Tariffs from German Orders to US

Jan Gullett

Jan Gullett

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I got caught in the tariff changes. An order in process ($92.20 for four rubber e9 parts, the most significant not available in the US) was tariffable.

They were held up by UPS in a warehouse. Forms atesting to their nature (car parts for car > 30 years old) and steel and aluminum content were required by UPS based on Customs and Dept of Transportation paperwork requests. Total tariff costs were $13.20. Dept of Transportation fee was $26.00 UPS charges were $79.18 (Entry Line Charge $15.00, Disbursement Fee $14.00 and Warehouse Fee $50.18).

So the $92.20 order ended up costing $211.18. Delivery time was almost four weeks with all of the paperwork.

I guess it pays place close attention to any notice that tariffs maybe due on an order and favor US sources whenever possible.
 
As some of us have done, if you haven’t paid yet, use the HTS code to figure out what your tariff should be, pay ups via PayPal and then contest the charge stating you were overcharged and the charge should be $x (probably about $30). They won’t respond in 10 days and you’ll get the difference back. Let them come after you later if they so desire, they are acting in bad faith with thise charges
 
I paid UPS via credit card. They required payment prior to releasing the shipment. They later sent me an invoice showing the actual tariff costs which were a few dollars. I guess what you are suggesting is to challenge the credit card charge. Has UPS continued to deliver packages to you after you contested charges on earlier shipments?
 
Well, in contesting you are taking advantage of thejr own inefficiencies. You pay via PayPal, so they get paid and release the package, then afterwards contest the charges. They have 10 days to respond to that contest, which of course they don’t. PayPal refunds you the contested amount since they failed to respond. If they ever file some claim against you, you have a fairly clear documented path of your attempt to put it right. The very fact that they overcharged you before they would release the package and then later sent you an amended invoice is evidence of their poor methodology. I would have two questions of them given that situation
1. If you had contested the amount at the time you were initially charged, would they have amended the invoice immediately, or would the package have been sent back to the shipper because you didn’t pay their (overinflated by their own admission) tariff amount? If so, then you would have been the loser in that situation due to their poor managemnt
2. When they sent you that amended invoice did they send you a refund check with it? If not, they are holding on to your money and should be charged interest on the time they held on to it. If the situation were reversed they would charge you a penalty fee, but I doubt you got back the difference plus a “we’re sorry we were wrong” fee amount.
 
Is it just that most vendors we use, use UPS or is UPS a bad actor in all of this? I like my UPS guy and the guy who runs our local UPS store is a BMW nut but I gave out to both of them for the sake of camaraderie.
 
i found UPS to be a bad actor in this, but its a business decision forced on them by the government, so i don't hate them. i get it, they need to protect themselves and cover their costs / losses. i like my UPS delivery guy, he always comes up while i'm working on the coupe to check out what i've done since the last time ... he takes an interest in the old BMW
 
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