Andrey K.

I'm writing this specifically over experience with UPS Russia, but probably it's transferrable to branches in other countries as well. They've had scheduled and promptly cancelled two consequent deliveries based on a fact that the brokerage fee haven't reached certain department within UPS. A side note - I've paid that fee using wire transfer within the country on morning of a working day, which absolutely means that money will not reach a destination account within same day only if payer's bank held the transaction for some reason. For two days, I've been woken at 6 AM with texts saying 'your box is on the way' and both times drivers was unaware that the payment for their broker services have been reached UPS (opposite to what I'm being told by their support service). Taking extra fee for the brokerage service itself with taxable stuff (approx $50 vs approx $20 for non-taxable contents) is probably ok, but fscking everything up in continuance is something I've not seen in a long time, including carriers famous for for their incompetence.

In short - you should avoid UPS for all non-standard cases and take a very great measure choosing them for unimportant or time-insensitive stuff. I've wasted $150 (broker fee plus non-refundable cost of delivery) for a relatively small package and the mess they could easily avoid if someone could have at least tried to bind processing flows of the accounting and delivery departments together. Again, avoid if any comparable alternative is available.