My letter to my MP. I didn’t vote for him, but he is still technically my representative.
Dear Honorable member of parliament Bob Saroya,
I don’t usually have any faith that my elected representative has any chance of actually acting favourably on my behalf, but I will temporarily play optimistic.
Are you familiar with the customs brokerage scam that UPS and some of the other shipping companies are running on Canadians? DHL and Canada Post also play this game, but not with the same zeal and shear exploitation of UPS.
The basic idea behind this scam is that UPS has figured out how to collect from both the shipper and the receiver. They collect once explicitly from the shipper in the USA, who may even think that they have paid all the required fees to ship the package, and then they collect again from the receiver by claiming that they have provided a “customs clearing service”.
Here’s an example of the fees that they try to impose to give the Canadian taxman their cut:
UPS has imposed a $61.95 fee to collect this $1.97 for the Canadian government. They bill this extortion as a “service”, so the taxman gets an additional $8.05. Sweet deal for UPS and the taxman, but not for your constituents.
Is it legal for UPS to levy an effective fee of $70 to collect $2 for the government? Are their any federal government regulatory agencies that Canadians can complain to for charges like this? I’m used to being screwed by the Canadian revenue service, but I imagine even those cold hearted bastards would find this objectionable.
Sincerely,
Peeter Joot
[full address and postal code]