US should not have customs but I was charged for them anyway

[AamirA]

Let me preface this with a screenshot of the lttstore.com help page.

 

 

You would expect, after reading that, that if you have a US address, and order a Commuter Backpack, that you would not be charged customs, right? Apparently not. Purchased on May 3rd, I have been nervously checking the order, as it has been sitting in Los Angeles for 10 days now with no movement. Then, yesterday, I got this letter in the mail.

Spoiler

If you don't want to read all that, pretty much it says I will have to pay $40.42 customs to pick up my order. Can anyone explain this to me? Every source I can find says US should not charge customs for this. I went to my post office (where I would pay the duty) and they said they have never seen this before, other than one other person who recently had the same issue. This person bought $1,000 shoes and was required to pay $500 dollars more, or something like that, she sent it back. Tariffs are not customs, right? This should not have anything to do with the recent changes? If it helps, I did pay the increased $170 dollar price on lttstore. I asked the post office and they said there was nothing they could do, they are given a list of customs and have to collect all of them. We asked who we could call and they pretty much said I don't know? The government? Honestly, it kinda feels like a shady cash grab from the government to stop people from buying internationally, almost 3rd world country like.

 

Anyways, I sent an email to support and I'm hoping they will reimburse me for the $40 as their website promised no customs. I don't expect ltt support here, I just wanted to spread community awareness of the chaos of the US Government right now, possibly get answers, and maybe Linus will rant about it on the wan show.

[Dedayog]

16 minutes ago, AamirA said:

Let me preface this with a screenshot of the lttstore.com help page.

 

 

You would expect, after reading that, that if you have a US address, and order a Commuter Backpack, that you would not be charged customs, right? Apparently not. Purchased on May 3rd, I have been nervously checking the order, as it has been sitting in Los Angeles for 10 days now with no movement. Then, yesterday, I got this letter in the mail.

  Hide contents

If you don't want to read all that, pretty much it says I will have to pay $40.42 customs to pick up my order. Can anyone explain this to me? Every source I can find says US should not charge customs for this. I went to my post office (where I would pay the duty) and they said they have never seen this before, other than one other person who recently had the same issue. This person bought $1,000 shoes and was required to pay $500 dollars more, or something like that, she sent it back. Tariffs are not customs, right? This should not have anything to do with the recent changes? If it helps, I did pay the increased $170 dollar price on lttstore. I asked the post office and they said there was nothing they could do, they are given a list of customs and have to collect all of them. We asked who we could call and they pretty much said I don't know? The government? Honestly, it kinda feels like a shady cash grab from the government to stop people from buying internationally, almost 3rd world country like.

 

Anyways, I sent an email to support and I'm hoping they will reimburse me for the $40 as their website promised no customs. I don't expect ltt support here, I just wanted to spread community awareness of the chaos of the US Government right now, possibly get answers, and maybe Linus will rant about it on the wan show.

Updated 2 years ago.

 

Things have changed recently for US/Canada relations and tariffs.

 

Sorry, blame the other half of America.

[AamirA]

1 minute ago, Dedayog said:

Things have changed recently for US/Canada relations and tariffs.

I understand tariffs happened, but that charges the merchant, lttstore, not me. Customs should be completely different and I have not found the "things that changed recently" when it comes to customs. Again, I paid the $170 dollars for the backpack, that included the new tariffs, I should be done paying the government.

[freeagent]

28 minutes ago, AamirA said:

I understand tariffs happened, but that charges the merchant, lttstore, not me.

Are you being serious right now?

[starsmine]

31 minutes ago, AamirA said:

I understand tariffs happened, but that charges the merchant, lttstore, not me. Customs should be completely different and I have not found the "things that changed recently" when it comes to customs. Again, I paid the $170 dollars for the backpack, that included the new tariffs, I should be done paying the government.

No... the importer. aka YOU the buyer. pay for tariffs. 
That is how tariffs have always worked. That is what customs is. 

 

Quote

 Honestly, it kinda feels like a shady cash grab from the government to stop people from buying internationally, almost 3rd world country like.

Yup. Its a regressive tax structure.

[AamirA]

Then why did the price of the backpack to up from 150 to 170?

[AamirA]

I paid the price for the product, I paid for the tariffs ($20), I should not have to pay another $40 just to collect the backpack from my post office, nobody ever told me I would have to pay this.

[matt0725]

13 minutes ago, AamirA said:

I paid the price for the product, I paid for the tariffs ($20), I should not have to pay another $40 just to collect the backpack from my post office, nobody ever told me I would have to pay this.

the price change of the backpack is not the tariff. That has to be paid by you. Im not sure how your post office has never dealt with it, but that really doesn't change how it works. If you want your backpack, its another $40 that goes to the US government, LTT has literally no impact on the matter.

 

While no one may have told you, theres no way you haven't heard about the tariff situation, and then used google and didn't come up with sources explaining it. Linus also has disucssed this on multiple WAN shows already, so its extra weird that you seem shocked by it

[podkall]

5 minutes ago, matt0725 said:

the price change of the backpack is not the tariff. That has to be paid by you. Im not sure how your post office has never dealt with it, but that really doesn't change how it works. If you want your backpack, its another $40 that goes to the US government, LTT has literally no impact on the matter.

