Quote Originally Posted by RezDog View Post
GSP is a percentage based system, based on the the sale price. They know when there are actually costs involved on their end and then the percentage goes up. So if you examine the percentage after $200 for example, it is higher, because that is when the GST comes into play. They pay it on our behalf and charge us extra for that. Most of the cost is a brokerage fee. If they just send it through and customs catches an applicable tax, they assess a fee and add the tax as well. The penalties from customs is about 1/3 of GSP brokerage fees. GSP's brokerage fees are about 1/2 of what UPS charges. They are all bandits for what charge, some are worse than others. It is a sad racket. Most shippers think all that money goes to pay the Canadian Government. It goes almost exclusively into the pockets of the shipping company.
What you say is a more detailed explanation of what I assumed they would claim to be doing, despite there being no duty or taxes and therefore no brokerage needed on small items under $200, they just pass the border as any other piece of mail. Do you think a foreign company can collect and pay GST? I don't, what is their GST number? I'm just guessing.
What I wanted to point out was the shipping costs being much more (about triple) for the identical item that costs less.