International Shipping

[Ozgrunty1]

It's just getting more and more bizarre. Is the whole of American and Canada gone mad?
I am in Australia. I was one of the first to order a commuter backpack (Wave 1). Allowing for exchange rates and shipping it was an expensive purchase.
First came a Delay Notice on Jan 17th saying that shipping was delayed till Feb 3rd. Not happy Jan but I could live with it.

Then on Feb 13th came this bunch of BS:

Update: Order Delayed Due to US Tariffs

Hey there lttstore customer,   You’re receiving this email because our records indicate you have a currently unfulfilled order which, due to new US tariffs introduced last week, had unfortunately been delayed. We committed to providing follow-up communications, and while this situation has been constantly evolving, we have the following updates to share with you today: On Friday, February 7th, with clarification from CBP to our courier partners, we resumed order fulfillments. Since then, we’ve been fulfilling as many orders as possible. All outstanding orders have been fulfilled or are expected to be fulfilled by tomorrow, February 13th, except Commuter Backpack backorders. We currently anticipate that all remaining Commuter Backpack backorders will be fulfilled before the end of February. Please note that this cannot be guaranteed due to the rapidly-evolving nature of this situation, however we will provide an update on our progress on February 27th.   WHAT A LOAD OF BS! There are no tariffs between Canada and Australia. And even if shipment is shipping from MusklandUSA any tariffs that need to be paid will be paid BY ME when the shipment reaches Australia. That is how tariffs work. The importer pays the tax/tariff (and passes it on to the consumer). The tax would then be sent to the Australian Government. Our Customs Department is very good at collecting Taxes and fees. I feel that the LTTStore team are freaking out or something and have put International purchases in the too hard basket in the hope we will cancel our orders. Not going to happen mate!!

[manikyath]

6 minutes ago, Ozgrunty1 said:

WHAT A LOAD OF BS!
There are no tariffs between Canada and Australia.
And even if shipment is shipping from MusklandUSA any tariffs that need to be paid will be paid BY ME when the shipment reaches Australia.

they talked about it on some WAN show, the TL:DR is that there's more than just "goods from X going into Y costs tariff Z" that goes into it, and as for the "this is bs because ltt doesnt need to pay it" - wouldnt you rather they make sure it ships out a few days later and you not potentially getting a surprise extra bill in the mail because looneyland said so?

 

fact of the matter is your parcel very likely goes trough the US, so any border meddling between canada and US very much affects the processing of your parcel.

 

especially around changes in import/export laws international shipping can be very messy.. and let's just keep it to "there's a lot going on in that department at the moment, appreciate they rather play it safe than take a bet with your purchase and money".

 

or in other words, would you be here raging too if you got an update saying that on some technicallity your backpack is now 10% more expensive?

[Skipple]

I'm going to venture a guess and say this email was sent to you in error or your package is going through US customs before shipping to you via a US port. That doesn't mean you will pay tariffs on the item. 

[Kilrah]

AFAIK the way LTTstore orders have been working for a long while is that orders get from Canada into the US, then get shipped from there because shipping directly from Canada would be prohibitively expensive. So logically any destination is affected. 

 

2 hours ago, Ozgrunty1 said:

Is the whole of American and Canada gone mad?

It does seem that with the US gov going back and forth with things US shippers don't even know what they're supposed to do, yeah...

[LogicalDrm]

Umm... I think you are misunderstanding where the issue is. It's not about additional costs per say. But routing of the packages. As noted by Kilrah, most likely packages are moved from Canada to hub in US. Except when buyer is already in US or Canada. Because of change in tariffs, there's going to be more paperwork to tell US customs officials that some of the packages are just passing through and there's no need to process them. Adjusting takes time. Like it's noted in the communication you received, they didn't charge extra. They just halted all packages TO MAKE SURE you wouldn't get caught in cross-fire of upcoming trade wars.

 

Call it BS all you like. But here the communication has been clear and fair. They can't take into account customers not understanding how global shipping works.

Edited February 15, 2025 by LogicalDrm

[LarsT]

On 2/15/2025 at 3:31 PM, LogicalDrm said:

Call it BS all you like. But here the communication has been clear and fair. They can't take into account customers not understanding how global shipping works.

I wouldn't call it clear and fair. I'd call it slow and vague... I sincerely hope LMG does some learning off this. Unfortunately, that probably won't help customers until 3-6 months from now, since things do indeed take time.

[LogicalDrm]

1 hour ago, LarsT said:

I wouldn't call it clear and fair. I'd call it slow and vague... I sincerely hope LMG does some learning off this. Unfortunately, that probably won't help customers until 3-6 months from now, since things do indeed take time.

Please do explain how it could be more clear or quicker. Because unless you are fully aware of what information they are given by customs officials and their shipping partner, you are too making unjust assessment of the situation. From what I've seen communication has been made as soon as it can be made. Meaning is fair. Only thing you can argue with "vague" is that they would give exact details on what processes along the lines these tariffs are effecting and how. 

 

There's also bit odd logic. If you want detailed account on why tariffs are affecting shipping and customs handling of international packages, that communication won't happen quickly. More harm is done with sloppy communication than thought-out one. Meaning that its either detailed and slow. Or released ASAP and with less detailed information. 

[LarsT]

Well, "all international orders are on hold" seemed to happen days before we were told they were. Email notifications were sent out days after the site was updated to include information. You cannot expect people to go diving for that information, it has to be provided and it has to be provided directly.

I don't think I'm alone in wanting better communication, even if that communication is "we're still figuring this out, but the current status is..."

[LogicalDrm]

22 hours ago, LarsT said:

Well, "all international orders are on hold" seemed to happen days before we were told they were. Email notifications were sent out days after the site was updated to include information. You cannot expect people to go diving for that information, it has to be provided and it has to be provided directly.

I don't think I'm alone in wanting better communication, even if that communication is "we're still figuring this out, but the current status is..."

Emails being sent out after public announcements is fair criticism. For any announcements coming some time (be it day or days) after when issue started sounds like issue. Until you take position on the other side. Messaging about issue you don't have immediate control over as soon as it happens can cause more issues than it resolves. If shipments were halted for 1-2 days, that wouldn't be seen in total scale. So getting note about it few days delayed means expected impact is noticeable.