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.
Not sure how it is in the US. But here in the UK there’s two ways a business can export.
1: They pre-clear the customs duty and include it in the sales total (so it’s like paying sales tax at the checkout, except it’s the pre-cleared duty fees). Then the parcel has a nice duty paid stamp and goes straight through customs (I guess unless customs are suspicious and check into it).
2: They just charge you the item price with no tax applied. In which case you need to pay local tax and duties applicable once the product arrives. Here it’s a bit different. They will hold it at the local depot and you can either go there and pay + collect, or you can pay online and it will be rescheduled for delivery once you pay.
As others have said, it’s not a scam. There’s no requirement for a business to do option 1, and it’s likely only viable for large businesses to register and have someone/software that knows the various duties required for various countries.
I’ve ordered from newegg and B&M in the past for example, and in both cases the items were pre-cleared and arrived promptly without any hassle.
Maybe there’s something similar for imports into the US too?