I am getting nowhere asking Ship Station for an answer to this question from their live support or from their phone support so I post the question here because this is what they told me to do. Instead of offering customer service they send me here to invite someone else to answer this question. Not impressed. I do not have much faith in a reply here either. Prove me wrong.
In Canada carriers must charge GST/HST on shipping costs whenever a shipment is shipped within Canada. As far as I can tell the UPS API Ship Station is using gives rates without GST/HST and FedEx API gives rates with GST/HST included. Therefore, it would seem when setting up a lowest cost shipping strategy in Ship Station UPS could be chosen over other carriers when in fact the other carrier (FedEx in my example below) is cheaper.
UPS Rate $11.00
Add 13% Tax (Ontario)
With tax $12.43
Assume a FedEx Rate of $11.30 (tax included) for the same shipment.
The UPS rate will be chosen by Ship Station as the lowest cost as it assumes $11.00 is cheaper than $11.30, but in fact with tax the UPS rate would be $12.43. Ship Station is not comparing Apples to Apples and customers are paying more than they should.
Ship Station needs to find a work around for this by adding GST to UPS shipping rates or use an API that gives comparable rates to other carriers.
Unless I am wrong, this means the Ship Station product is a poor choice for anyone in Canada expecting to choose the lowest costs carrier using a shipping strategy.
Check the rates in your software and the UPS rates do not include the tax and FedEx does. Therefore, your software is wrong. You need to either add 13% to the UPS rate or take it away from the FedEx rate in order to have a proper comparaison.
