Re: Shipping US -> Can (knida long)

[Anthony Chan <canthony@interlog.com>]

Greetings Jeff:

I have ordered quite a few things from the US over the years.  I must say
shipping via UPS has been one of my worst experience.  After several
ocassions similar to yours, I tried not to order from the US unless I must.

Yes, you do have to pay GST for the purchase, plus duty levied depending
the type of merchandise.  What's more, you must have been informed by the
nimrod at UPS that you have to pay about C$35-45 for "custom clearance
fee", right?  This "fee" is to compsensate their trouble to clear the
customs for your shipment.  They will not send the shipment to you unless
they have secured some form of payment from you.  This normally causes an
extra day or two of delay to get your shipment as they will hold the items
at their warehouse at the US/Canada border until they are sure that you
will pay their fee.

What the lady told you about the fee being applicable to ground shipment
only is not true.  Regardless of shipping method, the fee is applicable.  I
have had both air and ground shipment via UPS before and I fight the damn
"brokerage" fee every time when they call.  And I never won.  Should have
sent Cornholio to deal them, ha!

Frankly, the first time I got shipmment from UPS it was not very funny when
I got the call that I had to pay an extra C$45 for a prepaid shipment of
the Neuspeed Short-shift kit for A1 (US$79.95 back in 1987).  I heard FedEx
also gouges people for cross-border shipment as well, so you are not better
off by going FedEx.

Since most suppliers use UPS (remember the UPS strike recently?  Apparently
UPS has the biggest market share in their industry),  it is hard to ask
them to ship via another carrier.  Most of the time C$45 is what UPS
charges me for their trouble,  I'd let it go if the value and/or the
physical size of the merchandise is substantial.  Otherwise, I'd make sure
that the supplier is willing to ship via US Air Mail when I place the
order.  Some of them may charge a few more bucks for it, plus the C$5 that
Canada Post charges for US mail-order purchase (boy, are we gouged to the
max or what?)  But hell, I'd be ecstatic if I can be gouged less.

On rare ocassions, for stuff that I don't have to have right away (that's
why it's rare), I'd ask a friend from the States to order it for me and
pick it up whenever I go to the States.  This has not happened much as I do
not travel to the US much these days (with the Canadian currency rate at
US$1 to C$1.42, I'd better stay home!).

I heard if you know someone who runs a business that has a UPS customs ID
number, the ID number holder is exempt from the UPS "customs fee". However,
I have not tried this so I cannot confirm whether it works or not.

Why not make your purchase locally?  They may charge a little bit more, but
you can deal with a real person as oppose to some voice.  You get to view
the goods for comparison (though not always the case if you want to, say,
look at the EPI VR6 turbo kit), plus any warranty issues that has to be
addressed.  You don't want to be stuck shipping some defective stuff back
and forth, which is time-consuming and very expensive (when UPS gets
involved, those bungholes!)
Support your local business, if you can.

The only time that I felt the UPS brokerage fee was justifiable (not!) was
the time a complete Techtonics A1 stainless steel exhaust (from dual-outlet
manifold to tailpipe) was shipped to me.  The whole bit cost quite a bit
and nobody at the time carried Techtonics locally (since then, Motronix
cometh).

Happy new year to everyone.

Anthony
'86 Cabriolet (R.I.P.)
'96 GTI VR6

P.S. Does anyone know where Ken T. is?  Haven't seen his post for the
longest time.  Arthur may know, perhaps??


At 12:45 PM -0500 12/30/97, Jeff Newton wrote:
>Fellow Canucks,
>
>When ordering accessories for your VW from our neighbours to the
>south, have you ever had to pay GST, Duty, and Brokerage?  I am to
<snip>
>
>Anyone had experience with this?
>
>---