Quote - Good for you - I can tell you it is mighty fun, and you'll not regret whatever you got tricked into paying UPS.

I read that whole thread over again, and it seems that it is UPS following the strict letter of UK law, which allows them to collect a "brokerage" fee, a fee for collecting the import duty or something, and it is bigger than the duty, because nothing stops them. UPS are scamming customers in the UK. Apparently Fedex does not do this.

 

UPS scams us in Canada too!  They don't tell you that you can go down to their office and fill out the short page for duty and taxes yourself. Instead they do it for you and charge you extortion rates for having done it.

I remember I bought Poser 5 Demystified back when I first got Poser. It was a Poser course on VHS tapes.  The price was something like $69.00 USD.  When it arrived here, UPS left me a card stating that they tried to deliver and that I can call to arrange delivery again and that I owed them $76.00.  I called them back and told them that I had already paid for the product.  They told me that it was for taxes and duty and a brokerage fee.

I wanted the videos so I paid the money. The $69.00 course ended up costing me about $160 or so between UPS's charge and high currency exchange rates.

Another time I ordered a stethescope from a company in the USA. I figured it was cheaper even with the exchange.  Colour me flabbergasted when UPS showed up at my door asking for $90.00!!!!!  It was almost 100% of the value of the stethescope I bought!

I refused it. Called the company back and told them I had refused it. They were nice enough to refund my money including shipping.

Now Fedex on the other hand has their brokerage fee built into their fee.  Had I had that Poser Demystified course sent to me via Fedex, it would have cost me $21.00 total to have it shipped to me. That included duty, taxes and brokerage fee.

Vancouver Canada tried to do a class action lawsuit against UPS for extortion rates.  It was thrown out of court.

http://www.sbncanada.com/blog/ups-brokerage-fee-class-action/

So they can continue to charge large sums for doing something that takes about 30 seconds to do.

Now when I order anything online I always ask what shipping method they use. If it's UPS I ask for another shipping company. If they won't ship using another shipping company, they don't get my business.

I'll take USPS over UPS any day!!!

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi