On Mon, 01 Mar 2004 13:18:58 -0700, Richard Guthrie wrote:
>A lot of people might refer to the charge as duty because
>that's what they had to pay for the transborder shipment.
Agreed.
>assuming it was at the high rate ($120=$180 Canadian),
>the duty (actually sales tax) would have been $12.60. The
>balance of $47.40 is UPS's extortionate brokerage/handling
>charge.
Disagreed. Richard, I know you live in the only province that
taxes like a typical American state (only 7%), so you're forgiven,
but if the shipment was to almost anywhere east of Manitoba, the
total tax was 15% (.07+.08 or .07+.075+(.075*.07) or .15). That's
$27, still too much but not as bad as you thought. UPS's fees are
pretty much what all the other commercial customs brokers charge,
the difference is the typical consumer doesn't see those guys they
only see the post office.
>Once I won an auction on ebay for $.01 (yes
>one cent), the vendor after charging a hefty
>shipping fee refused to ship it any other way
>but UPS. The idiot then also put a value for
>duty of $100 US on it. I had to put out over
>$50 after I had it delivered.
Well I agree that isn't too smart, but I think mostly he didn't
understand the implications (for a domestic shipment, he'd be
putting $100 as an insurance value to get maximum value for his
premium). But we can't blame UPS for a shipper's mistake.
And this is why some sellers won't ship outside the US, not even to
Canada. They have extra forms to fill out (then we complain that
they don't do it right), we make them schlep to the post office and
stand in line instead of waiting for the Man In Brown to come to
their door, and PayPal takes extra fees for payments from Canada.
While I agree they'd get more bidders if they shipped to Canada
(but we're cheap b*stards so there's no guarantee of a higher sale)
I understand why they don't and I fully support their right (not)
to do so.
>I also have an aunt in Seattle who will trans-ship
>for me, but often they don't even want to consider
>that. I just shake my head in wonderment.
Not sure why you'd tell them, just give them your aunt's address
and have it shipped there! What happens to it after that is no
business of the seller.
To get this roughly back to the original topic, I now have a bank
draft for Bill which I'll be mailing tomorrow. I'm excited! :)
andrew [awebber@wwwebbers.com]
ph 613-797-8123
fx 831-300-4097
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Received on Mon Mar 1 21:55:48 2004
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