[Wodgy]

There are no hidden fees. It's easy to calculate. See the math in my second post above.

What may be confusing you is the top column listed GST/TPS, which is actually the sum of the GST and the PST, not just the GST. In the lower section, the column listed GST/TPS is used once for GST and once for PST, and there they are not summed. It is among the poorest designed documents I have ever encountered. (That said, American health insurance reimbursement documents are invariably even worse.)

It does appear they charged you a $30.84 brokerage fee for your shipment though. Seems a little excessive to me, and might have been a mistake (I'm sure they make this "mistake" all the time, because people don't inspect their invoices and just assume it's hard to calculate -- not picking on you, it's just an observation about human nature and credulity).

Edit: Oops, no mistake. Here's how it works. $19.00 fee plus $5.85 for not paying in advance, plus $4.25 to collect the money you didn't pay in advance. That's a couple cents above what they actually charged you, but they probably raised their rates since then. This is, in my view, a somewhat dishonest way to do business, but the form you scanned in doesn't really give them a place to break out these separate "stealth" charges, and they seem to be taking advantage of that.

 

[Genetic]

Wow!!!

O.K. I'm probably looking like a cheap but I dont like being taken by surprise like this.

I have just made phone all to the «brown ones» and it's fascinating how things works. Indeed they didn't took the whole value of the headphones. No they choose almost the good number (Etymotic choose to declare 60$.(50$+10$ for shipping as a thank you gesture for their service.) Be this one a good lesson about not sending more money than asked for a transaction....

The brokerage fee is around 18$. But the truly «surealistic part» is that UPS is charging me for the fact the driver of the «brown truck» has to received payment from me....

This is how, mainly, since it is even more complex, the 32$ was reached.

As far as refusing the package without having the OK. from the sender it is a risky move. If they dont want to pay back for the return journey the package will be considered as an abandonned one....

How can someone could possibly hates UPS....

Amicalement

P.S. Thanks for the info guys I will let you know if there is soon a lonely pair of Etymotic somewhere in a UPS warehouse.

 

[Wodgy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Genetic The brokerage fee is around 18$. But the truly «surealistic part» is that UPS is charging me for the fact the driver of the «brown truck» has to received payment from me.... This how, mainly since it is even more complex, the 32$ was reached.

Makes sense. Their web page confirms $19:
http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shi...clearance.html

Then there's a $5.85 fee (or 2.7%, whichever is higher) for not paying them in advance, and a $4.25 fee for collecting the money you did not pay in advance.

Most humorous is this quotation from that page:
"Our published rates are among the lowest in the business, with savings of up to 30 percent and often more."
Wow, wonder who's charging more?

 

[DanT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wodgy There are no hidden fees. Edit: It does appear that your $30.84 charge was a mistake. You only should have been charged $19.00. Here is the official set of rates from UPS: http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shi...clearance.html

Ok I conceide there is no hidden fee but there is no mistake with the 30.84 I no Longer have the other bill where they decompose the fee but it all add up. My free may have been different from the table because it's been a while. I assumed $19.00 + Disbursement Fees (I believe 5.85 from the table) + some other **** which I don't remember( difference of 5.99 i suspect COD but it doesn't add up to the table) = 30.84

 

[Wodgy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanT Ok I conceide there is no hidden fee but there is no mistake with the 30.84 I no Longer have the other bill where they decompose the fee but it all add up. From the table my free may have been different because it's been a while. I assumed $19.00 + Disbursement Fees (I believe 5.85 from the table) + some other **** which I don't remember( difference of 5.99 i suspect COD but it doesn't add up to the table) = 30.84

Yes, I've already edited my post above based on what Genetic was saying. The first additional "disbursement" charge is for not paying in advance and the second is for collecting the money you didn't pay in advance.

It is a bit confusing because the form you scanned in does just say "brokerage fee", but they need the actual total to collect tax and so they must just stuff it in there. It's a very poorly designed form.

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

I got owned the last time I had an item shipped from Canada to the U.S via UPS. The declared value was $425 and the brokerage fee was almost $90. Absolutely absurd.

 

[pne]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tsplash75 i considered molotov cocktail bombing their building at the peace arch crossing, but they stopped sending emails back about it. i'm not sure if it put a mark on my credit history, but i never got another bill from them for it and it's been 3 years.

let me know if you plan on carrying out this plan. I will join you. So far the post office has probably collected 70-80 dollars of brokers fees from me. Luckily fed-ex sends the bill for the fees after the package has been delievered. Next time I am ignoring them, I don't care because given the choice i would never go with fedex or ups again!

