Canadian customer Beware UPS hidden charge

[nomade]

In september 2008 I bought some stuff at B&W in New-York. I try to have my stuff delivered by USPS but the only carrier available was UPS.

I paid 35$ for shipping a compact flash and a filter to Canada.

Three months later I receive a letter from recovery company saying that I was overdue to paid brokerage fees to UPS. (12,65$)

I try to speak with somebody at UPS but I was told that since my file has been transfered to an receivable agency they don't have to give me any explanation and I have to speak to the recovery agency.

At the agency they said they don't have a copy of the invoice and that I have to contact UPS for that.

I cannot understand that the people at UPS never try to contact me, never send me a reminder, and then decide to transfer my invoice to a recovery company.

In the future I will avoid UPS and if the seller don't offer another carrier I will shop somewhere else.

I never had any problem while using USPS or FEDEX (FEDEX is expansive but at least they are honest).

I hope this will save some of you problems with those guys !

 

[MacUser2525]

Three months later I receive a letter from recovery company saying that I was overdue to paid brokerage fees to UPS. (12,65$)

You got off easy the normal brokerage fee is around $40 for them. I can't see how they can even be thinking of billing you the normal procedure is you need to go to the Post Office with the card they leave you with the amount owed pay for it then get your parcel. If you had to do none of this then it is time to dispute the charge they have made against you as there was no amount owing at the time of delivery.

 

[Demosthenes X]

I thought with those fees you had to pay at the time you got the package... weird that they wouldn't try and contact you at all, and just send the matter to a receiver. I'm also surprised they bothered for a $12 charge... bizarre.

On principle I would say fight it, because that sounds like a load of BS to me. OTOH, it's $12, and probably not worth the time and trouble...

 

[nope7308]

You have to pay very close attention to the type of UPS delivery you select; not all require a brokerage fee. I bought my DSLR from NYC and selected a very specific type of UPS delivery to get around the brokerage fees... if I had selected any random delivery service, I could have paid an additional 15% to UPS.

If you go to the UPS website, they have a chart that clearly lists which services include a brokerage fee, and the percentage of that brokerage fee. Lesson learned, I guess.

 

[MacUser2525]

You have to pay very close attention to the type of UPS delivery you select; not all require a brokerage fee. I bought my DSLR from NYC and selected a very specific type of UPS delivery to get around the brokerage fees... if I had selected any random delivery service, I could have paid an additional 15% to UPS.

If you go to the UPS website, they have a chart that clearly lists which services include a brokerage fee, and the percentage of that brokerage fee. Lesson learned, I guess.

Hmm learn something new every day because I did not know that, what I learned is never get it shipped UPS unless the seller states the brokerage fees are included like Newegg.ca does they charge you like a buck for it which is reasonable to pay.