Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Tariffs Surprise - Personal Experience
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Old 02-13-2025, 05:02 PM
DAVES DAVES is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PeteF View Post
About a week ago, I had to replace (under warranty) the charger for my Lithium Ion Golf Cart Battery.

The Chinese company was great . They shipped me a new charger from China within two days, and it arrived 4 days after they shipped it ... Air express via UPS.

Surprise, when UPS delivered the charger there was a $15 Tariff due (20% of the $75 charger valuation) and UPS tacked on another $15 service charge.

Obviously I was a bit surprised by this, especially the $15 service charge from UPS on a $15 Tariff.

As the economist and financial people have been saying ... US people and companies pay the tariff when the goods land ... its not a paid by Chinese companies. Additional, nobody has talked about the service charges that the shipping companies are imposing.

Just a little heads up if you are expecting a shipment directly from China.

Please note: I am not saying that Tariffs are good or bad policy - that needs to be decided by people with a lot more Tariff knowledge and experience than I have. This post is meant as just a heads up on what you might experience should you order directly from China.
I do not claim to be a tariff expert. If,it was due to a Tarriff, a bit of a surprise that it got to you from China that quickly. The company that sent you the replacement probably knew and had the necessary paperwork completed so the package was not opened.

Many years ago. Truth many many years ago, I worked for a place that sold lab equipment. Orders going overseas, often customers would tell us to remove stuff with high tarries on it and pack and bill them separate. For example if high tariff on a changer you would ship the cart and ship the charger as a separate item.

We've probably all ordered stuff from China. HUH? Never paid duty.
Freight free. HUH if you need to return it, the shipping is more than what you paid for the item.

Used to deal with it in photo equipment, Stuff would come in the backdoor avoiding the profit of the American distributor. Stuff that needed service. People would get angry when you explained the gray market stuff they bought was not covered by warranty.