Some of the charges might be due to the value, but they still hit me with a $70 brokerage fee for $200 of steel once.
That d*mn courier thread.
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I prefer Qobuz for music streaming, yet I'm somehow thinking that may not be the point of your message ;-)
Something gows wrong with transmistting the entered IOSS number for shipments by Royal Mail to the EU (Germany Sweden, Netherlands)..if someone knows who's doorbell to ring in the UK Royal Mail service I'm game as I'm tired of the runaround PostNL is giving me..
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now THAT is taking Highway Robbery to the next level.
I made the mistake one of shipping something to my work, with my works name on the label. As a result, instead of the standard carrier brokerage, they used the my works preferred broker. I was charged $60 on brokerage fees on a $100 item for them to look at the paperwork and go "Yup, no duties or taxes due on this one"
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I'll take that job, I estimate I can do 10 an hour, so that makes 600$ an hour.
Yeah, I'll never use them again.
That's because it is in Canada, goods over 20 CAD can be subject to duties. That value is 800$ in the US.
I doubt it. I was charged $5 duty on that shipment. The $70 was exclusively for the brokerage fee.
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We have a new EU wide VAT system, I have the invoice I'm complaining about in front of me.
On a (used VAT already paid once) record from a private person (no shop) worth 32 euro they collect 6.91 euro VAT and 6 euro cost....which is robbery already (VAT was already paid on the product) but now I get to pay this twice because the sender has to collect it and needs to declare the IOSS number and do the customs declaration upfront upon shipping. The IOSS nr does somehow not get transmitted to PostNL and they collect the second time...complaining goes nowhere as they all point at each other rather than taking it up with Royal Mail (UK)
70 Euro brokerage fee is bizar...except when you hire a customs broker for some reason, normally the courier handles it , also at a fee that is too high for what it is , but for far less than that amount.
On a (used VAT already paid once) record from a private person (no shop) worth 32 euro they collect 6.91 euro VAT and 6 euro cost....which is robbery already (VAT was already paid on the product) but now I get to pay this twice because the sender has to collect it and needs to declare the IOSS number and do the customs declaration upfront upon shipping. The IOSS nr does somehow not get transmitted to PostNL and they collect the second time...complaining goes nowhere as they all point at each other rather than taking it up with Royal Mail (UK)
70 Euro brokerage fee is bizar...except when you hire a customs broker for some reason, normally the courier handles it , also at a fee that is too high for what it is , but for far less than that amount.
The brokerage fee of UPS ground is crazy high, and the fee is only with ground shipping from the US. If you ordered something elsewhere, like from Europe, there will also be some service fee but won't be as much. When buying things from the US, I use only USPS, since their fee is lower than 10 cad.
Thankfully I live in the US and do not have things like VAT to worry about, it just seems so silly that some people pay 20%+ more on something than I do just because of where they live. Especially when it’s things like hobby items from small makers.
Import and export fees just don’t make sense to me at some point. I understand the idea, to make money, keep things domestic and what not but come on.
You want to tax the hell out of multi billion dollar /multi national companies? Be my guest but not the guys working out of his garage to make an honest living. The large corporations probably dont even have to worry about it the same way mom and pop shops do.
Rant over
Import and export fees just don’t make sense to me at some point. I understand the idea, to make money, keep things domestic and what not but come on.
You want to tax the hell out of multi billion dollar /multi national companies? Be my guest but not the guys working out of his garage to make an honest living. The large corporations probably dont even have to worry about it the same way mom and pop shops do.
Rant over
And the brokerage fee only comes with the customs duty and tax, although it can be much higher than the customs fee itself...
Yeah, it was a painful lesson to learn. I always try for USPS when I have the choice.
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it's not garage shop owners that are taxed, it's the consumer who is paying the VAT but it's for the shop owner to collect it.
As a company you get to subtract the VAT on the stuff you need and all you buy as stock etc and subtract it from what you have to send over to the VAT man.
Ultimately that VAT money goes to whatever tax goes to, that is no different regardless of where we live...the main difference is HOW all that moeny is being collected, in some places you pay Govt tax plus state tax plus municipality tax, in some countries you pay mainly Govt tax and VAT on consumer goods and less or no state tax and little municipality tax.
As a company you get to subtract the VAT on the stuff you need and all you buy as stock etc and subtract it from what you have to send over to the VAT man.
Ultimately that VAT money goes to whatever tax goes to, that is no different regardless of where we live...the main difference is HOW all that moeny is being collected, in some places you pay Govt tax plus state tax plus municipality tax, in some countries you pay mainly Govt tax and VAT on consumer goods and less or no state tax and little municipality tax.
So...screw them I say! I avoid UPS as often as possible.
Several years ago I shipped a custom cleaver to customer in my home state of GA. He was an off the grid sort very protective of his privacy and had a UPS Store box. He never got the cleaver. Turned out the Mgr of the UPS store had been stealing customer shipments for months.
I have two knife-shaped boxes due to be delivered by DHL in a two-hour window this afternoon. No issue with the courier, they're great.... my problem is this: how do I get the significant other out of the house for two hours?! Or should I pretend to be tending the shrubbery until I can head off the delivery, then hide the boxes in said shrubbery until an opportune time for retrieval?
You make no apologies. Wait for the courier, get the boxes and walk back like nothing happened.
"These boxes? Just some <insert cheap things used at work>."
”Don’t ask! They could be presents for you!”
I feel like that one would backfire pretty quick.
What!? I buy my wife knives all the time. She doesn’t say too much about it. I’m sure it’s fine and the lawyer is just an old friend.
BillHanna
Gotta get ready for ARM
Update? I’m praying for you.
The one I've been using lately is "Someone sent it so I could put it out at the ECG."
Not that it matters. Although it may matter a little as I currently have 6-7 knives living on my cutting board because there is no room in the knife blocks or in the knife drawers. And if I brought home the ones that are still at my office it might raise an eyebrow
Not that it matters. Although it may matter a little as I currently have 6-7 knives living on my cutting board because there is no room in the knife blocks or in the knife drawers. And if I brought home the ones that are still at my office it might raise an eyebrow
BillHanna
Gotta get ready for ARM
“I’m organizing a pass around for a knife maker.”
Maybe I should do that, so it wouldn't be a lie! Small countries need pass arounds too.
Thanks for your prayers! I think I had steeled myself to be ready to say, "just a couple of knives" Joe Cool style
. But what ended up happening was I saw the courier coming and popped open a window and he passed me the parcels through the window, totally under the radar. Working them into the rotation will be the easy part (all my knives look the same, I'm told).
BillHanna
Gotta get ready for ARM
WE DID IT, BOYS.
I've been waiting a few days for my new Xerxes to clear customs in Cincinnati. Just got an email from DHL asking for more info to clear customs. It is one of his "lasers" and the description on the waybill says "Kitchenknife: 22 cm Laser "125sc".
It got flagged for being a laser. They want to know what kind of laser is it is, fill out some government form, and declare it's intended use to the FDA. Hopefully doesn't take too long to resolve.
It got flagged for being a laser. They want to know what kind of laser is it is, fill out some government form, and declare it's intended use to the FDA. Hopefully doesn't take too long to resolve.
bahamaroot
Idiot Savant
Did you tell them it was a Light Saber to use during your next space exploration?
Update: finally convinced them the knife isn’t an actual laser. They then told me I need to pay $90 in storage fees for it being held while it got resolved on top of the $97 in customs fees. Yeah, f that. Called DHL immediately and got those storage fees taken off. Hopefully knife finally arrives tomorrow or Wednesday.
