That’s actually great to hear. To be honest, I ship exclusively via FedEx for all orders outside Europe because they offer me the most competitive shipping rates compared to other carriers. Knowing that they also have the most reasonable customs policy is a significant added bonus for both of us.
Inside the EU, the carrier choice doesn’t matter as much since we have the VAT integrated from the start and no customs duties, but for the US market, I’ll definitely stick with FedEx to keep your total costs down
I can’t vouch personally yet for FedEx but yeah that’s what I’ve heard from asking various people / companies since the tariffs started. Sounds like @fearlesstvn had a reasonable total fee.
I had an terrible experience with UPS last fall where I ended up without the package in the end since the only other option was to pay brokerage and tariffs adding up to 2X the package worth itself so it would be hard to be worse than that.
I purchased an enclosure from eBoards Peru and had the same experience—almost double the cost in the end.
I’ve also heard there may be additional tariffs coming for this region, so I tried to move quickly and place my order before anything new takes effect.
I recently ordered a moto pants from Chromeburner, an EU based moto gears retailer that sell discounted gears. Had to pay an extra fee due to the tariffs and it ended up being a bit more expensive vs the same gear from a US retailer. Kinda sucks cause Chromeburner was my go to for a couple years now. Was able to get a bunch of gears usually for 40% off or more.
Just an update for those of us in the US. For my latest Idea order, I didn’t get charged a tariff fee when receiving my package. I reached out to Tom to make sure he didn’t get stuck with the charge on his end, and he mentioned that FedEx didn’t request any additional information this time.
It’s possible some of the requirements or enforcement are being eased, or FedEx could always follow up with billing later. If anything changes, I’ll update the thread.
For now, it looks like this shipment went through without any extra fees
I hope you’re right. FedEx charged about 20% of the total order cost on a shipment from Idea. It took about 2 weeks to receive the bill. Not sure how long it’s been since you ordered but I remember thinking the same thing until the bill showed up…
I was charged quite a bit for my package from Idea too. Bill came after the package was delivered.
I remember trying to teach people how tariffs worked after they had been lied to by the President. I wonder how many people still believe they aren’t paying for the tariffs.
Any regressive tax that disproportionately affects poorer people is a terrible idea.
Yeah some Chinese stores - mainly eBay sellers and AliExpress for my uses - have duties up front for shipping and then they batch ship to various US distribution points wherefrom mysterious last mile delivery services (Gofo, Orangeconnex) take it you. My most recent Maytech order had this option as well - I like it better than the surprise possibility but seems like a China only thing.
The thing is if it was only tariffs on industry it’d make things more expensive but what is really boning small international DIY stuff like this is getting rid of the $800 de minimis so it’s a double
There should be a version that comes away from deck flat, then turns up 45ish. This way, you could engineer in suspension, and use channel or air etc trucks. Maybe titanium?
