Part 9: The Final Outcome.

This is part of an ongoing series of posts starting here.

On March 14th 2011, around 3:30PM the UPS van pulled up outside my house.

I walked downstairs and opened the door. The driver emerged and retrieved a box from the back of the van and walked it to my door.

The driver politely greeted me and gave me my package. She quietly stood and waited while I opened and inspected the package and when I was satisfied it wasn't damaged, I thanked her and she left.

Victory.

No brokerage or additional fees and my item was undamaged, delivered as expected.





Final Notes:
CBSA
In my specific experience, the CBSA was, without exception, professional and interested in helping me out on the phone and in person.

I spoke with both the Ottawa and Kelowna office multiple times and was dealt with in a fair and direct manner each and every time.

Even when my wife and I went to the office in the evening and were unable to complete the B-15 process, it was not due to the agents not trying or wanting to help. I suspect that this process is very infrequently performed and as such, benefits from either yourself or the CBSA agent having done it before. In hindsight, I think that if I had mentioned the fact that all I was looking for was a B-15 form, it's quite possible they may have understood that process rather than trying to help me "self-clear".

That being said, my personal research has shown that CBSA can be a hit or miss proposition in this. Even though the CBSA webpage indicates that the service is offered, some offices will simply refuse or be unable to perform it for any number of reasons. Most often, the problem is that the agents are unfamiliar with the option to self-clear. My advice is to phone CBSA in Ottawa and ask to be connected to the local CBSA office you plan to use. Once connected to the local office, just ask them about the process of self clearing a personal shipment. You will find out quickly if that office will be able to help you.

UPS
The UPS representatives were, for the most part, reasonably pleasant. No one ever hung up on me or threatened to end a call or anything like that. I honestly think that getting mad at them is pointless. I heard the line about "you must be at the port of entry to self-clear" so often that I cannot escape the thought that they are all trained to say that, whether it's true or not. Like I said earlier, once the final UPS agent I spoke to on the phone realized that I had actually done what they insisted was not possible, she was genuinely surprised.

If anyone important from UPS is reading this: I would be far less inclined to be upset about a flat $5-$10 brokerage fee.

Thanks for reading and I hope I saved you some money.

If you have a story about this process or can shed more light on some of the details, feel free to comment. If you are from UPS or CBSA and I have gotten something incorrect here, also feel free to let me know.

This blog is not legal advice. It is a diary of my own experience and research. You cannot avoid paying legal duties and taxes on goods imported into Canada. This is not about avoiding taxes or duties. In fact, part of this process is paying them as required directly to a customs agent. This is about avoiding the UPS brokerage fee which is nothing more than a ridiculously large service charge paid directly to UPS for a service you neither asked for nor necessarily require.

Part 8: The Almighty B-15 Form

This is part of an ongoing series of posts starting here.

The form given to you by the Border Services Agent is called a B-15  and it is the penultimate goal of this process, actual receipt of your goods being the ultimate. The B-15 proves that all required taxes, duties and fees have been paid to the government for a given shipment. You need to provide this document to UPS and ask them to release your shipment and schedule it for immediate delivery.

I faxed the B-15 to the Richmond warehouse at the number given to me earlier. I included a cover sheet stating my tracking number and the request that they accept the B-15 as proof that all expected government fees were paid and to schedule my package for home delivery asap. It's very important that you quote the UPS tracking number on this fax.

If you were unable to get a specific number to fax the B-15 form to from UPS, call the 1-800 number again and select the brokerage department. Don't stop calling and escalating until someone gives you a number to fax the B-15 to. You need some way to send UPS the B-15 form.

Part 7: Dealing With Canada Border Services Agency

This is part of an ongoing series of posts starting here.

Once I had the 2 required documents in hand, I decided to call the local CBSA office I was planning to use so I could get some information about the process. There is no contact number on any of the individual agency offices on the CBSA webpage so you have to call the main CBSA contact number and ask them to connect you to the office you need to talk to.

In my case, the office is in the Kelowna International Airport. I was relieved to find that the gentleman on the end of the phone knew what I was talking about and agreed that I had all the required documents to pay the expected fees to self clear the shipment.

