Holy f*** – I just realized what you meant there. I just received a parcel with Behlen dye stains from the US. Goods were $60, shipping $27 (ouch) but what I didn't expect was the $43 fee from UPS I just had to pay at the door. I really like it in Canada but this is just ridiculous – how are you supposed to run any kind of business when shipping and fees are always higher than the stuff you buy?!

Also strange is the fact that the stuff I ordered from NELO in Portugal recently didn't cost me extra (that was UPS too)…
this is insane

The UPS 'brokerage charges' are added on to the cost of UPS Ground shipping, at the recipient's door. UPS doesn't make this at all clear to the shipper in the US - when I first encountered this, some years ago, a number of shippers expressed surprise. UPS also does their best to confuse the issue of sales taxes (GST,HST, etc), duty (not applicable on US-made goods under NAFTA, and brokerage charges. The brokerage charges are a naked ripoff, totally unrelated to the actual cost of providing the service - as evidenced by the fact that USPS/CanadaPost do the same brokerage job for a flat rate of $7 while UPS charges ~$35 minimum or a percent of the shipment value (10%,15%??), whichever is greater. (Because it is more work for the UPS computer to talk to the CanadaCustoms computer if the shipment is more valuable??). It is all very typical of the 'we charge it because we can' corporate attitude nowadays.
FedEx is even worse -parcel is delivered to your door with a smile ("No charges, sir") and 10 days later you receive in the mail a legalistic demand for payment IMMEDIATELY of whatever fees they feel like imposing.

Basically, any enterprise in the US that is interested in doing business with Canadians will ship via USPS. Some of the larger corporations (LL Bean, LandsEnd, etc) have warehousing and shipping arrangements that let them avoid padding the cost with UPS etc charges.

If you are using one of the more expensive UPS services ('Air/Global/whatever') the 'brokerage charges' are wrapped into the shipping cost and don't appear as a separate item. This may explain your Nelo experience.

Also, the 'trigger point' for charging tax on USPS/CanadaPost shipments seems to vary depending on the season and parcel volume - sometimes a parcel will 'slip through'.....which NEVER happens with UPS ("Gotta get that $35, sucker!").
BTW, the dyes from Wood Essence are excellent! ;-)