Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I'm hoping I take advantage of some expertise here. I sold my Ricky to someone in the U.S. (I'm in Canada) and I am planning to ship UPS. Am I suppose to declare a customs value for this, or just an insurance value in case it gets damaged in transit? As it's an American product being 'repatriated' there wouldn't be any duties for the buyer would there?

Any help on the best way to do this would be appreciated. Thanks.

Dave you need to place a declared value on the item for insurance purposes.

Canada and the USA are charter members of NAFTA along with Mexico and as such certain goods are exempt from duty and in your case in particular anything made in the USA that is being returned will escape duty but not necessarily the application of brokerage fees incurred at the point of entry at the border and also potentially the collection of local and/or State taxes. That is up to each jurisdiction to decide of their own volition.

http://www.international.gc.ca/trade-ag ... index.aspx

As a buyer I always avoid UPS like the plague!

They have a scam going called Brokerage fees... The actual customs and duty owning is the GST plus the PST.. Which is maximum 15% of the declared value of the item.. So an item worth $100 the maximum duty owing should be $15. Canada Post (via USPS) charges a $5 handling charge, so the total then is $20 per $100 dollars of value.

The UPS scam is this. They pay the customs and duty on your behalf and then charge you for "borrowing the money"...
I have had items worth less then $100, that I have had to pay them $70/$80 worth of brokerage fees on... I had an item I paid $4 for thatthey charged me $35 brokerage charges on. And they don't beleive what is written on the form... Like teh word "Gift"... They have a database of items andthey charge you what the database says it is worth, not what is written on the form. If there is a difference in what it is insured for and the declared value they will also take the higher amount. I won and item for $45 adn the seller insured it for $400.. Guess which amount the brokerage fees were calculated from??

Sellers like UPS because of their tracking service which allows all parties to see where in the transit the item is...
I have never sent an item the other way via UPS... But they must do somthing similar...

My last US Rickenbacker came via USPS.. The customs was $120 on a $1600 guitar. That I can live with, after all I live in a country with free universal medical coverage for all...

Brian

Brian is right about the UPS shakedown fee. I had to write out a check for the UPS driver before he'd give me the package.

In my case, the seller was cool and gave me a credit via Paypal.

I think that shipping it to arrive in the U.S. via USPS is the way to go.

I will say this about it all from the US end - USPS will knock on the door and hand you the package whereas UPS does the ring the bell, leave the box right out in the open, and drive away. No wait for an answer or signature either. Just for that reason if something is coming by other than USPS, I have it shipped to work where some is always there to receive it.

Thanks for the info everyone...it certainly has me leary of dealing with UPS. But is there a decent alternative? I don't know how'd I'd have to ship something from here to get it delivered USPS. Am I better or worse off with FedEx or Purolator?

Canada Post will ship it but will only cover up to $1000. I need $3300 and don't want the buyer getting dinged for 'brokerage fees'. Anyone recommend a carrier in this scenario?

I have used Purolator with great success Dave. I agree with the others about UPS. They are the very worst carrier in North America IMO.

Brain: While I have no proof for this claim, I have heard that Purolator hands off to UPS in the US. Have you heard anything about this?

I have used Fedex with great results but I believe that they will also have a broker to get the item through customs. When shipping overseas I have used the USPS with good results. To get the USPS to deliver from Canada it would have to go through the Canadian Postal Service. If you are close enough to the border you may want to consider driving it across and shipping from the US.

Since I'm in a commercial building, I don't have a problem with UPS--stuff nearly always gets here on time, as there's always someone here to receive it. Very little damage has occurred over the years, too. I did get hit with an $18.00 "brokerage fee" on the last item delivered from CA, to my surprise. This had not happened before.

Fed Ex--bad experiences with damage, claims settlement, and FedEx Freight is bad.

Thank God DHL is gone in the USA. They still make international deliveries, though.

I just spoke with UPS and they told me the brokerage fees would be about $41.00 for something of that value. Which doesn't seem too bad to me as long as it's all there is to worry about.

I also found out that yes, UPS delivers for Purolator in the States and also acts as their broker.

It seems you can't escape the clutches of UPS. I'll have to ask Ron Sodano if the bass I shipped him via Purolator arrived at his door courtesy of UPS.

johnallg wrote:I will say this about it all from the US end - USPS will knock on the door and hand you the package whereas UPS does the ring the bell, leave the box right out in the open, and drive away. No wait for an answer or signature either. Just for that reason if something is coming by other than USPS, I have it shipped to work where some is always there to receive it.

I agree 100%. I had a flight case for my 360/12 thrown into the driveway and was discovered when I got home. Thankfully, I live in a rural area and the case was still in the driveway. The case wasn't damaged much(it is a flight case), but it really ticked me off that UPS does biz like that. I'm really thankfull that someone was home when my Ricks came.

When I bought my 650S from a Canadian seller in 2003, The shipment was held at the border until I paid a $39.00 brokerage fee to U.S. Customs.

winston wrote:It seems you can't escape the clutches of UPS. I'll have to ask Ron Sodano if the bass I shipped him via Purolator arrived at his door courtesy of UPS.

Brian, the bass was delivered by UPS around 9:30 in the morning. It would have stayed on my front porch if my wife wasn't leaving for work the same time the UPS truck arrived.