Brokerage Fee from UPS - should I ignore it?

[Gurn Blandston]

Well, I just got a bill for $5.25 in brokerage or handling fees from UPS for 2 different shipments of snus.

I don't think I'll pay it. Why should I? No one told me that I'd get this secondary fee - a few weeks after my packages arrived I might add.

I'll probably not be able to use UPS anymore, right?

Of all the bills I enjoy not paying, I enjoy not paying "hidden fees" type bills the most.

Gurn Blandston

[Zero]

I don't think I'll pay it. Why should I?

Well, without the service provided by the people charging it your snus would never have reached your door. The brokerage fee pays the guy who did the paperwork to clear your snus shipment through customs. I wouldn't say it's a "hidden fee", though - it's just the way one must do business across international borders.

If you don't want to pay the fee in the future you can always clear the items yourself. I know that, at least in Canada and I'm sure also in the US, you can go to the customs office with the shipping waybill and pay the duties yourself. You just have to get whoever is shipping your package to mark on the package that you'll do the clearing yourself. Depending on how close you are to an office where you can do this, though, it could be more of a pain than it's worth. Five bucks for what could be an hour's hassle of running around and dealing with red tape really isn't such a bad deal.

[SkYYDoGG]

I have several items shipped to me that must go through this process.
Living only 20 minutes from going and picking it up myself, well, I'll pass.
5 or 6 bucks is well worth not going through that hassle.
As Zero said, thats just part of importing items from other country's.

[Gurn Blandston]

Hmm, I think I'll just stick to regular mail. It takes only about 5 days longer, costs about 60% less and I never get stuck with a brokerage fee.

It would have been nice if they would have asked for payment when I got my package rather than mail me a bill after the fact.

GB

[SkYYDoGG]

Agree with you on the regular mail, Gurn.
My last shipment I ordered via UPS as I wanted it before I went out of town.
Returning home yesterday, guess what I got in the mail.
Yep, my bill for about $5 from UPS.

All stocked up on snus for a while, I will pick my favorites and order via regular mail next time.

[theoldsearock]

It would have been nice if they would have asked for payment when I got my package rather than mail me a bill after the fact.

Ah, it's still just a tiny amount vs. what you'll pay in US for similar product. My .02 is to pay this one and then order via another method - that's what I'd do. It's extortion.

[Gurn Blandston]

Searock:

I can't. That's how they get you. Hidden fees, by definition, are never very large. They're always small enough so that paying them seems like no big deal really.

Trust me, they research this crap.::::"How much can we charge these fools before they get REALLY mad".

They have a special calculator and everything.

For me, if I did not previously know about a charge, even if its ten cents, I ain't paying it.

It's a matter of principle. You guys with your "It ain't very much, just go ahead and pay it" attitudes are only playing into their hands....Ha, ha, ha.

I had no previous knowledge of this charge, nor was I expecting it, therefore I do not pay.

Some of us have to fight the good fight!!!!

LOL

GB

[Zero]

Yeah, but this is international commerce - this isn't the place for cushion padded consumerism, here, dude, the rules are complex and the red tape is thick. Nobody is under any obligation to tell you anything - you assume that risk yourself when you leap into a transaction you haven't reserched. I guess this is the hard way of learning that, and best of luck with the fee, but I doubt you'll get anywhere with it. Buying something abroad requires the work-time of a third party to do the paperwork. Even if it's only a five minute job, that's a tenth of the hourly rate of whomever is doing that paperwork, probably someone educated and well paid. So a few bucks isn't a calculated pisstake, engineered to test your tolerance to being "ripped off", it's a pretty reasonable fee based on the value-added and time involved in doing the work that needed doing to get the package to your door. You're always free to buy things in domestic stores where the rules are safe...and the snus is more expensive :wink:

[Zero]

I mean, buysnus.com says this :

What import rules and duty regulations is applicable for my country?

We ask you to look into current import rules and duty regulations for your country, because we cannot assist you on BuySnus. Therefore you are as a purchaser responsible to find out the current import rules and duty regulation for snuff. The receiver shall pay any fees like duties and taxes .... BuySnus shall not be liable for releasing or shipping replacement goods if they are seized in customs. Different countries have different duty regulations, for example one can just send 3 rolls to Australia and Switzerland.

northerner says :

What about customs?

We mark international packages as containing the specific description of your order and state the cost of the item on the customs documentation. Currently, we are not able to describe the contents in any other way.

