Some reviews are simply a story of experience… and well folks, this is one of them.

It all began when I had a few computer parts that a Canadian acquaintance wanted to purchase. After making the agreement, we quickly arranged him to send me a money order while I was to ship the parts to his address. Sounds simple, right? Wrong.

Now bear in mind this is the first package I’ve ever shipped on my own. Being 18-years-old and inexperienced in this area I really should have taken a look at reviews for this service before falling in the same trap as everyone else. Thing was, I figured it’d be a piece of cake to get it there and I should just give it a whirl without wasting time. Boy was I horribly… you guessed it, wrong.

I boxed up the package one morning before going to work, and promptly drove over to my local UPS Store. I must say that they are very quiet, cozy, air conditioned, and contain employees that are very nice to a paying customer. Keep in mind I said a paying customer… not one with a complaint.

I gave them the address to Canada, my information, and signed a form. All in all the total cost came to a little over $14.00 to ship an almost 6 pound, large package. Not bad! Along with that, before signing the form I was vaguely notified that the Canadian recipient may have to pay some Canada taxes and obligations. No amount was ever given so I figured… how much could it be, right?

Along with the notification, I was asked roughly how much the parts were worth. Since I thought it was for insurance issues and that it might obligate him to take care of the package better I told him the retail price of the parts, $200.00. In reality, I was only selling them for $50.00. Little did I know this large amount that I supplied them would come back and bite me in the rear end later.

After paying the shipping cost, they asked for a phone number verification. Something I didn’t have or knew I had to supply… great! This began a series of painstaking measures, and it was beyond any simple annoyance. For my convenience they kept the package at their store and told me to call back later with a phone number. I did promptly, got a tracking number, and all was well.

A week later I get a message from the Canadian saying that he received the package. I must say delivery time was prompt from Indiana to Ontario, but my high thoughts of UPS were about to take a nose dive.

Along with the message were details that the Canadian had been gone when the package had been delivered. A sign had been left on his door including the amount of tax he needed to pay on the package. How much was it for you ask?

$75.00. Seventy-five dollars. SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS!

Just to receive the package, he was to pay this enormous amount! I was dumbfounded. Did I remind you the amount was $75.00?

Of course the Canadian refused to pay the amount, which I really can’t blame him for. For someone to pay $50.00 for a box of computer parts, then having to pay an amount of $75.00 just to receive it, along with shipping costs over $14.00… they’d have to be insane to do so!

After a week of sitting on the problem hoping it would just disappear, I receive a monotone message from the UPS Store where I had the package shipped. Turns out since the Canadian denied the package UPS had it shipped to a main store location in Toronto awaiting further instruction.

I called the UPS Store back, now as a customer with a complaint. This time, they weren’t as nice. Not nice at all. Instead of explaining and apologizing for the ridiculous hidden fee, they tried to belittle me on technical facts asking questions such as, “Well why did you say the package was worth $200.00 when you were selling them for $50.00?” They also had the nerve to say that it was impossible for the Canadian to not know of such taxes on packages sent from the USA. Furthermore they expected me to go through the paperwork that I signed. Yeah… like I was really going to sit there reading vague fine print for an hour during their busy business hours when I was on the brink for being late to work.

After being borderline insulted by customer service, I was notified that I had a mere 24 hours to make my mind up to either destroy the package or have it shipped back to my home. Not having a way to contact the Canadian in less than a day, I had no choice to pay yet another over $17.00 to have the package shipped back. Thanks UPS!

All in all, that was about the worst experience with a business that I’ve ever had. Even when UPS knew that the Canadian tax was calculated from the value of the package, they failed to tell me. Instead they just chose to be vague which utterly destroyed my hopes of getting rid of my spare, high performance computer parts for a decent price.

For even more salt in the wound, if you browse other reviews you’ll find the same complaint over and over again. What an outrage! Just how pathetic is that?!

The bottom line is that I spent over $30.00 for nothing having to deal with pathetic customer service. The only positive thing I got out of this ordeal was the lesson learned never to ship anything internationally through UPS. I’ll be taking my business elsewhere.

Recommended: No