Dave Schmidt wrote:

> You guys are probably tired of hearing my rant so this will be my last post.
> I just found this website talking about the same thing specifically to 
> Canada.  Also talks about the 'brokerage' fee that Fedex and UPS charges.
> 
> http://answercenter.ebay.com/thread.jsp?forum=12&thread=810033517

I think what the courier companies (most of them, at least) do with
international shipments is close to fraud. These courier companies have
enough data to be able to advise the customer very clearly (and rather
precisely) up front about what charges to expect (especially their own
charges), what customs clearance times to expect etc. 

In my experience, they don't do that honestly. There was a time it took
them routinely two weeks to clear customs in Brazil -- not their fault, for
sure, but their fault to sell next day delivery to the unsuspecting
customer in another country.

I just went through the Fedex "Global Trade Manager - Estimate Duties and
Taxes" pages. For a shipment worth $100 from the US to Canada with an
estimated freight cost of $50, they come up with a final "Landed Cost
Estimate" of $157 ($100 goods + $50 freight + $7 GST). No word of $31
customs brokerage fees. I'm not sure what "landed cost" generally includes,
but I would think that shipment-related customs brokerage fees --
especially if they are known up front -- should be included.

These $31 also appear nowhere else when you look for information about how
much it costs to ship from US to Canada (at least I couldn't find them in a
reasonable time).

So I guess Fedex takes a good part of the blame for this situation.

Gerhard
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