The amount of BS UPS will put you through - i'm in Toronto, and i've ordered knives from Joe at Sugi. The first one, even though I paid all the fees, the package was marked as "Not paid for" and the driver wouldn't deliver it. He circled back around the next day, same story. Because they only "attempt to deliver" 3 times before sending it to a warehouse that you need to drive to to pick it up, I literally had to sit in the lobby of my building for the entire 3 hour window just waiting for the guy to show up, and I caught him dropping off yet another "Unable to deliver" slip.
Second time, the exact same thing happened, but I knew the drill so I had to wait for him again in the lobby for another 2 hours.
Thankfully I've moved to a place with a concierge now so it's a lot easier to deal with, and i've gotten a couple shipments through UPS. One was without any issue, the other was a nightmare. I told UPS I was going to take a package through customs myself. They never provided me with the paperwork to do so (which is SUPER Illegal) and then sent it through customs anyway and sent me a bill for over 100 dollars in brokerage fees. The seller for both was from here, and I made the mistake of not giving him instructions of which type of mail to send it through, because the first time he sent it UPS expedited which meant it dodged all the brokerage fees (by no fault of his, he was sympathetic and very understanding and I will 1000% buy from him again if he happens to be selling something I want)
All in all, I'm seriously cautious when ordering from abroad. I've put a hold on buying anything at all internationally until I can put together a "proper guide" on what shipping provider/type to use when sending something my way. Screw UPS, they're rat bastards and even if they have decent tracking it's not nearly worth the hassle to deal with them.
Anyway thanks for coming to my rant tedtalk