Hi everyone. Today I received two books I ordered from d&d beyond's alternate site for people outside the US. I'm in Canada. 🇨🇦 The delivery driver said I needed to pay $28 in duties, which made the price of the books much more expensive. On top of the already expensive exchange rate. These two books cost a small fortune and I simply can't justify ever buying from them again. My question being, is this normal when buying from this company?? I've bought a lot of things online over the years, from various counties, including the US. But I've never had to pay duties before. So why now? Has this happened to anyone else??
Without getting too deep into the whys and wherefores, the international trade dynamics into and out of the US have been significantly altered in the past year or so, which might explain this.
Yes, international trade is a mess right now and there have been recent changes in a global game of Tit for Tat.
In general, books are exempt from tariffs into the US and I did just google and get the result that Canada should also not have a tariff on books shipped from the US. Books are "information" and thus have a special place in various trade law. However, it may be that the shipping label didn't accurately reflect that they were books and thus you were charged.
It's possible that you might be able to apply for a refund from the Canadian government entity that collected that tariff, by explaining that they were books.
US tariffs wouldn’t apply in Canada. They are on goods brought in to the US, not sent out.
However, Canada may have implemented tariffs of its own in response. Which, one could argue is attributable to the US tariffs.
Yes, Canada added retaliatory tariffs, and restarted enforcing a bunch they were being lax with up until recently. If postal is asking or a Duty fee, its because of tariffs.
But if you think this is bad, you should had seen the EU when VAT got extended to digital goods and software, and then put pressure on vendors to start enforcing it. Instant 12-20% increase in total cost. I remember all the way back when Amazon was still a newish thing; and people in the US were losing their minds because they had to start paying sales tax in states that collect it. They said it was going to destroy the entire eCommerce movement, because no one would be willing to pay the on average 3% extra they were supposed to be paying already. So yeah, there was a period of 2-3 years where online shoppers were committing tax evasion. Good times..... good times.....
Hi everyone. Today I received two books I ordered from d&d beyond's alternate site for people outside the US. I'm in Canada. 🇨🇦 The delivery driver said I needed to pay $28 in duties, which made the price of the books much more expensive. On top of the already expensive exchange rate. These two books cost a small fortune and I simply can't justify ever buying from them again. My question being, is this normal when buying from this company?? I've bought a lot of things online over the years, from various counties, including the US. But I've never had to pay duties before. So why now? Has this happened to anyone else??
Without getting too deep into the whys and wherefores, the international trade dynamics into and out of the US have been significantly altered in the past year or so, which might explain this.
You're thinking it's part of Trumps tariffs?
US tariffs wouldn’t apply in Canada. They are on goods brought in to the US, not sent out.
However, Canada may have implemented tariffs of its own in response. Which, one could argue is attributable to the US tariffs.
Yes, international trade is a mess right now and there have been recent changes in a global game of Tit for Tat.
In general, books are exempt from tariffs into the US and I did just google and get the result that Canada should also not have a tariff on books shipped from the US. Books are "information" and thus have a special place in various trade law. However, it may be that the shipping label didn't accurately reflect that they were books and thus you were charged.
It's possible that you might be able to apply for a refund from the Canadian government entity that collected that tariff, by explaining that they were books.
Yes, Canada added retaliatory tariffs, and restarted enforcing a bunch they were being lax with up until recently. If postal is asking or a Duty fee, its because of tariffs.
But if you think this is bad, you should had seen the EU when VAT got extended to digital goods and software, and then put pressure on vendors to start enforcing it. Instant 12-20% increase in total cost. I remember all the way back when Amazon was still a newish thing; and people in the US were losing their minds because they had to start paying sales tax in states that collect it. They said it was going to destroy the entire eCommerce movement, because no one would be willing to pay the on average 3% extra they were supposed to be paying already. So yeah, there was a period of 2-3 years where online shoppers were committing tax evasion. Good times..... good times.....