 

[frankcent]

avoid UPS. they are only good for cosmetic shipping. I have bought a camera from the us and paid 290 usd for it. when it arrives, ups charged me 130 CND. thats ridiculous. even the 14% the taxes added to the total coundnt be more than 60 CND. I would avoid any sellers that use UPS. I was intended to buy some phones from idealsound, but their shipping uses UPS and that scared me away.

 

[Genetic]

My first e-mail sent about this to Etymotic was :

2005/01/20 jeu. PM 04:22:48 GMT-05:00

Since I have no answer yet it seems that I'm on their «ignore list»...

Amicalement

P.S. The «silence treatment» from a corporation that is specializing in audio prothesis...LOL

 

[mbriant]

I've made a lot of purchases from the U.S. through e-bay and other sites and have been burned a few times by UPS's obscene brokerage fees. The post office charges only $5.00 for any value of product.

I now always request post office, Fed-Ex as a second choice, and no UPS shipping at all. The problem is that UPS is the cheapest method ( for the shipper) and they make the paperwork for cross-border shipping easy, so most US shippers (especially ones who include shipping in their price) prefer to use UPS.

Just a few days ago I purchased a Nikon flash from a guy in the U.S. He specifically asked me how I wanted it shipped and I told him post office. I had paid him $25 for shipping so it was more than covered. He then sends me a UPS tracking number. Not only that, he put a declared value of $200 U.S. on a $115 item, so I would wind up paying taxes on $200 instead of $115. When I complained that he hadn't followed the shipping method we discussed and the aditional money it was costing me, he simply refunded my $140 paypal payment, minus the $5.00 or so in fees they'd deducted from him, leaving me with only a $130.05 refund from the $140 I'd sent him after PayPal again deducted their fees. He sent a short note saying "You're too much trouble so now I'm not selling it to you" A real class act.

Anyway, I now always specifically state "Do not ship via UPS" and "Declare actual sales price only ... do not over-value item." It usually works.

As far as fighting UPS .... good luck. I purchased a matching amp and tuner a couple of years ago. It was shipped as a single, 2 piece shipment, but UPS took it upon themselves to split it into 2 separate shipments, charging full brokerage and taxes not once, but twice .... once for one piece and once for the other. After months of back and forth e-mails and phone calls, I managed to get one brokerage fee reimbursed. They said they'd look after the taxes as well, but never did.

UPS may be fine for domestic shipping, but for international, they suck.

 

[DanT]

Oh yes I already been bitten like mbriant. I specify multiple time to use US Post (USPS) and the seller still use UPS. I recommend everyone to do the same thing Always politly but clearly state. Please DO NOT use UPS they have very high brokerage fee. And comment about how high value will make me pay more taxe.

 

[Bunnyears]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Genetic My first e-mail sent about this to Etymotic was : 2005/01/20 jeu. PM 04:22:48 GMT-05:00 Since I have no answer yet it seems that I'm on their «ignore list»... Amicalement P.S. The «silence treatment» from a corporation that is specializing in audio prothesis...LOL

You have to telephone them. They are very nice on the phone. I am sure your English is good enough to charm the girl who answers the phone!

 

[Genetic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbriant As far as fighting UPS .... good luck.

I'm a bit of schock by the fact that US enterprises are indifferent to the cost they transfer to their canadian customers by using UPS. In my case it was part of a transaction on a warranty issue and part of an upgrade. gpalmer wrote to me few weeks ago that he was thinking that somewhere down the line someone was pushing us toward buying a new product instead of repairing it. Now his comments take a new meaning.

If I didn't like servicing my products in Canada, I would systematically use UPS. A discrete way of saying «go away with your future warranty reclamations about our products».

And for now, I wont fight UPS directly since I have refused delivery twice. Those UPS guys... they tried to deliver it even with 2 priors very clear phones call stating my refusal. I must admit they are persistant....

Will see what happen with these guys.

About the Etymotic involvement in this situation, I got faster e-mails replies from them before I sent my phones and my money. Extremely good communication before.
Now we seem to have a little delay/problem with the time of response.....I'm sure it's purely coincidental.

EDIT: I just learned, yes I phoned them and they seem to have understood something from my even stranger «live English»

, that the person in charge of my RMA was sick. So the silence is perfectly justifiable.

Amicalement

P.S. Joyeux anniversaire Mike...

 

[Genetic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bunnyears I am sure your English is good enough to charm the girl who answers the phone!

I use to date a English girl but we didn't spoke about headphones....

Thanks for the vote of confidence but when I try to speak English even the «Commandant Cousteau» is rolling in his grave...

Amicalement

 

[Bunnyears]

Would you like me to telephone for you? If you have conference calling I am sure that I could translate your accent. I do very well for my huband's family some of whom are almost unintelligible in English. You are so like most of the men that I know who dread getting on the phone and talking to a "stranger." My husband won't even call for his own pizza if he can get anyone else to do it.