Cartage fees when buying a guitar from Canada to USA? Avoidable somehow?

[Al Varez]

I've gotten hit with a bill for surprise cartage fees when buying an amp from Canada before. Other times I've bought guitar necks and there would be no cartage. At what point do cartage fees kick in? Is it when it's sent via UPS? How much would the cartage fees on guitar be? Is there any way to avoid it, if the sender is sending via UPS?

 

[Suave Eddie]

If you're referring to "brokerage" fees the problem is using UPS as the carrier. I know items sent from the US to Canada using UPS are subject to exorbitant brokerage fees. The best bet is to use ordinary mail service, ie, USPS or CanadaPost.