Any customs or import duties are levied once the package reaches your country. Additional charges for customs clearance will have to be borne by you; we have no control over these charges and cannot predict what they may be. Customs policies vary widely from country to country; you may want to contact your local Customs office for further information.




...it's not like you weren't warned

[chainsnuser]

Yeah, every time I order something from outside the E.U., I'm prepared, that I might have to pay duty or addditional fees, which I don't know before.
Fortunately, I never had to, maybe because I've never used UPS for that.
I, personally, would pay the fees and choose regular mail next time. The small fee is not worth fighting IMHO.

But, I too think, what UPS does, is just a rip-off, if one takes to account, that the cheaper regular mail apparently doesn't, or has anybody ever been hit with such a brokerage fee, when using regular mail for snus-orders?

Cheers!

[Craig de Tering]

Nope. I've always ordered via the lowliest of standard postal services. Always have gotten my things (snus or otherwise) and have only occasionally have had to pay taxes (that's right, taxes. Not fees for this and sunder).

However I have also occasionally scanned internet pharmacies for Loratadine pills against hay fever and other allergies and most of them warn Spanish, German and Belgian customers (among others) that their respective customs offices will probably withhold their shipments.

[Gurn Blandston]

Speaking of taxes, beforeI switched to snus I bought my Copenhagen via the internet for years. I saved a bundle.

Then in April or May of 06 I received an estimated tax bill from the state of South Dakota for like $400.

I wrote them back explaining how they were incorrect. I had not bougt any out of state tobacco and in fact would never touch the nasty stuff.

I causes cancer, you know.

It's been over a year and I haven't heard anything since.

[Zero]

But, I too think, what UPS does, is just a rip-off, if one takes to account, that the cheaper regular mail apparently doesn't, or has anybody ever been hit with such a brokerage fee, when using regular mail for snus-orders?

Regular mail charges brokerage fees too - via USPS, if I remember correctly, one would have to pay duties and taxes as well as a flat fee of $5 for the brokerage service. I could understand being upset about paying an excessive brokerage fee - if it was $30 or something, ok, that's worth getting upset about, but for $5, that's not a bad deal.

[Gurn Blandston]

Zero-

I hope I didn't ruffle your feathers. My sense of humor is too dry for most people I guess. My point is, I suppose, that it felt like a hidden charge because it came after the fact. I did read all that stuff on northerner - I haven't purchased anything from buysnus - but I assumed this would all be taken care of, like when my package arrived. The fact that it showed up several days later, a week and a half approximately, makes it seem arbitrary to me, and a surprise. I read on here that these types of charges are not applied consistently, so I assumed I was in the clear, having not been asked for an additional fee when my package arrived (which I was fully prepared for). It strikes me as an annoying afterthought.

I hope UPS is reading this......HINT HINT DAMN IT.

"oh, by the way, you owe us an annoying little charge for that package we delivered two weeks ago...."

please. get your poop in a group, UPS....

What I think is: they don't charge at the door for fear of the recipient saying No Way, then they have to handle it some more (at their expense), so they wait till you're not looking, so to speak, then spring it on you, after you got your goods.

It's still sneaky.

[Zero]

I admit that it's strange they charged you after the fact. My experience with both post and couriers is that they have always held the package until I've paid taxes/duty/brokerage. Don't know why it was different with your case.

At any rate, I mean, in one way it's nice that they do sort it out. I ordered some shisha once from the US and shipped to Canada with a courier (DHL! - the seller shipped it, not my choice) that, for whatever reason, was not licenced (or some such) to clear tobacco products, despite the fact that it was clearly declared as such on the lading bill, something they should have noticed when picking it up. The package got stuck at the port and my only option was to drive 900km to the border and pick it up, paying the taxes and duties at the office (what the broker does) or they would destroy the package. After an hour of shouting at the couriers and at the customs people, plus trying to find someone in the area who provided brokering services which weren't astronomically priced (like hundreds of $$ - commercial guys who ordinarily clear big stuff), I finally told them just to throw it in the incinerator. So yeah, $5 for the service is maybe the better option.

And no, mate, no ruffled feathers - you'd have to get me going on the taxes themselves and not the broker to see me really get fired up, lol. That's where the real crime is. UPS is just a marionette, playing out the government rules. They don't have any more choice than you have - they have to charge you by law and you have to pay by law. Having a ruck with UPS won't fix anything. Vote for Ron Paul, though, dude...that's the man who will sort out this criminal taxation...along with everything else 8)