Customers Complaining About Vat And Customs Fees

I am wondering how many of you who ship internationally are getting complaints from clients about having to pay VAT tax and customs fees on items that they receive from me. I have had clients demand that I refund them the customs fees that they had to pay. I tried to explain that I have no control over what their country charges them in fees. They want me to ship thousand dollar items regular mail at risk so they don't have to pay the fees. How are you guys handing this in recent times / Thanks Mike

In the 1980s, when I bought large heaps of soul 45s from a seller in Memphis, I'd ask him to understate the price to minimise the UK duty. I did the same when sending items abroad. Would I do it now? No. Would I send anything of value without tracking? No. Play with the prices or use cheap postage and you have no comeback.

Same problem with the US, since the president decided to mess with the de minimus exemption, and increased tariffs on almost everything. I am no longer shipping nor buying from this country.

I sporadically run into this but have put pretty clear language on my listings that all of those fees are the buyer's responsibilities and that the sale value of the item will be put on the customs form. Thankfully my issues with this have been very minimal. Make sure they communicate their "complaints" to you through ebay messaging as there are seller protections for this but definitely use tracking for high value items.

As for the current US situation, I have no idea. I just blocked the US for now…

Well, I purchase from sellers outside of the USA and have yet to have any tariff fees collected.

I have a purchase still sitting in Germany about six weeks because it passed through the US en route to Canada. The import tariff to Canada is zero, but someone at USPS refused to accept it as the ad valorem tariff on goods imported to the US was not prepaid. I don't know much more at present. Ridiculous of course, it's a clerical error but I have to wait for the chaos to settle. As for the OP's situation, I'd say too bad to the buyer, who is responsible for fees arising from import.

Guessing that small-value sendings that are just posted a regular letter/first-class mail are fine. I bought a few stamps from Europe last month and they came through just fine, but I have yet to purchase anything more pricey that would require registered mail. Waiting until this gets sorted out.

I took a chance yesterday and ordered about $50 worth of stamps from a dealer in Denmark. Hope it gets here and doesn't take 3+ months.

Also, I saw a stamp I've been looking for for quite a while from City Stamp Montreal on ebay. I read ebay's notice on top "Due to US customs policies, the buyer of this item will need to pay import fees to the shipping carrier prior to delivery - learn more" . This led me to go to the government's site to something called "Harmonized Tariff Schedule". I can't stop laughing how convoluted/complicated this is. Also, I can't imagine a company that has multiple international sourcing inputs trying to navigate these current rules. My conclusion is that, for now, the US is pursuing some sort of severe business isolation model. Nothing in/nothing out, do it all right here. I'm assuming foreign stamp dealers are seeing big drop-off of US sales.

Similar for certifications, I have some stamps that I would, under normal circumstances, send to the PF, but I won't do so until the normal USA are back hopefully :). I am here in Europe. So I guess the certification companies will also notice this.

I continue to purchase from sellers worldwide, with no difference in customs duties. There are no duties in almost all cases because of free trade applicable to Canadians who purchase stamps, mint or used, collections or FDC's, etc. The Harmonized tarriff code- HS is found in chapter 49 or 94 depending on items in package. After reading and picking the most accurate description and country of manufacture if available, use that code.
HS4907.00.00 for mint or used stamps
HS9404.00.00 for mint or used stamps, covers and collections
In Canada there will be Harmonized Sales tax applicable on the converted Canadian dollar equivilant.
And most countries have free trade and reciprocal deals with other countries and many items are not dutable, such as USMCA or CUSMA and favored nations of manufacture.
By postal shipping. - $0-20 no tax, $20.01 and above HST + $9.95 collection fee paid to post office to collect tax
By courier- $0-$40 no tax, $40 and up- HST applicable + brokerage fee +tax + COD charge if you dont pay before its at door.
And with courier, depending which courier you use and method, basic, expedited, express and item value , their brokerage and fees are overwhelming. So choose wisely before you use them. Sometimes paying a bit more upfront can save.
Example- I purchased a collection from Texas during Canada Post strike. Decided to use UPS basic and it cost me dearly.
Item was $162.47 US + UPS $40.69 =$203.16 US - Charged to credit card with exchange $290.74.
Then UPS tells me that I owe another $124.06Cdn on top of that, comprised of $31.71 Cdn. HST + $80.30 Brokerage fee + HST of $12.05 HST on brokerage fee + a COD fee of just over $8.50 , which if paid in advance will not incur COD fee.
So my total paid for that collection $290.74 + $115.56 was a staggering $406.30Cdn. Oh my. I will try to avoid courier services ever again in my life. The Post Office is the most economical method of shipping at this time.

Canyoneer, just call them, they are a brick and mortar retail store which does normal mail order.

Additionally sales taxes on such mail order is not automatic as with internet orders.

Called City Stamp Montreal (& Vance Auctions for another I'm interested in). Both say no issue / charges with tariffs ... good to know. Hopefully that won't change in the coming days.

I'm a Canadian seller with many US customers (Hipstamp, ebay, our own store). Of course I was very concerned about this but so far so good. All is going through normally to my US customers, whether using regular letter mail or tracked small parcels. No significant difference in speed of processing by USPS from what my customers are telling me. Stamps (using the code 9704.00.00 as mentioned above) are exempt from tariffs, and US CBP is interpreting that correctly (so far). There is definitely more upfront work involved to indicate the tariff code and some extra cost, but manageable.

~Greg

@gmot,
exactly my experience so far as well.
A bit more work preparing shipments as a declaration code is required on all tracked shipments from Canada to the USA.
If anything, I've noticed slightly quicker movement through customs. USPS service times are about the same as pre AUG 29.