I'm probably going to buy a Vagabond Mini Strobe battery soon and I was wondering if anyone had bought one recently and what the brokerage fee was.
Paul Buff, the Alien Bee company suggests using the UPS Worldwide as the preferred shipping method into Canada because that method of shipping seems to have the Brokerage Fee scam under control. But batteries can't be air shipped so I'd have to use UPS Ground. That leaves the Brokerage scam door wide open and I'd like to know how bad that pain is likely to be.
UPS brokerage fee is a killer if you are in Canada. Beside what they call brokerage fee, you also pay them advancement fee,and taxes on top of all that before the actual tax to the government.
Now I avoid all that using one of the following means.
1. Call the seller (in your case Paul C. Buff) customer service to specifically ask them to ship with either USPS or FEDEX. It mostly work for me, especially with USPS where I pay only $5-10 bucks plus actual taxes.
2. If you are close to any of the borders, let them ship there and you pick, declare the actual value and pay the correct tax.
3. If you are far from the border but have a friend in the US, let them ship there and let the friend re-ship to you using USPS and you pay $5-10 plus the appropriate tax.
I prefer to give my money to Government of Canada as tax than for UPS to scam me for my money in the name of brokerage fee.
Grandy wrote:
I'm probably going to buy a Vagabond Mini Strobe battery soon and I was wondering if anyone had bought one recently and what the brokerage fee was.
Paul Buff, the Alien Bee company suggests using the UPS Worldwide as the preferred shipping method into Canada because that method of shipping seems to have the Brokerage Fee scam under control. But batteries can't be air shipped so I'd have to use UPS Ground. That leaves the Brokerage scam door wide open and I'd like to know how bad that pain is likely to be.
Thoughts?
I've bought quite a bit of product from Paul Buff in the past couple of years and have always selected their UPS Worldwide Express Saver and have paid no brokerage fees, just the HST.
And I have had their batteries shipped to me via that same method (Worldwide Saver), which is air.
Yeah, but were those batteries the Vagabond Mini? On the Buff site it specifically notes that this battery cannot be shipped internationally by air, likely because it's a high capacity lithium, which is also subject to some restrictions on passenger aircraft: http://safetravel.dot.gov/quick_chart.html
I'm also interested in these and would like to know...
rscheffler wrote:
Yeah, but were those batteries the Vagabond Mini? On the Buff site it specifically notes that this battery cannot be shipped internationally by air, likely because it's a high capacity lithium, which is also subject to some restrictions on passenger aircraft: http://safetravel.dot.gov/quick_chart.html
I'm also interested in these and would like to know...
If you are near the border, there are plenty of drop ship businesses across the line. I got 2 big boxes of studio lighting & gear shipped into WA (@ $5 each to pick up there), then drove them across and just paid GST. Helps to live 5 minutes from the border though.
UPS only charges the brokerage fee on ground or standard shipping. Premium UPS shipping includes the brokerage fee (you can't get away from it). Fedex also includes their brokerage fee in the premium shipping, and USPS handles brokerage.
UPS does ship items with batteries as long as the shipper has a agreement with them to safely package them. A individual would not be able to ship battery items by UPS Air, but you can ship battery items by USPS! Go figure.
