When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

The tariffs and enforcement policies have been changing rapidly with little notice.

This has been terrible for anyone who has to deal with slow shipments from other countries. When things were changing rapidly you could place an order and by the time it arrive the tariff could be something entirely different.

It was awful. I know a lot of people who carefully calculated expected tariffs on a purchase and then got smacked with a much larger number later when it arrived.

There has also been chaos in trying to remediate tariff mistakes. If you got charged the wrong amount, good luck contacting anyone to get it fixed. They’re so slammed with communications and complaints that it’s just not happening.

So this snide dismissiveness is just wrong.

One company I contracted with had a few TEUs that they just decided they didn't want to import (some branded boxes, double-walled bottles) after they were in flight. The lead time was a few months on what they wanted and after they'd ordered but before the containers arrived the tariffs went into place.

I haven't talked to them in months, but I wonder what happens there. Do you just let the product sit in a shipyard somewhere? Surely you have to pay for storage like the guy in the OP. But then what? What if you just don't pay it at all? They were definitely the kind of people to just be like "fuck it, your cargo containers now". What I learned from them was that very often if you don't like what someone is charging you, you can just not pay them anything and let them keep whatever of yours they have (which they can't really do anything with).

I keep thinking that some place has to have a lien against the company in some way, but in practice they just take whatever they've got and leave. I'd never have the balls to try, myself.