The reality of the tariffs hits home
14Today the import tariffs hit me explictly and directly. If you want to see the details of how my case was handled, read on. I ordered a couple things from a company in the UK. The order was shipped by DHL. I didn’t realize one item was made in China. The item cost $82.90 and the tariff was $31.40 (37.5 percent), plus $1.31 for regulatory fee, plus DHL charged $17 for tariff processing. The total is more than half the cost of the item itself. I’m not happy, but I had no choice other than to not pay, have the parcel returned to the seller, and presumably, they wouldn’t refund the $44 freight cost and may make me pay any return shipping.
So… don’t forget that even if you order something from another country, check/ask for the origin of each item you buy because that’s what the tariffs are based on, not the country it’s shipped from. I would especially caution people who back projects on sites like Kickstarter where many, many things are manufactured in China and Hong Kong. (I’ve backed three projects that are somehow going to have to pay tariffs.)
Here’s the invoice if you want to see the details. I could blame the goat for this, but the blame really belongs elsewhere.
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Wow, that sucks. Also, if that $17 processing fee isn’t something the government is requiring: screw DHL for adding insult to injury with that huge additional fee.
@gnafuthemeh I haven’t seen anything anywhere that would even suggest that there is a government-required processing fee. Of course, I could have missed it. I suppose I can see there being some fee, but not this much, because DHL says that they pay the tariff then send an invoice to the receiver to have them reimburse DHL. I don’t know what would happen if I didn’t pay it and they sent the parcel back. Maybe DHL would still get stuck with some sort of fee.
The worst part is that this was a surprise to me when I got the text and email. The seller didn’t say anything about the country of origin of the two items I ordered. (The second one was apparently made in the UK, so no new tariffs on it.) The seller didn’t even mention the possibility of the new tariffs being applied to my order, but in all fairness, I should have thought of that too. Hey, at least it wasn’t 145 percent.
@gnafuthemeh @ItalianScallion USPS adds $9ish as a collection fee and you have to go pick it up when you pay the tariff. I am too lazy to go check the exact amount.
It is going to be ugly. With the rules changing every other day, it will matter when the package hits customs. I don’t think the bill changes once it is set. I have seen several articles about how much more money has been received from tariffs this year compared to last year.
Customs attaches a bill to the package and expects payment. The delivery company is responsible for collecting and sending the payment. If it is not collected or returned, I believe the delivery company is billed.
@gnafuthemeh @speediedelivery
Couldn’t agree more. Not only are small businesses going to be hit hard–an aquaintance just got an invoice from Fedex for $1000 on $4000 of parts–but it’s getting to ordinary individuals like us and sometimes after an order has been placed. There are going to be more and more pissed off people who are going to complain to their representatives in Congress. It’s no wonder that some of those reps aren’t having “town halls” in their districts anymore.
That sucks, sorry!!
I had that happen before tariffs, where I ordered from a UK company that after further investigation was a front for a Chinese company (showed in item quality too)
SO I agree 1000000%
if you cannot find country of origin, don’t buy