[kwlug-disc] Anyone ordered from amazon.com (not .ca) - was there a brokerage fee charged?

[unsolicited]

The Canadian shipping info pages are all but useless:
- Shipping Rates: 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=help_search_1-1?ie=UTF8&nodeId=596192&qid=1361149789&sr=1-1
- Shipping Times: 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201118390
(After chatting for far too long a time with customer service which are 
clueless about 'brokerage fees' yet will not escalate to someone who 
does ... - I never did get an answer to whether they consolidate 
shipments to Canada to their own warehouse / additional fees incurred at 
time of delivery, such as brokerage fees.)
- Import Fees Deposit: 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=201117970 
(I'm guessing brokerage is included within this, but I have zero 
confirmation of that.)

Searching amazon.com has to be one of the most painful experiences I 
have had - talk about unrelated, non-matching, search results!
(Searching search help, the only tips given are to include a '-' before 
terms you don't want. My experience showed inconsistent results, even 
with that. e.g. 'AAA' -'AA' - cause searching on 'AAA' returned 'AA's!)

Part of the uselessness of the Canadian shipping pages above are that 
there is no indication of courier, from which one might guess expected 
brokerage fees (and avoid UPS!). I did get a hint in my chat that 
choosing priority courier shipping means it goes out usps international, 
so it comes in via Canada Post / Purolator - from whom I've never had 
outrageous brokerage fee charges on, like +$60 I had one time, from UPS, 
I believe.

Is one able to choose USPS / courier at time of ordering? (I understand 
they also favour DHL - I don't remember my experience with them, it 
can't have been outrageous or I would remember more clearly.)

So far, ordering from amazon.com seems useless:
- won't ship hard drives, cordless phone headset / samsung jack adapter 
(local K-W store source? Taking 2.5mm 3 conductor jack out to a 3.5mm 4 
conductor plug.), AAA batteries, but will ship UPS battery. Go figure.
- if any of these are available at amazon.ca, from what I've seen so 
far, their prices are even higher than at tigerdirect!


So:
- method of arrival / shipping firm of amazon.com orders selectable at 
time of ordering?
- fees were additionally charged at time of delivery, but nothing 
unreasonable, HST, 'minor' processing / brokerage / CanadaPost fee?


Definitely wondering what all the hoopla over amazon is, at least in Canada.

Comments appreciated.

On 13-02-17 07:18 PM, Dave Cramer wrote:
> USPS has never let me down. Usually there is no brokerage fees.
>
> The egregious brokerage fees UPS charges is just to collect HST.
>
> On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 7:08 PM, Dan's Newsletters <143news at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>>   My last order never arrived from amazon.com - via USPS to Canada post
>> My order from another US vendor never arrived - via USPS to Canada post
>> I believe there is something bad happening between the two postal services.
>>
>> On 02/17/2013 07:21 AM, unsolicited wrote:
>>
>>> Anyone ordered from amazon.com? (Not amazon.ca)
>>>
>>> How did it arrive? DHL, UPS, Canada Post?
>>>
>>> Did you face additional fees upon arrival, particularly brokerage fees?