A costly "free" repair...

[Garry2Rs]

I have often said that I like Shimano reels and that one of the best thing about dealing with Shimano is the fact that they are right down the road in Peterborough.

 

I do however own a few Quantum and Ardent reels as well as the Shimanos.

 

Recently I had a problem with one of the Ardents. The clutch lever, for the free spool, cracked and was going to break off. I called Ardent, in Missouri, and asked about Canadian service.

 

The good news is that the service technician told me that Ardent had identified this part as a weak link and had replaced the lever with a new part. They were also retrofitting this new part into all reels that came in for service. If I would send my reel in, they would do the repair/up-date "free of charge."

 

Last week I mailed the reel to them and a couple of days ago it came back.

 

Now the bad news...My reel came back as a new reel. I had to pay GST on the reel, a brokerage fee, and GST on the brokerage fee.

 

When I complained to UPS, I was told that if I could produce the proper paper work, I could claim the GST, on the reel, back...but the lions share, their brokerage fee and taxes, was unrecoverable.

 

So my friends...If you are sending anything out of the country for service or repair be sure that the company you are dealing with understands our tax situation and labels everything as your property being returned.

[Terry]

well the fact is UPS takes it upon themselves to screw Canadians

they know they have us by the short hairs and don't give a damn..we are a very small part of their market

so they grab what they can....

all we can do is tell US companies to not send UPS because they are the Mr. Haney of couriers

we are paying them to act as our broker and you would assume act in our best interest but they screw us....

Edited July 23, 2010 by Terry

[BillM]

I've disputed brokerage fee's before and carped at them on the phone. I've never came close to paying the amount they originally wanted in order to get my package..

 

USPS or nothing for me if coming from the US.

[g_clot]

Hey 2R's - that's crap news indeed, but a learning experience none-the-less.

 

I learned this the hard way ordering off EBay. I bought a set of golf clubs for $350 USD. They shipped VIA UPS who charge about 50% of the product value in cross-border brokerage charges. The clubs cost me over $500 in the end, and since they were EBay bought they weren't warranted by Callaway. Should have bought at Golftown....

 

Had they used USPS my brokerage would have been under $20. How UPS justify $130 extra dollars is beyond me.

 

Long story short - UPS is the worst cross-border carrier in terms of charges, with FedEX 2nd. USPS and Purolator (if my memory serves me well) is a must to save $$$.

 

It's great advice to double check which carrier they use before-hand and recommend they use another. Some companies charge an extra $10 to use USPS, and they do take a little longer, but you could save some big dollars.

[Fisherman]

Ya, I feel for ya, a lot of the US companies don't give a shoot and use the highway robbers to do their deliveries. I got hosed the same way by Versa Electronics, the ones that bought out Aqua Vu/Nature Vision, sent it in for a simple program update, those buggers put down it was a new product. Almost cost three times the initial amount. Other than Cabelas, I won't deal with any companies there if they won't ship by USPS.

[BillM]

Ardent should have also labeled the package as 'Warranty Return/Replacement'

[Bill Shearer]

As Bill M has already said, it's USPS or nothing.

I realize most folks don't buy a lot of stuff stateside, but there is an alternative for those of us that live within an hour of the border.

I rent a USPS post box, for about $90/year.I fish over there from Sept. to May/June, depending on weather. You can have most stuff delivered free to a US post box, and the rest is very reasonable. Cabelas has many $5 specials. If you split the cost of the box between a few friends, it is VERY cheap. One shipment through UPS to Canada would pay for a year! The Post office opens the station for box holders at 5am, and you are able to pick up larger items at a window in the station from 6am, so no inconvenience, compared to other alternatives.

Something to consider.

I've been doing it for many years.

[DRIFTER_016]

UPS BLOWS!!!!!!!

I refuse to deal with any company foreign or domsetic that ships with them.

Living in the NWT I mail order a crap load of stuff. There really isn't a week that goes by that I'm not expecting some toy in the mail.

UPS doesn't ship by road to us so they charge stupid amounts of money for shipping.

For instance to ship a USB thumb drive from Toronto to Yellowknife is about $60.

Now get this, they say they only ship air to us and not truck but they don't fly the freight here.

What they do is fly it to Edmonton and put it on another carriers truck!!!

So we get dinged for a ton of cash to fly stuff in that comes by truck.

What can brown do for me?..................................GET STUFFFED!!!!!

They will never get another penny from me.................................EVER!!!!

 

Rant over, we now return you to your regularly scheduled rant. Thank You, Come Again.

[Garry2Rs]

Well guys, I'm smarter now!

I will instruct anyone I deal with to label return items as warranty repair etc.

[Fisherman]

UPS BLOWS!!!!!!!

What can brown do for me?..................................GET STUFFFED!!!!!

They will never get another penny from me.................................EVER!!!!

 

Rant over, we now return you to your regularly scheduled rant. Thank You, Come Again.

 

Come on DRIFTER_016..tell us how you REALLY feel...you're being a pussy...louder.. What can BROWN do for me...

Get_________

[spincast]

UPS is bad for this. I work in cross border transport and well, honestly these guys subsidize their rates to big companies by their brokerage fees to the little guys. Take your pick of any other carrier and it will be less. Purolator, (not fedex), general mail, ... always check this before you agree to send. I once had a bunch of promo materials from the US govnmt sent to me. They notated the value as a nominal $1.00 per booklet to meet customs requirements. 200 booklets : Duties = 0; shipping = 0. UPS brokerage fees= $150.00

Garry - fact is a warranty repair is duty free - but brokerage fees are not recoverable - only deductible if you happen to have a business which would qualify as an expense and it meets all the criteria????