I bought some hockey sticks recently. Free shipping over $300. UPS made me pay $50 on delivery for “Duties or taxes are due on this package.” The seller did not list the potential expenses outside of what was paid, and said they have no control over this.
Has anyone else run into this (with anything)?
I have never paid duties as a direct fee for anything not purchased in an airport. Shipping was Canada to U.S.
UPS commonly scams people with duty-related fees.
The most common scam is that there might be a 5$ duty owed on the package so they pay that, then throw on a 30$ convenience fee and a 5$ payment surcharge etc…
It’s always technically possible to dodge these fees if you’re willing to go through crazy hoops (i.e. sometimes you can pre-register that duty will be owed and arrange the duty payment to come directly from you - sometimes you need to actually go to the port to collect the package).
In most cases I’ve seen they sneak language into your receipt signature that might prevent you from contesting the duty after receiving the package but they can also asd on surcharges if they need to redeliver or reschedule a package.
… TL;DR it’s a fucking bullshit charge that you may be able to get out of if you’re willing to fight it but they purposefully bullshit bill you an amount small enough that it’s fucking annoying but not “This is worth a day of small claims court bullshit to fight” amount.
I’ve never seen someone who doggedly protested those charges fail to get them reversed but most people give up (including me usually - I fought it once when they tried to slap 140CAD bullshit fees on a package worth 15CAD with a duty fee of 5 cents. That one I fucking fought and threatened to just refuse receipt of.
This is funny, because as a Canadian, we experience this on everything above $100 that we order from the US. Either find a Canadian supplier or get ready to pay hundreds in duties. I just paid over $100 to ship a $200 package that’s arriving today.
Today I learned.
Do you usually know how much it will be? My shipment was just a surprise $50 with zero indication that there would even be a charge, let alone the amount.
Unless there’s a prepaid duty program like eBay, Amazon, and Rockauto has, nope, it’s a suprise. I got an email from Fedex saying I owe $50 before my package can be delivered. Not much choice in the matter as they have your goods.
If they were made in China and imported via Canada you would still have to pay tariffs on them, but just guessing there
Well, what do the duty declaration and duty tracking sticker say?
At least over here there ought to be one that tells you what the seller declared the goods and their value as, and another that tells you either the specifics of the duty fee calculated, or one with a large (over here) letter+number combination that tells you which standard category this falls under (usually for duty free packages).
50 on 300 is is ~17%, so that’s a pretty normal duty depending on the goods and which country they originate from.
No sticker. No receipt included in the box. I’ve ordered sticks from the company before… Although those might have come from China. I have no idea. Seems like they should list that on the site though…
So you imported hockey sticks and are confused as to the duty?
Correct. I’ve purchased other items from Canada, and hockey sticks from other companies in the past. I’ve just never been charged for duties. With the listed free shipping, it seemed very odd.
I’ll look into it. I wouldn’t have paid, but my wife answered the door. COD seems like a scam that ended in the 90’s.
that ended in the ’90s*
