Suckered!

Oh, my gosh. I can't believe I did this.

Mistake #1 - I got some amazon.com gift certificates from Swagbucks.

I really like Swagbucks - it's easy and fun to collect and redeem for gift certificates. But I should have gone for the amazon.ca ones they also have! I was enticed by all that amazon.com has to offer, even though they really only ship certain items to Canada. Bad Emily.

Mistake #2 - I ordered Teva sandals. Through amazon.com.

I have an identical pair of the Teva Olowahus that is 2 years old. I have worn them to the ground. The soles are quite thin and flat where my feet have worn footprints in. They have been super comfortable, they stay on, they are stylish and I loved them. But they are expensive for flip flops, and when I wrote an email to the company to say that I was disappointed that the soles deteriorated while the straps were still fine, I got the response that I could ship them at my cost to the States, where they would evaluate if the product was defective. That didn't address my complaint that the soles were simply not as durable as I would have liked for the price.
Okay. I'm not happy about that. But I still like them and I found some on amazon.com (through an affiliated seller, Deckers Outdoor) that I went ahead and ordered with my gift certificates. Doh!

Mistake #3 - I watched the costs add up and just... paid them.

I had $10 in gift certificates and allowed myself the splurge of an additional $14 (this is USD) for the shoes. Shipping was $9.95 (again USD). Ouch. Okay. Fine. I paid it. We're going to Mexico in 2 weeks and I need sandals to wear. Grand total $33.95 - $10 in gift certificates = $23.95 USD. This all translates to $26.51 Canadian on my Mastercard.

Mistake #4 - I didn't check what company Deckers Outdoor shipped with.

Yesterday I got a notice on my door... from UPS. Now if you have ever shipped cross-border, you will know that UPS is the worst of the worst for charging ridiculous brokerage fees. The notice said there was a COD charge of ... wait for it... $26.56. Let's break it down. The shoes had a value for duty of $25.81. The duty was $4.65. The GST was $3.96. Fine. I'm not thrilled about customs and duty charges, but I accept them. But the brokerage fee was $17.10. WTF? $17.10 just bought me... what? Somebody at UPS taking it through customs? Seriously?! Is that not part of the shipping (to Canada) that I already paid $9.95 for? More than doubling the cost of the actual product?!

ARGH! I HATE YOU, UPS!

Grand total for a pair of flip flops: $53.07 - plus $10 in gift certificates.
Oh, my gosh. I am a fool.

A note about US contests and Canada

Recently I won a contest where the sponsor was an American company. They shipped the prize (quite quickly) through UPS. The prize had a value of $62.95. When it arrived at my door yesterday, UPS wanted me to pay $40 in brokerage, duty and taxes!

I asked the delivery guy to hang on to the package and give me a phone number and tracking number so I could try to sort things out with UPS. For anyone who doesn't know, contest wins are not taxable in Canada, unlike in the States. When I called UPS they suggested I follow up with the sponsor to see if that company would pay the fees. A quick email later, the host of the contest got back to me quickly saying she would follow up with the sponsor.

This morning the sponsor emailed me to say they could not pay the fee. I called back to UPS and while they said they could reduce the preparation fees as an act of goodwill, the fees would still be $20.

What it came down to was that I can't afford to pay, the company refused to do so, UPS would not waive the fees and I ended up refusing the package.

Here is what I have learned, that might come in useful to any of us Canadians and any US sponsors for the future.

• Canada is the ONLY country that allows a small exemption on items sent as gifts but all 3 of the following criteria must be met - AT THE TIME THAT THE ITEM IS SENT - for that exemption to apply:
  1) The item MUST ship from a personal address to a personal address ( anything that you buy or win and have sent directly from a company to your recipient will not qualify)
  2) The waybill AND commercial invoice must BOTH be marked stating that the item is a gift.
  3) The value of the items must be under $60 Canadian - anything over that $60 will be assessed all duties and taxes. (This explanation is from Momoforever on Smartcanucks.ca, I have edited it a little but essentially it is her information, credit where credit is due!)
• The difference between a courier company and the postal service (USPS linking with CP at the border) is that courier services are obligated to report every shipment while CP can pick and choose at will, thus often CP will let packages through that would get dinged with a hefty charge if sent UPS. UPS is apparently the WORST for brokerage/duty fees. when I look at the invoice for the package I refused, the brokerage fee was $29.55; about 75% of the fees they wanted to charge me.
• With Canada Post, you also have the option to appeal any fees. Recently I got a package through CP with a $10 fee on it. $10 happened to be affordable at the time so I just paid it, knowing that I could fill out the form on the back of the customer copy of the shipping invoice, send in copies of the emails I received from the contest sponsor and in all likelihood get my money back. UPS - no option to appeal, or, if there is (which would be through Canada Customs directly), they sure don't make it easy. You can't appeal the brokerage fees, that's for sure. The duties I imagine you could try to deal with Canada Customs but looking on their website, it is not easy to find out how. You'd have to call and work your way through the automated system.
  

Summary: Send it as a gift, value it less than $60 CDN, use a home address as a return address. Send it USPS instead of by courier (the extra time is worth it).

I was thinking that maybe the host of the contest would simply draw another name (a US winner this time) and the sponsor would send the prize to them. Or perhaps the unfortunate conclusion would be that the sponsor had tried to fulfill their end, it didn't happen, they were done with the whole thing.

But neither of these things happened. I'm going to end with the good news that the sponsor has very kindly decided to go the extra mile and, once they get the UPS package back, they're going to re-send the package using a different method. I haven't mentioned the sponsor's name or the host but if they are reading they will know who they are. I want to extend a big thank you to them for following up and really going above and beyond my expectations! Both were extra nice to deal with and truly helpful in resolving this!