Itās obviously to RMās benefit to be able to do this, they need every parcel they can get these days, so I guess if this is all true then anyone whoās previously used a carrier because theyāre cheaper will be crowding their door! (And yes, bloody 30p a parcelā¦!!!)
Iām hoping that over the next few days, and if Folksy are going to comment next week as Sasha said, this might all come a bit clearer and may not be quite as awful as its looking at the moment. Iām seeing lots of businesses announcing theyāre no longer posting to the US already, and whilst 10% extra to pay isnāt great, it feels liveable with (if we can make it work for our businesses technically at this end).
With luck enough voters in America will get fed up with Trumpy and his waffling about running for a 3rd (illegal, but what the hey) term and vote him out (if his all-burger diet doesnāt get to him first)ā¦
this is all addling my brainā¦
sooā¦ am I as a shop ownerā¦liable to pay this 10% and who do I pay it to?..or will folksy take it at the checkout and pay Royal Mail for me?
ā¦Do I need to warn customers that they will have to pay 10% extra?..
I only send small angel paintings on paper to a long time collector and they go just as a letter in a flat hard backed envelopeā¦all my other items are UK only but my collector wanted to continue to buy from meā¦I need to explain to her what is liable to happen.
Anyone know the answers?
So thereās quite a few unknowns at the moment Brendaā¦ or maybe that should be āunsureāsā - but this is what I know so far:
If youāre sending something to a customer in the US, that item youāre sending will be liable for customs duty from August 29th - that fee is payable by the customer. At the moment, anything valued under $800 is exempt, but Trump has swept that all away and now anything at any value is liable to his charges.
So yes, your customers will be paying more (unless you decide to absorb the cost yourself and lose out financially). The plan is that we as sellers collect that 10% payment from the customer at the point of purchase - that way they know what they have to pay before they buy (the 10% is the cost of the item AND the postage). Anything that is sent without duty paid will not be forwarded (as I understand it) and is likely to just get returned to sender. This applies to anything that arrives in the US from August 29th - so even if you send it before, if it arrives there on that date or after, it will be liable to customs.
It doesnāt matter what shape or size or weight the item is, everything is liable.
Itās likely this will cause some chaos for the US postal service, so thereāll probably be post delays too, especially at the beginning.
Hopefully Folksy will be able to come up with something - ideally an add-on to the cart that means they can show the customer what they owe, add it onto the price paid, and forward it to you. As far as I know, itās looking like Royal Mail will then collect that fee from you when you purchase the post label.
Thatās kind of it in a nutshell - but thereās a lot of questions at the moment because Trump has done this all very quickly (as is his style), and everyone is in a bit of confusion.
Sarah has explained it so much better than I could have Brenda.
For your angel painting collector, if she buys 1 from you, and pays the postage youāve got listed then sheāll have less than Ā£1 more to pay once the duty is applied so I donāt think thatāll put her off at all.
As Sarah said, there will hopefully be an add on to the cart meaning the customer can see the extra theyāll need to pay you for the 10% duty at checkout.
You can add a message explaining at the top of your shop page or contact your buyer directly as I know she loves your work and is a huge fan of your angels Iām sure she wonāt mind you doing that.
Lou x
The easiest business decision Iāve ever made was to stop selling to the US. Iāve removed it from all my ecommerce sites because untangling those ridiculous US regulations is like trying to read IKEA instructions in the dark, backwards, while on fire.
RM already have a āduty paidā option available on their Business Account holder system, which they set up initially for EU posting since Brexit - theyāve now just added the US to that system, which will have been straightforward to do, Iād think. I guess theyāre now doing the same kind of programming in the back end of Click and Drop and their other postal channels to make the same thing available to their non-Business Account customers - hurrah!
that wonāt work for me Sarah @PhotoFairytales I weigh my item and stick postage stamps on the envelopeā¦so would not be able to pay RM either online or at the post officeā¦??? So technically my customer will have paid the tax and I will have it in my paypal account. I am no longer registered as self employed ( all legal and above board) and I just use regular post to send a painting to my groupieā¦
Would I look ok in an orange prison boiler suit?
