Another UPS story

Okay, the only connection to this story with Shapeways is that SW uses UPS... a company that I am getting truly sick of.

I recently ordered something from a US company. A product that weighed 200grams and cost me $39. I then paid the company $17 for it to be shipped via UPS (no other choice!). Today the package arrived and UPS wanted ANOTHER $24.45 comprised of taxes and a $17.10 "brokerage fee".

That's an incredible and gross $41.89 in UPS charges !! For a package weighing 200grams - More than the product itself!

Another company mailed me a very similar product via UPS and they charged me $6.75 postage. No other fees on delivery.

So I wrote to the first company and related this story. They immediately wrote back and said that next time I could make a special request to use the postal service.

I am going to make a point in the future of carefully making sure I don't use any company that ships only by UPS. Even if company A charges more than company B, if company B ships via UPS then I know I'm going to end up paying a LOT more than company A in the end...

Glenn

Hey Glenn,
I am sorry to hear about the charges regarding UPS. I would have given up on shapeways if i had to deal with these charges. I live in Australia and have received a great many UPS delivers, if i was being charged on each delivery it would have added up to a lot of money by now. My only issue to date was ordering $2200.00 worth of prints in one big hit rather than a bunch of smaller orders like i normally do. The result was finding out that any package's over $1000.00 incur an import tax Plus GST. So my $2200.00 order ended up costing me another $415.00 on top. I won't be doing that again.

Leigh

WHAT?! You don't pay any fees unless the package is over $1000 !!!

How the hell does UPS justify charging Canadian residents fees and not Australians! (nothing against Aussies, mate, I have lots of relatives down there) when the distance is so much greater?

I'm going to have to look into this some more!

Glenn

Yes, i agree it makes no sense. I think this is a political issue perhaps? A trade embargo might be the issue? I am not aware of US and Canada trade politics but i sure feel sorry for you paying those fees. I hope you can find a solution.

Leigh

It has to do with the arrangements the customs have with the various transporting companies. If I import into the UK from outside Europe via the ordinary postal service then, the customs will sample the incoming packages and a proportion will be charged for import duty. I believe that one in ten or one in twenty may be stopped so the chances of being charged are relatively small. OTOH if the package comes in via air shipment, then all packaged are checked through customs and I have to pay import duty and a handling charge. The handling charge is higher with the private companies eg, FedEx, UPS or DHL than with the nationalised Parcel Force, as you would expect.
This system seem to be world wide and I'm not at all sure what Shapeways can be expected to do about it. They could set up a distribution centre in Canada, but I doubt that the volumes involved would make that viable.

Hey All,

It is Australian law that there are no duties on any import under $1000

It is not based on carrier.

The exception may be cigarettes, alcohol, narcotics.

Otherwise you can order just under $999 worth an be clear.

Sorry you found out the hard way Leigh, I think it had been discussed on the forum a few months back as well.

Okay, DUTIES I can understand but what about the $17 BROKERAGE FEE on my last $40 order! The duties and taxes are charged separately.

Yep, brokerage fees are standard world wide.
I checked the duty free allowance for various countries:

Canada -- CAN$20.00
US -- US$200.00
Australia -- AU$1000.00
UK -- £18.00

So even if Shapeways were to send your items by post you would still have to pay duty (GST + local taxes) and a $8.50 brokerage fee which goes to the post office.

Note that those of us in the EU pay Dutch VAT at 19% which seems to be about the same as Canadian duty. So all your orders from Shapeways would appear to more expensive by the amount of the brokerage fee. The UPS fees for importing into Canada can be found here

Thanks for that info Bill. It's that Australian one that really stands out !

I'm still not sure that UPS charges me correctly all the time. I had one order split up by Shapeways and the package contained one $7 plastic item - I was charged $14 to receive it at the door! Ridiculous.

Glenn

My mom has horror stories of UPS from the 80's. She was a VP at an electronics company (now retired) and they ordered a boat load of computers, about 200. So they show up, and the IT dept goes to work on them. A few days later they find that some of the boxes were opened at UPS and had the computers removed and replaced with records and those giant tins of popcorn with Elvis on the lid.

So yeah I don't trust the company, that being said I love my UPS guy, he's nice.

If the value show on the customs declaration is less than $20 the UPS should not have charged you anything. If it happens again it will be worth making a fuss about it.

Absolutely. I've been keeping an eye on all my orders very closely since that date and requested Shapeways institute a policy of sending the entire order in one package (which is what they always say they would do). Of course I may have shot myself in the foot with that one; if 5 packages with items worth $15each are sent I pay nothing, but one package with $75 of goods will mean I have to pay something! .... Seems you can't win!

Glenn