Originally posted by moray-eel-bite I also learned to never use UPS. When shipping across the border to Canada they charge ridiculous clearing fees. For instance, a 650.00 lens I recently bought had a 23.00 shipping charge, but then they charged 63.00 for customs paperwork. The equivalent charge from usps is 5.00 (so roughly a 1300% overcharge.) This is the subject of a class action lawsuit here in Canada right now. I always (when I can remember in time) insist that Americans shipping to Canada use USPS. Frankly, what UPS does is illegal IMHO.
On a recent purchase from a seller in the USA,
with a 500.00$ insured value for a used lens shipped
via USPS-PM, the Canadian Custom fee/tax to pay at delivery
was
47.00$ after an
8 days delay to process thru their offices in Mississauga.
The seller e-mailed me the USPS tracking number and I easily
followed up on my package daily using the Canada Post website.
Now, the funny thing..
The
exact same item/package, was sent to me 2 weeks earlier but was
unfortunately not deliverable and returned to the seller (typo in address)
The customs fee/tax was to be
62.00$, but that time the package only
took
2 hours to be processed at the same customs office!
Later I phoned Canada Post & Canada Customs, both their customer service dept.
admitted to me it's often 'it and miss' when shipping items into Canada...
I've heard of quite a few bad cross-border shipping experiences using UPS,
but I also think that Canada Customs is part of the problem too!