Down with Brown: UPS a Canadian Anglers Worst Enemy

This is written as a plea to both Canadian and US retailers to stop using UPS as your sole service provider. The rates, fees and service is not something you want to subject your customers to.

As a Canadian Angler that spends a lot of money on cross border on-line shopping, I have grown to fear the Brown Truck. Any order that crosses the border with a value over $20 will be hit with a brokerage fee on top of your duty. I have no issues paying Duty, it is the price I pay for ordering from the US, what I do have issue with is the crazy brokerage fees that come with that duty fee. On average between duties and brokerage I can expect to pay an additional 30% on top of my product and shipping fees just for the privilege of picking up a package from UPS.. FedEx does not have these fees! so why does UPS, why is a brokerage fee based on product value? does it not take the same time and manpower to clear my $10 order as it does for my $500 order? why the cash grab? 

My Story:

I placed a few rod orders back in the summer, at about $350 in value. When the product arrived at my door I was greeted with a $160 fee to free my package from the hands of the driver. I called UPS to inquire to why this rate was so high and I was told by a rep that these brokerage fees apply to all ground shipments but not air orders.. I thought, Ok, thats easy from now no I will up my shipping to Air and avoid the fee. So a month later I place another rod order and and pay an extra $30 for air service, yet when the product gets to my door I have yet another huge brokerage fee.. I call UPS, and the rep explains that they have since changed there policy and that really Im just out of luck and need to pay the fee to free my order. 

To add insult to injury, a month later I get a notice in the mail from UPS claiming that I owe them $160 for an order that I picked up. Since they wont give you your package without payment I was baffled as to how I could owe them money? I called in an quoted to my order number and offered to scan my debit receipt as proof of payment. Thinking all was clear I was surprised when two weeks later I got the same past due notice.. this on top of the brokerage fee has sent me on the mission to warn other anglers of the troubles you can expect when ordering cross border with UPS.

 I place regular monthly orders valued at a min $100 each, I was using Tackle Warehouse for 90% of my tackle and equipment orders, but they will only ship UPS and I was paying close to an additional 30% or more on each order.. so I found another retailer.. LandbigFish, they ship USPS, so guess who now gets my $100 a month or $1,200 a year (min)

If you are a Canadian Angler I recommend that when placing an order with your on-line retailer of choice you let them know about the issues we encounter when our orders are shipped via UPS. If they dont know they cant change anything

Retailers.. please look into your options, if you value your Canadian customers, please provide us the option to ship either USPS or FedEx, they treat Canadian customers well and dont smack us with obscene fees to pick-up or orders.

I say Down with Brown.. who's with me