Brokerage Fees

[ollie]

I'm looking at buying an mp3 player from eBay, to be shipped from the USA. I know I have to pay shipping charges and duty but I'm unclear about the brokerage fee. The seller ships with FedEx. Does anyone have experience with their fees? Any advice to keep the price down?

Thanks.

[bouche]

i don't think you'll have a problem with brokerage fees with fedex. Call them and I think you'll find out that brokerage 'service' is including in shipping...unlike the scammers known as UPS.

[mattm]

I got something shipped UPS once and when it arrived at my door I found out that there was some $60 charge I had to pay the guy to get my package (not sure what it was, it was a while ago but I think it had something to do with duty and taxes and maybe this brokerage thing). I paid it grugingly ($1200 1x dvd burner, one of the first you could get so $60 wasn't too bad). That has never happened with fedex (for me), it's always come to the price the seller says.

What I do know is that the package won't get opened and if the sender isn't a store there's some chance that they'll mark it as a gift which means it can cross the border without the extra fees. Otherwise get them to put the lowest price possible as the value. I haven't shopped ebay in a while but I bought craploads between 99 and 01 and one thing I distinctly remember was that I was losing money buying things from the states due to shipping and extra fees. I found a few good items that were listed pretty cheap but in the end, after everything, I could have either saved money or spent an extra $5 and just got it here at a store the same day. I started only looking at canadian items after that. I know that for everything personal that I bought or sold, we always tried to mark it a gift or claim it was worthless but the ebay stores (which there are tonnes of now and weren't that many back then) wouldn't do that.

According to the site I put a link for below, FedEX will charge fees but send you the invoice in the mail later on. I've never gotten said invoice. I've asked many times to sacrifice a week and have it shipped regular mail though too. It also says not to use UPS if you want to keep costs low.

Here's some good info

[Gateaux]

I always find it best to go through USPS and ask the seller to mark the item as a gift. I've had golf clubs worth over a thousand bucks shipped this way and i don't get dinged with taxes, duties or anything like that.

[Tungsten Gruvsten]

All couriers charge brokerage. With UPS they let you know when the package arrives. Fedex has a separate arm to handle brokerage, you will get a bill in the mail a week later.

Gateaux has it - USPS Air mail is the way to go. Also because it is a federal service if you get screwed somehow you can level a mail fraud charge against the seller(make sure you have his address)

[ollie]

I'm buying the item from an eBay store (Creative Labs) so I don't think they'll be flexible on the shipping but I have put in a question to them about it.

Of course I'd prefer to buy within Canada but sadly we don't have the product variety up here. At least not in Ottawa, the capital of consumer electronics hell.

Thanks!

[Pablo Sanchez]

UPS charges $65.00 per thousand dollars I believe. You can go through a seperate brokerage company and get this down a bit. Brokerage is a scam. Its the new duty paid to private companies instead of governments.

[mattm]

Hey Ollie, just out of curiosity, what item are you looking at?

[ollie]

Hey Ollie, just out of curiosity, what item are you looking at?

Creative Labs Jukebox Zen Xtra 60GB

[ollie]

I'm thinking I might just have it shipped to a friend in the States then have him send it to me as a gift.

[Birdy]

good idea. anything i buy in the states i have shipped to our michigan office and then have them send it up as a gift.

hopefully who you're buying from will just do it for you so you don't get hit with two different shipping bills.

[jonyak]

I got hit with a brokerage fee once while buy a 60$ guitar pedal from the states, got hit with a 30 dollar fee..

I told the guy at the counter to go screw himself and to send it back, I wasn't paying more money for a brokerage fee on top of s&h.

[ollie]

Found some interesting information here:

Guide for Canadians to Ordering Online from American Shops

[mattm]

That's the link i posted up above. Before that I had no idea that fedex charged brokerage fees (never got anything in the mail from them anyway).

[ollie]

That's the link i posted up above. Before that I had no idea that fedex charged brokerage fees (never got anything in the mail from them anyway).

Sorry matt, I totally missed the link in your post. Thanks!