Nonetheless, when my wife and I visited the office at 7 PM that evening, the 2 (different) agents on duty had no real idea how to perform the process I required or even if I had the correct documents. Since this was my first time doing this, I had no real idea what was actually required at the time so we had to leave with our documents and instructions to get some more information and return tomorrow.

I did some more reading when I got home and became convinced that I did, in fact, have all the required information to do what needed to be done. The next day I called the office again and got the same agent I had spoken to by phone the previous day.

He was concerned to hear what had happened when I had visited the night before and asked me to fax him the documents I had so he could confirm that he was correct and we did possess all the required information. We did so and he called back within 30 minutes to say yes, we had everything we needed and he could prepare the required document after we paid taxes and duties.

It was at this point that I came to the realization that this process is either so new or so under utilized that even the CBSA agents are unclear on the program. In fact, in my reading, it seems that some border services offices are unaware that they are expected to perform this service for citizens at all. Some will flat out refuse. I don't know what to tell folks in that unfortunate instance apart from suggesting they contact Border Services federal office and complain.

I once again called UPS brokerage to confirm what was required by them to release the package and the supervisor told me that the Border Services agent would have to fax a form of some type to the customs office in Vancouver or Richmond to clear the shipment.

I stated that I did not think that was the case and that there should be a number for me to fax proof of fees paid so the package could be cleared and delivered. She reluctantly provided me the fax number of the Richmond bonded warehouse holding my package but she didn't think it would be useful or required since she was sure that customs would communicate all this stuff internally. Again, this was my first time so I really wasn't 100% sure but I took the fax number anyways.

My wife and I returned to the airport and met the agent I had spoken to on the phone. We had the cargo control document, the commercial invoice and my wife had her photo ID as the importer. He used the documents to calculate the required taxes and duties. We paid them by Visa and he issued us a B-15 form. I asked about him faxing his counterparts in Vancouver to complete the process. He said UPS was wrong and that all I needed to do was fax UPS the B-15 form he just provided me.

We were in and out in less than 15 minutes with one of these (personal info redacted):

Next

This blog is not legal advice. It is a diary of my own experience and research. You cannot avoid paying legal duties and taxes on goods imported into Canada. This is not about avoiding taxes or duties. In fact, part of this process is paying them as required directly to a customs agent. This is about avoiding the UPS brokerage fee which is nothing more than a ridiculously large service charge paid directly to UPS for a service you neither asked for nor necessarily require.

Part 6: Gathering the Required Documents From UPS

This is part of an ongoing series of posts starting here.

 You need 2 documents to self clear your own shipment via CBSA.

One is called a manifest or cargo control document. I have seen either term used to describe the same document.  The one I received from UPS did not have either term on it but had all the required fields. The UPS form is labeled "SUMMARY SHEET" in the top right hand corner. This is what mine looked like (personal info and the UPS logo redacted):

Mine is also already stamped by the CBSA because I have completed the process. Yours won't be stamped when you get it. The CBSA officer stamps it when you pay the government taxes.


The other document is a commercial invoice. This is a form usually filled out by the shipper with detail and valuation amounts. This is mine, again redacted:

UPS has both of these documents and you need them to fax or email them to you. With only these 2 documents, you can perform the entire process of clearing your shipment via Canada Border Services.

Getting them can be a challenge though.

If you are calling them after using method 1, I would suggest making the call to the UPS brokerage department directly, bypassing the normal agents. I got to them by dialing the main UPS 1-800 number and selecting option 3 which was specific to international shipments and brokerage.

If you are on the phone with them because they called you per method 2, I am not sure who you are talking to but the lady I got was the most difficult obstacle I encountered in my specific experience.

Even at the supervisor level, she would only read me the cargo identifier number and an internal ID and would hear nothing of sending me the documents I needed, insisting that her doing anything even remotely similar to what I requested was simply illegal or somehow beyond the realm of services offered by UPS. I admitted defeat and politely ended the call. You may have better luck but if this happens to you, end the call and call the brokerage department directly like I note above.