 

While no one may have told you, theres no way you haven't heard about the tariff situation, and then used google and didn't come up with sources explaining it. Linus also has disucssed this on multiple WAN shows already, so its extra weird that you seem shocked by it

Shouldn't the backpack then cost 210$ instead of 170$, and not require the user in X country that has 40$ tariffs to pay those?

[matt0725]

2 minutes ago, podkall said:

Shouldn't the backpack then cost 210$ instead of 170$, and not require the user in X country that has 40$ tariffs to pay those?

tariffs are levied on consumers by their own government. Rather than make every seller on earth have to properly manage the fees for every country (including the nightmare of sales tax by state and county in the US), the government does it for you at the border. 

 

In the US we don't even include sales tax on items we know the price of, you have to do the math or find out at the checkout counter.

 

Also, look at the tariff situation that was going on for the past few weeks, tariffs were as low as zero and as high as 250%; sellers would need a full time employee to update prices across their websites for this

[Adam Pilolla]

Quote

 

I understand tariffs happened, but that charges the merchant, lttstore, not me.

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately that's incorrect, generally speaking. Tariffs are, by their definition, charged to the importer -- that's you. Just to set the proper expectation for future orders you might place from us or anyone else. While we may or may not offer accommodations to cover these for you, as our business-realities allow, ultimately the responsibility to pay tariff fees is always on the importer at the end of the day.

That said, it's correct that the FAQ article you've linked here is out of date. Thanks for pointing that out. I have now updated it, and we'll conduct a review of our FAQ to ensure all information shown remains accurate going forward.

I'm also forwarding this up the chain internally to determine whether your order was shipped using the proper arrangements/declarations. I've located your customer support ticket and will reply as soon as I've determined whether this is the case.

[Hinjima]

5 minutes ago, Adam Pilolla said:

Unfortunately that's incorrect, generally speaking. Tariffs are, by their definition, charged to the importer -- that's you. Just to set the proper expectation for future orders you might place from us or anyone else. While we may or may not offer accommodations to cover these for you, as our business-realities allow, ultimately the responsibility to pay tariff fees is always on the importer at the end of the day.

That said, it's correct that the FAQ article you've linked here is out of date. Thanks for pointing that out. I have now updated it, and we'll conduct a review of our FAQ to ensure all information shown remains accurate going forward.

I'm also forwarding this up the chain internally to determine whether your order was shipped using the proper arrangements/declarations. I've located your customer support ticket and will reply as soon as I've determined whether this is the case.

Great reply. 

Thank you.

[AamirA]

11 minutes ago, Adam Pilolla said:

--snip--

Thank you for the explanation. I still don't fully understand the lttstore split in this case. If US tariffs are paid separate from the order, why separate the stores and increase prices on the US site because of tariffs. Isn't this double dipping? I am certain that Linus explicitly stated on the wan show many times that US prices would increase because of trump tariffs, your telling me that "the price change of the backpack is not the tariff"?

[AamirA]

Also @Adam Pilolla, I see you updated the FAQ pages but if you go to the lttstore.com main page, scroll to the bottom and click on Customs & Duty Fees, it still states the same US and Canada does not have to pay anything.

[BillBill]

2 hours ago, AamirA said:

Let me preface this with a screenshot of the lttstore.com help page.

 

 

You would expect, after reading that, that if you have a US address, and order a Commuter Backpack, that you would not be charged customs, right? Apparently not. Purchased on May 3rd, I have been nervously checking the order, as it has been sitting in Los Angeles for 10 days now with no movement. Then, yesterday, I got this letter in the mail.

  Reveal hidden contents

If you don't want to read all that, pretty much it says I will have to pay $40.42 customs to pick up my order. Can anyone explain this to me? Every source I can find says US should not charge customs for this. I went to my post office (where I would pay the duty) and they said they have never seen this before, other than one other person who recently had the same issue. This person bought $1,000 shoes and was required to pay $500 dollars more, or something like that, she sent it back. Tariffs are not customs, right? This should not have anything to do with the recent changes? If it helps, I did pay the increased $170 dollar price on lttstore. I asked the post office and they said there was nothing they could do, they are given a list of customs and have to collect all of them. We asked who we could call and they pretty much said I don't know? The government? Honestly, it kinda feels like a shady cash grab from the government to stop people from buying internationally, almost 3rd world country like.

 

Anyways, I sent an email to support and I'm hoping they will reimburse me for the $40 as their website promised no customs. I don't expect ltt support here, I just wanted to spread community awareness of the chaos of the US Government right now, possibly get answers, and maybe Linus will rant about it on the wan show.

Anything under $800.00 dollars USD is exempt. 

[podkall]

1 hour ago, matt0725 said:

tariffs are levied on consumers by their own government. Rather than make every seller on earth have to properly manage the fees for every country (including the nightmare of sales tax by state and county in the US), the government does it for you at the border. 

Americans...

 

1 hour ago, matt0725 said:

In the US we don't even include sales tax on items we know the price of, you have to do the math or find out at the checkout counter.

