I recently ordered two items for my 3. A gearshift came through the USPS without any brokerage charges.
I ordered a Passenger side mount from California. It was to be shipped through Fed Ex and I thought it was going to be a better experience than I have had with UPS. I was pissed to see that Revolution Performance Motorsports ended up using UPS to ship my item. They were cool but had no idea about the fees that were about to be thrown on me once it was "brokered" across the border.
So, check this: the fees for my mount for the brokering, including GST and PST and for the item, were to be $98. WTF! I learned this before the delivery guy showed up and thought that there is something I must be able to do about this. I did some searching on the Net and discovered that YOU can be your own broker and save some money.
What I did was this:
1. Let the UPS people know, once your item has crossed into Canada, that you wish to act as your own broker.
2. Have them email a form that is known as the "Cargo Control Document" to you.
3. Take this to the Canadian Border Security Agency (on Britannia Road at Lester B Pearson) + your invoice + ID and explain that you would like to act as your own
Broker.
4. They will review your docs and charge you and give you back the "Cargo Control Document" that you will send back to UPS (scan and email it) and then UPS will drop the bullshit fees they levy against us.
I went through this process and had my mount in 24 hours once I went out to the CBSA at Pearson AND my final Brokerage charge was only $33! I saved $65
If some of you have done this before, your procedure may have been different. I only got this idea from some dude in Calgary who was pissed about the whole process of being screwed over for fees and took matters into his own hands.
Have a wicked weekend, all!
Marc