Who Pays Again?

I was looking at an item I was thinking of purchasing, and I wrote the seller, who is in the United Kingdom, to ask about shipping fees. The person could not give me a quote.

"Thanks for your message.

Yes, shipping will be from the UK. Unfortunately, we are not told about the tariff charges. Once the item has been shipped, DHL will be in contact regarding the payment of these tariffs. We are advising our customers to check their government website under importing goods.

Thanks,"

I looked up the item at some place called flexport and it looks like the tariff on this $400 item would add an additional $104 on top of the regular shipping fees from the company.

COST BREAKDOWN

Base cost: $400

Total duties: $69

Harbor Maintenance Fee (HMF): $1

Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF): $34

Landed Cost: $504 (plus seller shipping fees)

And I would be paying that. Not some corporation. Me.

Don't let certain people fool you when they say you and I aren't paying the tariffs. We are. They know it. If you're buying direct from overseas, expect surprises on your bill. Ask first if you can and walk away if answers are vague. That's what I am doing.

***

I also looked at this website, tariffcheck.org for the UK imports, and this whole tariff business is such a FUBAR I don't think anyone actually knows what is what.

The only government website that came up is so messed up that I just looked at it briefly and moved on. What I wanted to buy is not worth wading through pages and pages of BS to try to figure out a final cost.