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

(oldvcr.blogspot.com)
320 points goldenskye | 5 comments | 15 Nov 25 23:55 UTC | HN request time: 0.6s | source
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celeritascelery ◴[16 Nov 25 01:14 UTC] No.45941915[source]▶
I had this happen to me on an order from Sweden. The order was about $450 + $50 shipping. I used an online tariff calculator and it said it should be 15%. So I was expecting ~$70. A few days before it is supposed to arrive UPS sends me a $242 bill for “tariffs, customs, and brokerage fees”. That basically made it 50% more expensive, but it was either pay it or loose the item. A month later they sent me an invoice that claimed the item cost $850. No idea how that happened. I am too scared to order anything from the EU anymore.
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rabf ◴[16 Nov 25 02:25 UTC] No.45942237[source]▶
Its funny how little US citizens know about this, meanwhile in the rest of the world we have been paying import duties our entire lives. When an item is posted abroad forms have to be filled detailing the sender, the nature of the goods and the value. Some sellers willl bend the law for you and decalre the value of the goods to be lower than what you actually paid if you ask nicely. The main danger being that if the parcel is lost the sender will lose out on any insurance claim.

The other option is to prepay tarrifs during the purchase of an item. Fedex and DHL usually offer this service which includes epedited customs clearance.

replies(2): >>45942544 #>>45942722 #
1. Terr_ ◴[16 Nov 25 04:18 UTC] No.45942722[source]▶
> Its funny how little US citizens know about this

Is it really? It sounds like you're implying it's some kind of woeful ignorance, but I say it's perfectly reasonable:

1. Each US state is already in a open-borders zero-tariff framework with all other states, which covers a very large portion of what people purchase.

2. Until recently, most individual consumers didn't need to think about tariffs on international goods, since most purchases were <$800 and covered by the de minimis rule. (Which AFAICT was in place for ~80 years.)

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2. 15155 ◴[16 Nov 25 07:00 UTC] No.45943316[source]▶
> AFAICT was in place for ~80 years

Sure, but it wasn't $800 for 80 years: the $800 change happened in 2016... the threshold was $200 from 2016-1994, starting at $1 (and tapering up) in 1938.

replies(1): >>45943803 #
3. Terr_ ◴[16 Nov 25 09:29 UTC] No.45943803[source]▶
So it looks like there are 4 distinct spans in the past [0] where a nominal value kept getting decayed by inflation. To put them here with inflation-adjusted 2025 dollars in parens:

* 1938 to 1977: $1 ($22 -> $5.43)

* 1978 to 1992: $5 ($25 -> $11.50)

* 1993 to 2014: $200 ($446 -> $272)

* 2015 to 2025: $800 ($1087 -> $800)

* 2026 to ????: $0 ($0 -> $0)

The point I'd like to make from this is that Americans under 50 weren't adults-with-money in time to ever encounter those older more-restrictive spans. If you're under 28, the highest-exemption is the only situation they've ever known until now.

[0] https://www.brookings.edu/articles/small-parcels-big-problem...

4. lesuorac ◴[16 Nov 25 14:52 UTC] No.45945537[source]▶
I disagree, it's woeful ignorance (and sometimes even willful).

When Amazon and all first came out they didn't charge sales taxes and states were pretty unhappy because largely nobody was paying the sales taxes they were supposed to on their tax returns.

replies(1): >>45948804 #
5. Terr_ ◴[16 Nov 25 21:58 UTC] No.45948804[source]▶
Maybe I just have low standards like "never click the link from the Nigerian prince who needs assistance moving funds", but this again seems like a "they never encounter it so why would they know it" situation, judged harshly because of fundamental attribution error. [0]

* Most Americans have no other encounters with "use taxes" in their day-to-day lives.

* It's natural to assume the vendor (or new Internet Computer Thing) is continuing to handle it, especially when that's how all their regular purchases work.

* The tax functionally didn't exist for many decades, at least when the retailer had no in-state presence.

> states [...] tax returns

22.7% of Americans in states without income tax: "The what?" :p

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error