Tuesday, August 5th
After talking to various people at UPS, we finally got an explanation of our $140.50 package delivery fee. It all started when we were looking on the internet and saw a camping canopy that was made to extend out from the back of a vehicle. We thought it would be great to use with our little truck. So we went ahead and ordered it. The people who sell the canopy are in Quebec, Canada. We noticed that, of course, but we didn’t really think about it.
When the package entered the U.S., it had to go through Customs. Customs determined that although the item was sold by a Canadian company, it was manufactured in China. Therefore it was subject to an import tax based on the tariff level for China. We were subject to this fee because we were the ones who were actually importing the canopy into the United States. In order to move things along, UPS paid this fee for us. The Customs office then released the package and it continued on its way. At the time this happened, we were still in a state of blissful ignorance.
When the package arrived in Corvallis, our UPS driver left us a form that said we needed to pay a fee of $140.50 before he could deliver the package. Since we didn’t know what this was, E talked to both a local UPS rep and the UPS International Section. She found out enough to know that the charges were legitimate. We were told that we could pay the fee at the UPS website. After we did that, the package was delivered the next day.
So this was not a scam, but it could well have been. Scammers are currently active in the area of shipping and tariff charges. Check here for some information about what those scams might look like.
Wednesday, August 6th
We put down a deposit on a new car today. Yikes! Seems like an awfully big step. The car isn’t here yet; it is expected to arrive in Oregon on the 18th. Point of origin: West Point, Georgia.
Thursday, August 5th
Tis the season for Walla Walla onion rings and one of the best places to get them around here is at Burgerville. So we had our dinner there today in company with T and H. In yet another major development in the automotive world, T has a new RAV-4! It’s a beauty.
Saturday, August 9th
Beautiful full moon these last couple of days. Last night it shone through all our south facing windows like a spotlight. It makes it a little hard to sleep.
Our neighbor K passed away a few weeks ago. She and her husband had lived in the same house for many years, almost since the area was developed in the sixties. We got to know her a little after we arrived in the neighborhood. She’d been a school librarian. Her husband had passed away some time ago and you could tell she missed him.
A few years ago she told us that a long time ago they had enlarged their garage by adding an extension onto the back. She said there were still three cars in there. Lately her children have been coming around to do the sort of thing one does after a death. Last week they took the cars out of the garage and parked them side by side in the oversized driveway. Turns out they are all Ford Galaxies from the years 1962-64.
Sunday, August 10th
They said it was going to be hot today, so we took an early morning walk in the forest to avoid the worst of it. A lot of other folks were doing the same. The heat came in the afternoon. By 3:00 PM it was 97, by 6:00 it was 99. We’re supposed to see more of the same tomorrow and the next day.
Tuesday, August 12th
Today we received a letter from UPS which provided a breakdown of the total cost of our importing adventure. The import duty amount was $118.53 plus a processing fee of $2.62. UPS paid those directly to the U.S. Customs Service. USP also charged us brokerage fees totaling $19.35. That all adds up to $140.50.
And one last thing. In researching this we learned the answer to something else that had puzzled us. Tariffs are much in the news these days, but they are not a new thing. The U.S. has always had some level of tariffs. So why have we never had to pay these charges before? That is because of a rule change. In the past there was a rule called ‘de minimus.’ It said that individual packages that were valued at under $800 would be exempt from customs charges. But that rule is being phased out. Several months ago the government announced that the de minimus rule would no longer apply to imports from China. Then, just a couple of weeks ago, the government announced that the de minimus exemption will be phased out entirely for all countries starting on August 29 of this year.
Would we have purchased the truck tent if we had foreseen all of this? Probably not. But we have it now and can’t wait to try it out. It’s sure to disappoint a lot of mosquitoes who are looking for a snack. We have a campsite reserved.