So none of that equates for me..!!
Thank you @SashaGarrett, look forward to hearing from folksy on this.
And thanks to everyone who has explained it, I am going to wait and see what Folksy say next week before I take the postage off, it sounds as though we may be able to continue selling to the US if our customers are happy to pay the extra 10% and if itās possible to somehow qdd that on at checkout stage.
When I asked at my post office she said nothing is finialised yet but she said it would also apply to gifts! And a few of my US friends said that they would pay a duty their end!
Surely that canāt be right!
Has anyone any more info on this please?
Think Iāve found the post - looks like theyāre saying Royal Mail wonāt be able to offer DDP (delivered duty paid) for a few weeks, so I guess those of us who use RM may have to stop until they do (not sure if they already offer it to their business customers though, this might be for click & drop type customers?)
I messaged support yesterday and theyāve replied that theyāll have advice out in the next few days.
For now, Iāve updated all my US shipping to tracked, even for very low value things. At least thereās a chance that I might know something about where packages are when US customs explodes Iām still ruminating over turning US off completely until RM are sorted out for duty paid postage but I really donāt want to.
No, me neither! Iām not sure Iām going to be able to change the cart on my own website, so my eggs for USA orders are all in the Folksy basket at the moment! If they can find a way of doing it Iāll be able to point my US customers to my shop here - Iām keeping everything crossed!
Iām with you Sarah @PhotoFairytales and donāt think I can change the cart/checkout on my own website.
Their suggestion was to add the 10% to the postage cost but when Royal Mail work out how much the 10% will be they charge 10% on the item/parcel cost and the postage cost so doing it the suggested way would mean that Iād be paying 10% on 10% and would cost me more than the 10% Iād added! So my brain went into overload with trying to work that one out so Iāll most likely end up directing US customers to here too.
Lou x
Yeah, carts need to have a way of adding on 10% of the combined total: the cost of the item AND the postage. Iām also seeing people talking about there being a $10 handling charge - but I have no certainty on that (maybe someone else can fill in that blank?!). But if there is, that would need to be added to carts at the point of payment too. I can see US customers accepting for the most part a 10% duty payment, but $10 on top of that I think would put them right off - especially lower priced items.
Iāve got a message in to the people that do the shopping cart on my site to see if anything can be done, and obviously weāre all still waiting on Folksy tooā¦Iām hating not knowing for sure whatās going on - itās grinding my gears somewhat!
I mean, I guess at the end of the day thereās nothing to stop us all just continuing to post āduty unpaidā to USA and letting customers just get on with it (put a notice up on our shops to warn them so weāve covered ourselves - or possibly better a message pop-up on the Folksy site as a whole given customers may not visit our actual shops). The parcel gets sent off, US customs contact the customer, and they pay to receive it. I think from a customer service point of view though thatās not great, especially as a lot of customers may not even be aware and might get angry with us. Plus thereād be a delay for them getting the parcel. As far as I can see, technically we could do that, but it wouldnāt be ideal.
I suspect that any handling charge will differ between the carriers.
Iām leaning more and more to turning US off altogether until Royal Mail have a solution sorted. The problem with sending a package is that ultimately, the responsibility for delivering what the buyer purchased is always down to you. I certainly donāt want to be either refunding orders or replacing items - even if it is covered on RMās insurance (or purchase protection on the other side) - what a hassle and upsetting when something youāve made falls into a black hole.
Edited to add - I got a quote for sending one of my coin purses to the US from UPS today and fell about laughing - the cost before tariff was Ā£28. So thatās not happening!
Iām just waiting to hear from Folksy before I do anything more, Iām hoping thereās a solution for us. I certainly wonāt be taking a risk sending if not as a I canāt afford to lose Ā£100 for a bear or a week making it. Fingers crossed it gets sorted quickly as we need to be changing our postage before itās too late. What will we do if someone orders in the next few days though because it wonāt get there before the changes come into force, probably have to cancel the order which never looks good.
(if his all-burger diet doesnāt get to him first)ā¦
Iām still ruminating over turning US off completely until RM are sorted out for duty paid postage but I really donāt want to.