Example of Fedex Intl shipping

Jerome Fine replies: I though I might add my own experience. In general, I find FedEx to be excellent, if a bit expensive compared to other carriers. But I do get what I pay for. In most cases, I suspect that the cost is much higher when a company who uses FedEx very little and does not have a volume discount sends me something. About 3 months ago, a shipment was sent via two day delivery. It was picked up on Friday and due the following Tuesday by 5:00 P.M. However, when it arrived VERY early Monday morning at the last stop before final delivery, they must have been less than busy and the shipment was scanned in and noted as being TOO early for delivery that day. HOWEVER, by the time Tuesday arrived, it was not found in the warehouse again in time and it did not arrive until 7:30 P.M. First, I was told that FedEx will often delay shipments if they are found to be arriving too soon (1 day instead of 2 days) since the justification is that if the customer is going to start assuming that 1 day delivery is normal even though only 2 days is being paid for, then that is all that will be paid for almost all of the time. Second, I would probably not have complained if I had not seen the note that the shipment was chosen to be delayed - but when FedEx actually chose to delay it on Monday and then did not meet the deadline on Tuesday, I felt a bit more than annoyed. Third, when I did call and talk to a low level (first level) complaint taker, THERE WAS A VERY STRONG ATTEMPT to ignore my complaint and fob me off without any consideration. I think at that point, if FedEx had just apologized, it would have been enough, however, since that was not forthcoming, I ASKED - STRONGLY REQUESTED - FINALLY DEMANDED to talk to a supervisor. If you get that result, be firm but courteous (after all those low level complaint takers are only doing what the VP instructs them to do - but it might be interesting to consider a class action suit if everyone else had the same experience) and insist on speaking to the next level supervisor who was a courteous as can be and IMMEDIATELY agreed to a refund of the shipping charges. Fourth, this was a shipment from the US to Canada. If you are doing this, a "Commercial Invoice" is required (4 copies I am told). However, if the value on the "Commercial Invoice" (NOT including shipping and handling - just the cost of the goods) is below $ US 12.00 or $ Can 20.00, then at least in Ontario and probably all provinces west will classify the shipment as "LOW VALUE" and NOT collect the GST of 7%. This means that the shipment does not need a broker to clear it since the only thing a broker is really needed for is to make the arrangements to pay Revenue Canada the GST (the charge for which is almost always included when sending by air, BUT NOT INCLUDED when sending by ground - and those brokerage charges can be up to five or even tens times the actual GST charge. Note that when sending by ground by USPS, the green CN-22 customs sticker seems sufficient when the value is $ US 12.00 or below. Fifth, it seems to delay shipments above $ US 12.00 a minimum of one day in customs so that the GST can be collected. I saw an article in the paper today that Bush and Canada might consider dropping the border checks (almost a million people a day and 2 billion in goods between Canada and the US). I don't know how much of that trade is business to business, but for goods coming into Canada from the US, every penny of any GST that a business pays right now is never even worth the paper work to collect it if the goods are worth about $ US 1000 or less. For example, on shipments valued at $ Can 1000, the GST at 7% is $ Can 70 and Revenue Canada would, I guess receive that $ Can 70 as soon as the shipment crosses the border. But about 3-6 weeks later, any business which paid that amount would deduct that same $ Can 70 from any GST collected from a Canadian customer. Thus the net result of all the extra handling is that Revenue Canada saves about 1 month of interest on that $ US 70 - or about $ Can 3.00 - hardly worth the paper work to collect it and the company and everyone else probably spends and extra $ Can 10 just collecting and keeping track as well. There was an estimate that retail prices might actually drop a few percent as a result. Sincerely yours, Jerome Fine