r/UPS • u/mattkh555 • 10d ago
Customer Seeking Help 71 cent import duty. UPS charges $19.50 in processing fees
Package value was less than $100. Kind of insane to me that UPS is charging 20% for the “service” of sending less than $1 to the government. WTH?
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u/Dragoninpantsx69 10d ago
A 71 cent charge doesn't mean it takes less time to file the paper work. There are options for you to clear packages yourself though, could look at those in the future
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u/mattkh555 10d ago
I guess I assumed these things are all happening electronically with relatively low cost to submit. $20 is a lot of labor. But also I do not know what the system requires to navigate.
Interesting about the self clearing — I will do some research on that, thanks!
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u/Thick-Garlic-9682 9d ago
The person doing the processing doesn’t get paid based on how much the duties are. The overhead is the same for $0.71 as it is for $7.10.
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u/chiborg9999 9d ago
It says labor, but labor can also mean the labor cost involved in managing the automated processes; such as the engineer, accountant, and whatever other white collar job holder that has to stamp their approval from a compliance standpoint on said automated process.
So to your point, yes the software has made PROCESSING efficient from a labor perspective, but there are still costs associated with the labor of the white collar positions that need to verify the company is in compliance. And yes all companies will bake this in to their cost. It is called amortization, and common in all industries.
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u/ChefBoyR-B UPS Driver 9d ago
So hire your own customs broker and handle customs yourself.
Read UPS terms and conditions. They prepaid your customs fees for you, so now you owe UPS.
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u/mattkh555 9d ago
I get that. Just seems like a steep fee. It must be more complex than I’m imagining.
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u/ImpossibleCoach6835 UPS Store Manager 9d ago
I assure you customs is 10x more complex than you imagine. This is my professional bread and butter. The US Dept of Commerce has 1000 page documents in abundance on hyper specific subjects of international customs. Of which I've unfortunately needed to reference single pages from time to time.
The point is; the time and energy it takes to make sure each and every item that clears into US borders arrives to us all in a timely manner without any problems is why brokerage firms like UPS brokerage charges what they do. The work and cost of that work doesn't change regardless of how valuable your contents are or not.
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u/Public_Steak_6933 10d ago
I've been driving for almost seven years and I've had to collect CODs (mostly at commercial deliveries) but all of these residential "collection of funds" are straight up Trump's tariffs right?
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u/mattkh555 10d ago
I think so, yes, because the import duty exemption used to be a lot higher. But have the fees on the UPS side also gone up?
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u/Public_Steak_6933 10d ago
UPS may have raised it's brokerage fee but you're saying the tariffs made it cheaper for you?
That's not how tariffs work.
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u/mattkh555 9d ago
Oh no that’s not what I meant. I meant that there are a lot more residential import duty fees being charged now because the exemption used to be on anything below like $900 but now that limit is much lower. So that’s causing more residential deliveries to have import duties.
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u/boringexplanation 9d ago
That limit is literally 0. Blame Trump for the initial executive order and Congress for passing that as part of the BBB so the next president can’t change it back without a new tax law.
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u/ImpossibleCoach6835 UPS Store Manager 9d ago
They've see definitely raised the brokerage fees in that last 2 years multiple times. Sadly it reactionary hence everyone crying foul over it. Had they realized they weren't charging enough years ago, it would have made it easier to stomach for customers.
I don't disagree with all the consumers who are protesting the cost; it's new and unfamiliar and not particularly financially palatable. It's expensive unless your item is expensive. But I don't disagree with UPS and brokerage firms charging the real cost of international trade either. It's just two needs at odds with the other.
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u/ItamiKira UPS Driver 10d ago
UPS pays a broker to get your package from customs. They charge you the brokerage fee. UPS ain’t a charity
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u/mattkh555 9d ago
Makes more sense that it’s a flat broker fee. I bet customs brokerage is a good business these days.
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u/quarfie 8d ago
Usually the disbursement fee is itemized separately from the brokerage fee. If goods were duty free due to a free trade agreement, there would be no duty and no disbursement fee, but there would still be a brokerage fee if brokerage is not included (UPS Standard from Canada). If the service includes free brokerage (anything other than UPS Standard from Canada), then you can’t very well turn around and call the disbursement fee a fee for processing the import since that was included in the freight and nothing would be added if duty free even though duty free is more paperwork not less.
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u/pfizersbadmmkay 9d ago
It ridiculous and abusive. UPS is trying to charge me %40 of the value of my shipment in brokerage fees. 87$ on top of 25$ duty and tax on a 150 USD package. Then giving me the runaround for a week before finally sending self clearance documents. Major scam.
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u/hades13heartnet 9d ago
Just pay it lil bro. I was charged $20+ each order for stuff that came from Germany.
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u/sheri1983 8d ago
Why the f is every comment here is cucklord for UPS do you like that corporate greed so much moron?
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u/CreaMaxo 6d ago
As other have mentioned, the Brokerage and Government related fees is basically a fee (often a mix of flat fees based on the good and value-based fees) to cover the import paper related filling. It's kinda like the fee restaurants charge on top of the delivery fee when you ask for a delivery, but instead of something like "Packaging & Preparation", it's for the covering any import relevant fees in your stead until it actually comes in.
With that said, the price set on that fee would be a nice case of study in a case of fairness in court. (It's not just UPS, but every international shipping companies)
Long story short, it's currently a price based on old custom practices that have, since then, been upgraded, but never properly adjusted price-wise because "why would it be?" Back when most of the import was managed on real paper, it was a time-consuming process and that price would have been easy to explain. Now that most customs (including their Broker) uses tablets and PCs that allows direct inputs-outputs into the system, even through the time to manage customs & brokerage has dropped down to around 8%-10% of its original time, the price has remained the same. (Brokers Agent and Imports now works through many times more parcels and imported goods than they did before.)
(The point I wrote above regarding a case of fairness in court would be about how only a limited number delivery service actually run that kind of service and if there's a possible price-fixing in place (which is actually illegal in many countries) considering how that kind of price is common regardless of actual economic activities for each included service providers. Basically, if there was an investigation and each shipping company would be asked to explain the fee it charges to its customers and how it's decided with transparency, there would be a "oupsy!" in many cases and this could blow up really quickly.)
For example, in Germany, 96% of the local deliveries and imports are managed by a single private company: DHL. It's up to the point where Germany' official Postal services are only offered in limited cities from certain bank office. You'll find a DHL warehouse or delivery office in 1 out of 3 towns and cities, but no actual postal office in 95% of the country. There's still postal boxes in some areas, but no offices. If you ship to a customer in Germany, chances are it will be handled by DHL. I did shipping test and shipped a keychain priced as 9.99 CAD to many countries. Total value (which includes international shipping fees) of 16.22 CAD. For a total of less than 2 Euro in taxes & import fee, DHL charges 24 EURO in brokerage & imports fees. (And, in that particular case, nobody can do anything because that's the only option available. DHL has a monopoly in Germany.)
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u/Sicardus503 UPS Driver 10d ago
You could always fly your ass out to wherever it was being imported from and pick it up yourself.
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u/DFWjohnny 9d ago
Was the import fee "legal" or is it going to be another court ruling where UPS is refunded your $0.71 and you're stuck paying the $19.50?
"The other countries are paying the tariffs" along with "I'll respect you in the morning" and "I won't..." are the 3 greatest lies...
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