Friday, February 24, 2012

Best Laid Plans III

Well it seems that even these can go astray. The good news that the cyclopeans arrived and pretty little things they are too. So did the flying Martians - and ugly brutes they are. The bad news is that the Brits and Gashants I found such a good deal on were shipped UPS .  Despite all the trumpeting about Free Trade and Open Borders our politicians engage in, items crossing the border from the U.S. into Canada are still subject to tax and duty. This is not a problem except that UPS decides what it wants to charge you for the privilege of acting as your customs broker. On a $50 order that cost $25 to ship, that amounts to $40. Here's the kicker - the duty payable on model soldiers is - 0%.  Ok so how about collecting the taxes - and surely there is some handling required? The same package shipped by regular parcel post would incur at most $7.50 in tax and the post office's "let us be your customs agent" fee is $8.50 for a total of $16 - less than half of the UPS price.

Needless to say they are on their way back.

Grrrr

2 comments:

tim said...

Oh UPS.... yeah... I am always very careful to check how things are going to be shipped - been burned before too. Unfortunately even when your careful some sellers decide they're going to "do you a favour" and "upgrade" you delivery to UPS...

I feel your pain...

A friend of mine is a UPS driver here in Saskatoon. There isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't get yelled at by someone being delivered something from the US and being charged absurd "brokerage fees" (like my pal has anything to do with what his company charges...).

PatG said...

Yeah - I have to take pity on the messenger.