Why can't (some) customs brokers just do their job right?

Salma

Salma

Well-Known Member
Jan 16, 2009
702
296
63
20
First, let me be clear that I am not talking about the times when mistakes are made by customs brokers. I am talking about not even trying to do the job they are paid to do!

Has anyone ever dealt with UPS - OMD? OMG!!! This is our first and hopefully last time....

Long story short, PARS faxed in on Friday afternoon. Phone call to them confirmed papers received and they will process the PARS right away. My driver's ETA to the border is the following day, on Saturday. No mention that they are not open on the weekend (yes, I should have asked....).
Tracked PARS online on Saturday morning - PARS not on file. GREAT!!
After several emails and phone calls to various UPS offices (including OMD), I find out that OMD is not open on the weekend BUT UPS-SCS does their clearances after hours. Phew! Crisis averted.....
Apparently UPS-SCS has received many calls today (Saturday) that OMD has not bothered to process several of the PARS they received yesterday. Nice......

I am also "babysitting" Livingston this morning as well to get another PARS processed. They only received it yesterday afternoon.........
 
We always find UPS-OMD to be slower than most other brokers. And very difficult to get to answer the phone number. If anyone has a good phone number for them where they actually pick up the phone on a regular basis, could you please post it so I can update my files. We usually call ten times or more and rarely get an answer.
 
UPS...... Oh my. Had a driver fax them years ago, put his crossing time as 7pm. I called them at 4;30 to make sure they got it and they had all the info they needed. They asked me his crossing time I told them he put 7pm. Oh we can't check that until 6;30...... What ????? Call back. At 6;30 it will be too late to get any missing info." Don't you have an after hrs # "?she asks me. Good luck dealing with these people.
 
UPS-OMD IS ONE OF THE WORST CUSTOMS BROKERS. This is tied in with the buster brown division and so the entry's for their own trucks come first. Most shippers receivers use OMD as their broker because they ship lots of small packages with Buster Brown thus eliminating the need for a 2nd customs broker/account. We have gone to charging extra to customers who insist on using these people as it's very time consuming. Salma I feel for you but you should try picking up a shipment in Buffalo and getting UPS-OMD to process a shipment in a timely fashion from their Fredericton office. I have tried to get a supervisor or even higher up but to no avail, THEY JUST DON'T CARE.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Wiley One, Salma and chica123
Ah. I am having the fight of my life with these people today. To top it all off, they flat out lied to me, and when I corrected them, they quickly brushed the topic aside. We are at 5 hours and counting now for a clearance and that was with me calling over 6 times to check, and sending 3 emails.
 
chica123 said:
Ah. I am having the fight of my life with these people today. To top it all off, they flat out lied to me, and when I corrected them, they quickly brushed the topic aside. We are at 5 hours and counting now for a clearance and that was with me calling over 6 times to check, and sending 3 emails.
Click to expand...
You should call EVERYONE listed on the customs invoice and tell all of them that this custom broker is not doing the job they are being paid to do AND that complaints are made on a regular basis about them AND if they expect their freight to get from point A to B, they need to get a different customs broker. A call from the people who are paying the bill might get the ball rolling.
Enough is enough - bad customs brokers should be put out of business. The only way to do that is to let their customers know that they are wasting money by hiring these jokers and they need to be listed on public forums like this. In fact, I am starting a new thread called Bad Customs Brokers.
 
I should re-phrase that - I am going to "request" a new thread.....
 
I have a really easy way to get their attention. I ask them if they always talk to their CUSTOMER that way. When they say WHAT your not our customer. I Simply reply "I am a representative of your customer. I am moving the freight for YOUR customer. Therefore, I expect to be treated as well as you would treat them directly. OR you can deal with them when they call in a few minutes" Usually works ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Igor Galanter, chica123 and Salma
I usually just tell them. No biggie I will put it in bond and you can deal with the fall out tomorrow. They either get it done lickity split or I put it in bond.

My and my drivers time is valuable also and if they want to be dicks then me too.

I have had a couple load brokers get upset over this and I ask them what is cheaper paying 50 bucks an hour for blah blah blah hours( all hours are billable) or bond charges and a re delivery? 99% of the time my way was in their best interest it just takes some explaining.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MikeJr and martinetav
Rob said:
I usually just tell them. No biggie I will put it in bond and you can deal with the fall out tomorrow. They either get it done lickity split or I put it in bond.
Click to expand...
That is exactly what we do - put it in bond. Call the customer and get them to pay the bond fee at the bond shed and let me know when its ready to be picked up - or better yet, you can get it yourself.
Luckily we only have to deal with this once or twice a year. Yes, once it was for UPS-OMD.
 
I used to have an issue with Livingston so i started to bill my customer wait time and they in turn billed Livingston. The last time that crap happened and my driver waited 7 hours at the border while I had to fight to clear a load. I called my customer and stated that the truck was held up at the border and they tried to help me out to no avail. Low and behold the driver ran out of hours in London and the customers line went down. When they billed Livingston for the down time the problems went away and i have had no issues ever since.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom