AFAIK, UPS would have screwed you several times over the $5.00 that
CanadaPost charged you for clearing customs. The GST/PST would have been
charged in any case, and the initial costs charged by the seller have no
bearing on what happens after it leaves their door. The only exception to
having the seller pay/charge more for UPS or any courier is, I think, UPS if
they ship it expedited or express. In those cases, someone pays more up
front, but the brokerage fees are included.

Check out here
(http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shi...clearance.html
) for details on what UPS charges for brokerage. According to that chart,
you probably would have been paying $19.00 for brokerage. On top of those
fees, you'd be paying the GST/PST/any other customs charges for importing
your widgets.

FWIW, if a US seller won't ship it USPS, I won't buy it. It takes a little
longer, and you still have to pay the tax, but at least UPS or the courier
company won't make a ridiculous profit for having the package stamped at the
border. I guess, to be fair, I don't know what's involved with being the
customs broker. And the UPS fees do tail off when you get to the more
expensive side of things, making it less painful. But for the $50 to $500
items I might be ordering, they're a bit ridiculous when USPS/CanadaPost can
do it for $5.00.

Clint

"Jack Fearnley" wrote in message
. ..
Perhaps Canadian readers will be interested in my recent experience.

I ordered some stuff from Woodsmith costing $42.90US and they were about
to
charge me $21.49US for handling and shipping via UPS. I felt this was
excessive (50% of the value of the order) so I asked them to ship it USPS
instead. They agreed and said the charge would be $16.25US. I found this
still to be expensive but I agreed to the price.

I received the package today with a charge of $12.94CAN. This is $3.70
Federal Sales Tax plus $4.24 Provincial Sales Tax plus --- wait for it ---
$5.00 service charge!!

So now I have paid $16.25US plus $12.94CAN via the postal service versus
$21.49US for UPS. I don't know if there would have been additional
charges
by UPS (taxes etc). Perhaps someone can enlighten me on that point.

Even without tax considerations, it cost me $16.25US plus $5.00CAN instead
of $21.49US. Not much of a saving considering the current exchange rates
and a big loss if UPS does not collect tax.

Best Regards,
Jack Fearnley