when it comes to brokerage fees? I was quoted $50.00 brokerage fees for a $225.00 part from UPS! Seems outrageous to me. Anyone know of a better option?
Thanks.

and in most cases the brokerage is $5.00 And the express service is about the same delivery time as UPS (but not as fast as FedEx)

A coworker and I both recently bought a set of tires an wheels from Tirerack, and we requested them to ship by FedEx knowing the outrageous amount of brokage fee UPS charges (btdt a few too many times). While mine showed up at my door 9 days later with no additional billing info (no brokage, duties or even GST!!), my coworker got charged someting like $70 plus GST.

We suspect the difference is that I asked Tirerack to ship to my house, whereas my coworker had them ship to the office. Maybe FedEx saw that his shipping address is a commercial address they made sure to charge proper brokage fees and stuff. But who knows.

I'm in Calgary btw.

saying you owe them money... Sometimes UPS/Fedex does that.

That's what I do since Vancouver is an entry port. Takes me some half an hour, and no brokerage fee. Otherwise, do what skapan suggested and use USPS: Canada Post charges $5 flat rate brokerage, instead of a value-based rate courier companies use.

the package is valued at more than $1600CDN, in which case you will have to pay for it before you receive the item.

Then just declare it when you come back in, paying only PST + GST.