If you end up calling the brokerage department in either case, ask them to fax or email you the 2 documents. Once I got to the brokerage department and made my request, they seemed to know what I was talking about and agreed to try to send me what I needed.

I say try because the guy I got on the phone with said he was "entering a request into his system" indicating that I needed this information to be faxed to me. He made it clear that he was making  "no guarantee" that I would get the forms I needed or anything at all for that matter.

This "no guarantee" phrase must have been entered into the log of this shipment because in every call I made to UPS after this one, the person at UPS always made some reference to the fact "no one guaranteed you would get anything..." after reading the notes associated with my tracking number.

You may need to escalate to a supervisor or even end the call and keep calling back until you get someone who understands what you need.

I finally got my documents faxed to me after roughly 2 days of trying and waiting. I could have had them emailed too. Pick the one that is most convenient for you.

Next

This blog is not legal advice. It is a diary of my own experience and research. You cannot avoid paying legal duties and taxes on goods imported into Canada. This is not about avoiding taxes or duties. In fact, part of this process is paying them as required directly to a customs agent. This is about avoiding the UPS brokerage fee which is nothing more than a ridiculously large service charge paid directly to UPS for a service you neither asked for nor necessarily require.

Part 5: The Steps

This is part of an ongoing series of posts starting here.
 

The process begins one of 2 ways but proceeds the same way after the initial step:

Method 1: Wait until the shipment gets to your door and the driver asks for the COD amount. Simply refuse to pay the brokerage fee but be willing to pay the required taxes and fees owed to the government. The driver will likely say you can't waive them or some variation of this and might tell you that they will be shipping your goods back to the shipper.

Instruct him that you wish the package to be marked as CLEAR OWN. Tell the driver you will be contacting the UPS office to gather the required information to self-clear the package.

The driver will take the package with him back to the office and may or may not confirm what is going to happen to the package. Be warned that if your package has been transported inland from the point of entry they will likely return the package to the point of entry. I can't see where it is required (possibly because they need to keep it in a bonded facility) but it appears that UPS will insist on this. That's OK apart from the fact it costs you time and we already decided we can give up some time in this process. They will end up driving it back to you anyways so it's their added expense.

Method 2: Go online and track your shipment. When it says that paperwork has been delivered to the point of entry or if the shipment is at or near your local warehouse, call UPS, reference the tracking number and tell them you wish to mark it as CLEAR OWN or "self-clear". They should recognize one of those 2 terms.

If you aren't in or near the port of entry, they will likely try to warn you that you will be required to present yourself at the port of entry to clear the package. This is simply untrue. It is, however, one of the few consistent responses I got from almost all agents I spoke with during this process. Based on my experience, I am willing to bet it is a primary training point provided to agents for these situations. Once you make it clear that no matter what risks are involved you still wish to self clear the shipment, they will ask for some contact information so they can call you when the shipment arrives in Canada and is in their bonded facility awaiting Border Services clearance.

Again, don't forget to ask for a supervisor if you hit a wall.

NOTE: I have not performed the process via method 1 personally. I chose to contact UPS and mark the package CLEAR OWN before the package even got to the port of entry in Canada. In my mind, I was saving the driver a headache he didn't cause.

From here on out, the process is almost identical no matter how you chose to initiate it. If you let the driver come to your house, you need to call UPS for the next step. If you called them before delivery and are waiting for them to call telling you it has arrived, simply wait for them to do so.

Next

This blog is not legal advice. It is a diary of my own experience and research. You cannot avoid paying legal duties and taxes on goods imported into Canada. This is not about avoiding taxes or duties. In fact, part of this process is paying them as required directly to a customs agent. This is about avoiding the UPS brokerage fee which is nothing more than a ridiculously large service charge paid directly to UPS for a service you neither asked for nor necessarily require.

Part 4: Dealing With the UPS Agents

This is part of an ongoing series of posts starting here.

First and foremost, I must stress the importance of polite firmness. You are operating from a position of legal advantage in this process but it doesn't mean they will roll over no matter how you treat them. Don't swear at them or abuse them but don't let them to tell you things that are simply not true either.

