Selling to the USA, a cautionary tale...

[EX51GE R]

So, bit of advice needed on how to proceed with a watch I've sold on Chrono24....

Sold a watch for over £8000 on C24, buyer was from the US and asked if id ship there, no problem, a deal was struck and I duly posted it off fully insured, then it became painful! UPS/US import form had to be submitted via an online form, they wanted my NI number, the buyers social security number and a breakdown of the watch value in 3 components 1) case value 2) mechanism value 3) strap value. I supplied all the info apart from the buyers SSC as understandably he was cautious about sharing that with some random UK resident. Ar this point he got arsey and told me to cancel the transaction, I then figured out he could have his own UPS login and do it himself so I set that up and he relented and filled the form in. The problem was though is that there were 2 forms and although mine had my NI number on it his SSC wasn't, it was on a form only he could see so they kept badgering me for the missing info!
After about 10 emails I finally got them to contact him directly as all his contact info was visible on both forms.
Brilliant, parcel starts moving and as of yesterday it is ready for delivery pending payment of the import fees, which are $4000!
Buyers now decides he doesn't want to pay that and sends me a shi**y message that reads like he's blaming me for the tariffs! Demanding i refund him.
Now obviously the payment is held in escrow by C24 and I've contacted them to see what happens next? Who pays for the return postage and extra insurance as im guessing the policy i took out wont cover the return.

In short don't send anything to the US of any value, not worth the hassle.

[barryrs]

To potentially compound things further I have read that the Americans want the tariffs paid to return the goods back to the country of origin.

ETA - The tariffs on returned goods was in the Driftworks post.

Edited by barryrs on Saturday 13th December 20:34

[D_G]

I stopped shipping to the US as soon as Trump took office. Why anyone wants to deal with them or go there now is beyond me. Good luck

[fooman]

My business stopped shipping there due to Trump tarrifs it was just too complicated to work out the charges and leave us exposed to big losses.

[Bob_Defly]

We stopped shipping there too. The majority of Americans think that it's the foreigner's responsibility to pay the tariffs.

[Wills2]

Yeah it's a bit bonkers trying to ship to the US, although I do find it strange that the US resident didn't understand that the price he paid was always going to be + import duties, perhaps they thought they'd stumbled on a bargain until reality dawned.

[EX51GE R]

Wills2 said:

Yeah it's a bit bonkers trying to ship to the US, although I do find it strange that the US resident didn't understand that the price he paid was always going to be + import duties, perhaps they thought they'd stumbled on a bargain until reality dawned.

Yes, you'd have though he'd done his due dilligence before buying it, he's a Dr too so you'd think he'd have a bit of common sense.

[Mont Blanc]

I'm astonished the buyer did not understand the import tariff situation and costs, before agreeing to buy. That is an impressive amount of stupidity.

Any Swiss made watches attract a tariff of 39%, irrespective of which country the seller is, and irrespective of the goods being used or new, hence the $4000 charge.

30 seconds on google would have told him that.

[EX51GE R]

Mont Blanc said:

I'm astonished the buyer did not understand the import tariff situation and costs, before agreeing to buy. That is an impressive amount of stupidity.

Any Swiss made watches attract a tariff of 39%, irrespective of which country the seller is, and irrespective of the goods being used or new, hence the $4000 charge.

30 seconds on google would have told him that.

Probably one of those 'mericans that still think China pay for the tariffs.