So I recently ordered a small $80 CAD part from RCA garage, shipping from the US to Canada, because their prices *seemed* lower than competitors, and they also *seemed* adept when it came to shipping to Canada – They had a Canadian duty calculator link from their website under shipping policies.
My order went through, I got a tracking number, all good. A few days pass and we near the initial estimated date so I check the tracking number, my usual tracker doesn’t find any info, that’s fine; I had a link right to UPS from the emails I received.
Immediately after checking its status I noticed something odd that looked like a scam; UPS telling me there are “outstanding charges” on my package. I made sure I was actually on their website and found out that this is, in fact, possible after paying for shipping in full.
Turns out they’re charging me $39 CAD (Half the part’s cost?? For a small aluminum plate??) for a Customs Brokerage Fee. The math also doesn’t add up for the cost. Here’s the important part: Nowhere on RCA’s website do they say or imply anything about customs brokerage fees or any sort of customs fees. I was fully prepared to pay taxes and duty, but they were negligent in informing me of this charge. As far as I understand, this fee only applies when UPS themselves has to do the customs paperwork, and I have never seen this charge before, probably because I’ve only ordered from actual proper websites like Rockauto that have experience shipping to Canada.
What can I use to fight this bullshit charge? I really don’t think I’m obligated to pay something I knew nothing about, had no warning about, and have not experienced before in similar USA parts ordering instances. It seems to me RCA was simply negligent and did not do the proper work in order to simply waive this fee. There’s no way it’s that hard to send a few papers to UPS for customs purposes.
I contacted their support yesterday and they simply said “we’re not responsible for taxes, duty or customs brokerage fees”, but as I mentioned, their website has zero mention of these customs fees. What is my best angle to avoid this??
by Shonoun
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6 Comments
FEDEx does this too. I tried to fight it once. I agreed that paying the customs fee was fine and logical, but at no point did I, the recipient, enter into a contract with FedEx to pay this prokerage fee. The conversation basically ended with “You can fight this and not pay it if you want, but if any seller ever ships anything to you via FedEx again, you’ll never see that package.”
As a fellow Canadian, I think we all have done this once.
When buying stuff from the US, **never, EVER use FedEx or UPS** as their document / brokerage fees are very high. I use USPS (US Postal Service) for lower fees, if any.
Welcome to the club and consider it a lesson learned 🙂
You can tell them to provide your customs control documents as you wish to broker them yourself at your local Canada customs office, and you have that right. I had DHL do this a while back and the back and forth to get the documents was astonishing. They did not want to give up the docs at all, but I stuck to my guns and they gave them up eventually.
[https://rcagarage.com/terms-and-conditions/](https://rcagarage.com/terms-and-conditions/)
“International Shipping
Depending on you location (if outside of the United States), your order may be subject to local taxes/duties that will be due at the time of delivery. Please check with your local customs office for details before placing your order. For Canadian customers you can use the following link to estimate your at-delivery costs taxes/duties calculator.”
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Its right there in the shipping policy you agreed to when you placed your order.
The only thing you can do is learn your lesson and never use UPS again.
USPS only.
I bought some parts recently and the shipping and fees were 220% higher than what the vendor’s website said they would be. The vendor’s response was….do you want to return it? (Which would be more fees!) 🤬😡