Just to add my own datapoint as I got the FedEx bill today:
HST: $16.31
Clearance Entry Fee: $25.50
Advancement Fee: $10
HST on ADV/Ancillary Service Fee: $4.62
Grand Total: $56.43
(I’m Ontario-based, fwiw)
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I’m in BC, Canada, and just received mine today by UPS. Had to pay “importer charges” by credit card before I was given the box. Total was $25.50:
- $15.00 GST on declared value of $125.00
- $10.00 brokerage fee
- $0.50 GST on brokerage fee
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Hi, Roland:
The only solution I’ve ever found to get around the vagaries of Customs is to have a package marked as a gift or review copy.Unfortunately, neither applies here.
All told, I ended up being charged $40.74 for 2 units. Much happier with that outcome, so a deeply heartfelt thanks to jesse and crew for their consideration to us!
Now to unlearn several decades of very bad habits…
This is a type of extortion, UPS charges a percentage of the value of the shipped item. $95 for what?
Darn, perspectives are scewd it seems.
When this happened to me (from KBDfans to Germany), the package just reached me at home, which was strange, since the sender had truthfully declared the value at 70 sth. USD on the package. Around 20 to 25 EUR is the threshold above which one has to pay import tax here.
The second week after that I got an invoice from FedEx.
I kindly made them aware of what just had transpired. Customs had invoiced me for import and trusted FedEx with that invoice to me. FedEx then had without informing me let alone having my authorisation in my name accepted that invoice and paid my dues. And then they wanted me to pay them for their unlawful services against me.
I then offered them to still pay them back, what customs wanted from me, if they’d send an accordingly corrected invoice.
They answered, they didn’t have the means to create a different invoice and asked me to please just pay what I offered. I did, and that was it.
Off-topic:
While I’m already posting here, I just ordered something from Victoria, BC. Just now it’s in transit after having been processed in Victoria and in Richmond. Does anyone by any chance know, if Canada Post sends shipments for Europe off-country from Richmond? Or will it go somewhere else within Canada to leave from there? [Edit: It left from Richmond.]
I mean, I’ll learn soon enough, I guess, due to tracking. I’m just a little impatient on this one. 
FedEx tends to deliver packages, then send a demand for payment of outrageous customs clearance fees after the fact. UPS instead holds packages hostage and won’t hand them over unless their outrageous fees are paid up front. I’m not sure which practice I despise more.
To reiterate more concisely, they act regarding customs on your behalf as the importer without your mandate, without your knowledge even.
They should cave in, when you make known that you grasp that concept. Or latest, when you suggest to get the lawyers involved.