UPS South Africa - hidden charges and terrible communication

I will not use UPS again.

I paid shipping when I bought an item from Europe, then UPS hit me with another R863.90 on arrival in South Africa. I understand that duty and VAT can apply, but UPS then added its own brokerage and disbur*****t charges on top - and getting a proper breakdown out of them was like pulling teeth.

I had to send repeated follow-ups just to get confirmation of payment, release, delivery details, and finally the invoice breakdown. Replies were slow, incomplete, and often ignored the actual question.

What should have been a simple courier delivery turned into an opaque, overpriced mess. The shipping price you see upfront means very little once UPS starts adding extra fees later.

For comparison, I’ve used FedEx repeatedly from the US and Europe, and their charges have been far clearer and more reasonable.

Poor service, poor communication, and excessive add-on charges. I won’t be using UPS again.