A friend recently ordered a pillow from Turkey. Unexpectedly, after the pillow arrived he got a bill with an extra charge. It was for the tariff. He was surprised but probably shouldn’t have been because under the law, it is normally the importer who is responsible for paying any tariffs on such goods. In this case, he was the importer.
Adding insult to injury, however, also on the bill was a service fee from FedEx. While the tariff itself was only $2.19, FedEx charged him a total of $17.19.
*MOUSE PRINT:
*MOUSE PRINT:
The tariff bill was so much higher than the actual tax because they added their own junk fee — a “disbursement fee”.
Thanks for nothing, FedEx.
The temporary 10% tariff that was imposed after the Supreme Court struck down the president’s wide-ranging tariffs expired on July 24 but was quickly replaced with new tariffs.
So beware, purchasing goods directly from overseas may come with a costly surprise … or two.
My friend got charged a $60 tariff fee from FedEx on a $90 bike part from Germany. I told him to contest it and not pay. This is NOT FAIR, and we should not stand for it.
I’m guessing what happened here is that FedEx paid the tariff on the recipient’s behalf and is now collecting the tariff plus a fee for having fronted the money to cover the tariff.
I understand the concept of what they’re doing, but $15 is insane. Ultimately, they don’t want to be a bank fronting a bunch of money in advance for people to pay tariffs. I don’t know what the better answer is, maybe just hold the package until the recipient hops on the website and pays the tariff.
I can understand the FedEx doesn’t want to feel like a bank , but I believe they are abusing the system and benefitting greatly by charging what they are. That should absolutely be looked into as gouging or fraudulent. It should also be investigated to find out if that is money they must pay taxes on. If they are not, it should be considered unfair enrichment, fined, and moving forward it must be accounted for as taxable income.
I’ve had multiple charges like these from FedEx, plus a $60 one for “storage” while the package was cleared. If you don’t pay, you get a warning letter that it will go to collections. I have paid all of mine, but I’ve kept all invoices in case there is an opportunity in the future to contest these. If I get another, I will contest it.
So it seems to me that only FedEx is doing this to customers?
So these charges come after you pay for the item? Can you return the item?
That is what I would do, I don’t want a surprise like that/
Marion… the cost to ship a pillow back to TURKEY would be prohibitive.
There is something similar happening with packages sent to the EU. They are charging €3 per small packet but depending on the country a fee to collect that €3. It is a big mess, not surprisingly, and is making shipping there prohibitive in a lot of cases.
Ok…I’m going to get political now. None of this should have ever happened. Especially after SCOTUS struck down the tariffs. [edited] If you want to get mad at someone, try the person who thinks you have plenty of money to pay for this stuff.