Canadians-For when a seller screws you by shipping UPS (again)

[CrowsFeast]

From the old forum by mtaylor who found it on another forum called Telemarktalk.:

UPS/Fedex Brokerage fees are typically 5 times the GST (customs) What you need to know: Beating cross border brokerage fees | CTV Calgary With the above news story I decided to clear my own customs. UPS came to my house and left a notice that they wanted to deliver a package and charge me $71.21 in brokerage fees.. So shipping was only $24.00 and the customs (GST) on the package was only $15.00 and UPS wanted to charge $56 to clear that for me. It is an automated process that costs them fractions of pennies. I self declared and it was really, really easy and it took less than 2 minutes to do and staff was excellent. What you need: Waybill Number (on the UPS notice) Copy of invoice. I just had a printout of the 'ebay' invoice email. (Manifest?) Driver's license, you have do to this in person. They will ask what it is and the country of origin if you know. Credit/Debit card or cash for the GST on the item. Where to go: Canada Border Services Agency Offices Courier Low Value Shipments Program The Calgary office is easy to get to, Barlow and 32nd Ave NE. What you Get: A Casual Goods Accounting Document, showing you paid customs. Present this when you either receive or pick up your package and they cannot charge you anything, regardless if they ask or demand. They do NOT prepay your customs. It is illegal for them to withhold your package after presenting them the CGA document. In any case this may be a hassle for some of you depending on the cost of the product, closest CBSA office etc.. and it may be more convenient to pay the brokerage fee, but at least this is an option at your disposal. Canada Post and US MAil is looking really good right now.

Edit-Some additional info

Quote:

by wingbatwu Actually the CBSA will need to see a manifest. Just the purchasing order is not sufficient. I try to order from places that ship using FedEx, since the FedEx office is located right next to a CBSA office here. If your local UPS is not close to your local CBSA, you might try having UPS fax you the manifest, otherwise you might have to go pick it up in person.

[mtaylor]

Hey look, someone saved it!

[Cdn_Cuda]

In Vancouver you can do this all out by the airport. The UPS warehouse is only about a 2 minute drive from where you need to pay the fees at the CBSA office.

I went to the UPS warehouse first, the gave me a printout and drove over to the CBSA office, presented the paperwork, paid the taxes and drove back to UPS, got gave them the clearance paperwork and got my item.

It was actually the UPS driver that told me how do do this. They said to just refuse delivery of the package and clear it through customs myself.

[Canuck]

Unfortunately not as convenient out here in Chilliwack...