Of course you don't, because it changes all the time and... wait a minute... ah yes...

 

Americans...

 

1 hour ago, matt0725 said:

Also, look at the tariff situation that was going on for the past few weeks, tariffs were as low as zero and as high as 250%; sellers would need a full time employee to update prices across their websites for this

Yeah, for which goods? Backpacks? Tariffs for simple things like backpacks go from 0 to 255% to 0 within weeks?

 

Or is that just this China-America situation regarding electronics and other stuff?

 

58 minutes ago, AamirA said:

Thank you for the explanation. I still don't fully understand the lttstore split in this case. If US tariffs are paid separate from the order, why separate the stores and increase prices on the US site because of tariffs. Isn't this double dipping? I am certain that Linus explicitly stated on the wan show many times that US prices would increase because of trump tariffs, your telling me that "the price change of the backpack is not the tariff"?

Maybe the chain before got tariffed too and product price had to be raised because of that.

[saintlouisbagels]

8 hours ago, AamirA said:

Thank you for the explanation. I still don't fully understand the lttstore split in this case. If US tariffs are paid separate from the order, why separate the stores and increase prices on the US site because of tariffs. Isn't this double dipping? I am certain that Linus explicitly stated on the wan show many times that US prices would increase because of trump tariffs, your telling me that "the price change of the backpack is not the tariff"?

You're not going to get an answer to this question due to complicated nature of owning a store. Some products may be sold at razor thin margins - so they must increase the price. Some products probably have huge margins and they can swallow the reduction in profits. The United States is the world's largest consumer, so it makes sense to increase prices across the board for the US while leaving other countries alone to offset the worldwide changes in consumer spending. And THEN you have to account for the US tariffs. There are many variables at play. You can call it double-dipping if you want, but that is ultimately just an assumption (in bad faith).

 

The pricing specifics and reasoning are obviously all internal knowledge that will never be shared publicly.

[GarlicDeliverySystem]

10 hours ago, AamirA said:

If US tariffs are paid separate from the order, why separate the stores and increase prices on the US site because of tariffs. Isn't this double dipping? I am certain that Linus explicitly stated on the wan show many times that US prices would increase because of trump tariffs, your telling me that "the price change of the backpack is not the tariff"?

There are two things to keep separate:

• Tariffs charged to the importer (customer)
• extra costs from having two warehouses, inventory systems, currency conversions etc.

My understanding was that in order to deal with US tariffs, they split it into two warehouses (?? might be wrong on this) to avoid things destined for the rest of the world to go through US customs. That came with extra costs on both ends and changes in shipping costs etc., so prices had to adjust.

 

The tariffs are on top of that. You could argue that a shop should be able to include it in the price, like VAT in the EU for example. It is my understanding that is not done for a number of reasons, like being able to set up the payment methods and calculators, manufacturers potentially being able to under-represent the nature and value of the shipment etc.

 

It doesn't help that these tariffs were implemented and announced so quickly, with things changing almost week by week.

[SansVarnic]

On 5/23/2025 at 6:34 PM, podkall said:

Americans...

 

Of course you don't, because it changes all the time and... wait a minute... ah yes...

 

Americans...

 

Yeah, for which goods? Backpacks? Tariffs for simple things like backpacks go from 0 to 255% to 0 within weeks?

 

Or is that just this China-America situation regarding electronics and other stuff?

 

Maybe the chain before got tariffed too and product price had to be raised because of that.

<cough> vat tax....... not an American thing but even so this is as close as we get to a vat tax. Making pointless and strawman arguments with a side of hyperbole does nothing to help this conversation.

[Blue4130]

On 5/24/2025 at 7:25 AM, BillBill said:

Anything under $800.00 dollars USD is exempt. 

Is it again? I didn't read that they reinstated deminimus. I'd double check that.

[podkall]

5 hours ago, SansVarnic said:

<cough> vat tax....... not an American thing but even so this is as close as we get to a vat tax. Making pointless and strawman arguments with a side of hyperbole does nothing to help this conversation.

that's not vat, that's weird taxes

 

it's like if I sold something to neighbor across the street and tax them just because they don't live in the same building.

[Blue4130]

13 minutes ago, podkall said:

that's not vat, that's weird taxes

 

it's like if I sold something to neighbor across the street and tax them just because they don't live in the same building.

Is that how you think American taxes work? Interesting take but completely wrong.

[podkall]

44 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

Is that how you think American taxes work? Interesting take but completely wrong.

What are those "customs" that US person paid, when buying US product?

 

That's not VAT. It's USA, it's like paying VAT in EU when buying from EU country to EU country, except you don't do that in EU, but in US for some reason you guys do this?

[Blue4130]

2 hours ago, podkall said:

What are those "customs" that US person paid, when buying US product?

 

That's not VAT. It's USA, it's like paying VAT in EU when buying from EU country to EU country, except you don't do that in EU, but in US for some reason you guys do this?

Not customs. Sales tax. It does exist in the US

[podkall]

3 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

Not customs. Sales tax. It does exist in the US

Look at the post name