine with me, although why the heck should they charge me anything? I don't even get this stupid "brokerage fees". Uh-huh, takes like what, a few seconds to help my package clear?
So later I order about 10 bottles of OPI nail polish on eBay from a beauty store because they're so expensive in Canada. I calculated that if I were to buy in Canada I would end up paying around $150 CAD but I got the entire shipment of polishes for just under $80 CAD. Great!
And then...UPS tried delivering my package today...
Guess what the brokerage fee costs?
$33.89!!!!!!!
That's more than HALF of what the shipment itself is worth!!! $12 of the $80 was SHIPPING!
I am so, so, SO #$%^ingly ticked right now. I can't believe it. I know it's not customs because last time I got charged $70 something, only $30 or so of it was customs/duty/tax (which was quite ridiculous already).
UPS is a total RIP OFF. WOW. I don't think I will EVER have ANYTHING shipped via UPS again. If a seller refuses to use anything OTHER than UPS, then I'd just have to pass on the item. It's just NOT worth paying this stupid hefty rip-off brokerage fee just to save a few tens of dollars.
Total BS. I'm still getting over the shock right now.
One day in summer 2006, they delivered my Louis Vuitton pink cherry blossom pochette cles I purchased on eBay. The seller declared the full $215 value, which I was fine with, but guess how much they charged me for customs and brokerage? $78. And over $40 of that was brokerage fees. Absolutely ridiculous!! I get stuff sent to me by CanadaPost (from USPS or whatever national postal service) and I've had times where I don't get charged anything for declarations of $200!! I had a bag sent to me valued at $875 and I didn't have to pay a cent to receive it.
I was pretty choked. Essentially I was paying well over $300 CAD for the cles due to US/CAD exchange. But, I brushed it off.
I've avoided UPS since, but they did deliver two of my textbooks ordered online and I was charged $5 for brokerage fees on a $100 textbook. Fine with me, although why the heck should they charge me anything? I don't even get this stupid "brokerage fees". Uh-huh, takes like what, a few seconds to help my package clear?
So later I order about 10 bottles of OPI nail polish on eBay from a beauty store because they're so expensive in Canada. I calculated that if I were to buy in Canada I would end up paying around $150 CAD but I got the entire shipment of polishes for just under $80 CAD. Great!
And then...UPS tried delivering my package today...
Guess what the brokerage fee costs?
$33.89!!!!!!!
That's more than HALF of what the shipment itself is worth!!! $12 of the $80 was SHIPPING!
I am so, so, SO #$%^ingly ticked right now. I can't believe it. I know it's not customs because last time I got charged $70 something, only $30 or so of it was customs/duty/tax (which was quite ridiculous already).
UPS is a total RIP OFF. WOW. I don't think I will EVER have ANYTHING shipped via UPS again. If a seller refuses to use anything OTHER than UPS, then I'd just have to pass on the item. It's just NOT worth paying this stupid hefty rip-off brokerage fee just to save a few tens of dollars.
Total BS. I'm still getting over the shock right now.