Every conversation I had with UPS (except the one time they called me) started with a call to the 1-800 number found on their contact page.

Expect every conversation with UPS to begin with the agent telling you that you cannot do what you are trying to do.

I cannot stress this enough. Every single person I spoke to at UPS was mostly unfamiliar with the process I was trying to perform apart from being sure that it could not be done. They knew exactly enough about the process to be sure of that.

If you aren't in or near the point of entry (the first point the package enters the country), they will insist that you will be required to present yourself in person at that location to clear the shipment. This is simply not true.

Granted, if you are in the port of entry city or one of UPS' Canadian hub cities, this process is much easier and quicker. You have the option of driving to the UPS offices and CBSA locations yourself to pick up and deliver documents.

But, most importantly:
You can pay all government fees outstanding for an international shipment in any CBSA office offering the service of Inland Customs Office. It is legal and in no way restricted. Once all government fees are paid, the shipment can be cleared for delivery by UPS with no need for further CBSA involvement.

If you encounter a UPS agent that simply refuses to budge about self clearing at an inland customs office, politely ask for a supervisor. Once you get to that level, they seem to at least understand the process a bit better.

Next

This blog is not legal advice. It is a diary of my own experience and research. You cannot avoid paying legal duties and taxes on goods imported into Canada. This is not about avoiding taxes or duties. In fact, part of this process is paying them as required directly to a customs agent. This is about avoiding the UPS brokerage fee which is nothing more than a ridiculously large service charge paid directly to UPS for a service you neither asked for nor necessarily require.

Part 3: The Courier Low Value Shipment Program

This is part of an ongoing series of posts starting here.

As most people know, any purchases shipped into Canada from abroad are subject to applicable taxes and duties as well as other possible fees from the government. If you were drive these purchases into the country yourself, you pay these fees at the time you make the border crossing. The goods cannot come in to the country before the fees are paid.

When you make an international purchase and ship it via UPS the customs process is, for all intents and purposes, invisible to you. I mean, you pay an exorbitant brokerage fee but at no point do you deal with the Canadian Border Services Agency (customs). That's because UPS will do that for you as your legal representative AFTER they deliver your goods and collect your money.

At this point, you may well be asking yourself "when did I ask for or allow UPS to act as my legal representative in this customs transaction?" You haven't given them permission and permission is required.

In writing.

Here's how it works:

UPS participates in a CBSA program called LVS or The Courier Low Value Shipment Program.

As a participant in the program, UPS can move cargo inland from the point of entry without it being cleared by Canadian Border Services or paying anything up front. Basically, they can delay the customs clearing process by up to a month while still moving the uncleared cargo inland from the point of entry via bonded trucks and facilities. See point 16 of the LVS program.

By the time your shipment is on the last leg of its journey to you, UPS has already determined the taxes and duties owing and added their brokerage fee to come up with a COD total. This is the amount the UPS driver asks for when he arrives. If you pay them and sign for the shipment, the deal is done. They take payment and, up to 30 days later, act as your legal representative and clear customs on the cargo by paying the taxes and duties owed on your behalf. Barring some bizarre exception, you will never hear from Canada Border Services yourself. 

But wait, didn't I say they needed your written permission to act as your broker for the customs deal? Indeed I did. You give it to them when you sign for the shipment. Remember, at that point, the clearing process hasn't even happened yet.

If you're like me and always assumed that UPS was prepaying taxes and duties and recouping that cost from me, that will be a bit of a surprise to you.

Updated: A reader on reddit.com pointed out that UPS drivers will not take cash so I have changed the line "They take the cash..." to "They take payment..." above.

Next

This blog is not legal advice. It is a diary of my own experience and research. You cannot avoid paying legal duties and taxes on goods imported into Canada. This is not about avoiding taxes or duties. In fact, part of this process is paying them as required directly to a customs agent. This is about avoiding the UPS brokerage fee which is nothing more than a ridiculously large service charge paid directly to UPS for a service you neither asked for nor necessarily require.