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When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

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Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#51
post #6

Tariffs are great. They protect the struggling domestic IT industry and gives it time to ramp up its production of vintage computer parts.

I know one US business that used to make niche electronic product. Most components they used were from China. Got hit by the tariffs that wiped all the operating profit. Guy also had to sell his home and is now couchsurfing. Business is unlikely going to recover. Of course he considered making chips and other components in the US, but he was few billions short to start the fab.

I am imagining Mexican cartels smuggling hardware into the US...

(But seriously I do not know how good US Customs is but in my country every day millions of packages from Asia arrive and they are checking not even a percent).

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#52

I just got an invoice from ups to pay a $16 brokerage fee to jpmorgan for collecting a $0.60 tariff on a sticker included in a box with a custom keyboard shipped from Taiwan. Seems like wall street is making out better than the US on this arrangement

Yeah, I noped-out when I saw eBay's writeup on tariffs owed by the buyer (not paid by the seller):

"Shipping carriers or US Customs usually charge $5–$30 in processing fees. Add the item price, import fees, and processing fees to estimate your final cost."

https://pages.ebay.com/tariffs/

Not something I'm doing for a $5 item... I'll sit back and wait until the Supreme Court finds the tariffs are illegal, and the Fed has to pay every cent back to the businesses, suddenly sending the US spiraling into the biggest budget deficit in history.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#53
As an European, I'm kinda pissed we don't retaliate the duties.

I'd rather take a financial hit than act so weak and passive.

I swear between chat control, selling out EU's privacy to US tech companies (you can check how many times Palantir & others met commission members, it's public), the insanity of the ICE ban and this tariffs passivity I'm very unhappy.

Also, it's too convenient to only focus on material goods when the biggest US exports are gazillions in financial and IT services.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#54
I had to pay a tariff charge of about $20 on an order of about $100 that I had placed about a year or so prior to this whole tariff bullshit. The idea that the president can decide to tariff whatever the fuck he wants is something that needs to go, since it's essentially levying taxes without representation. If somehow the current admin can't refund the money they stole from people then every single person involved should be thrown in jail and their property confiscated until that money is recovered.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#55
I also imported a roughly $400 item from Romania. Was expecting a 30% tariff at most. Nope. $756. Sender says there is nothing they can do. UPS says that's the money I owe. They will send to collections if you go long enough without paying it. Reddit had no answers, and many are struggling with the same situation.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cunningham's law

What? No it's not, it's ... Hang on a sec... you sly devil, you! Not falling for that one. Hmmmpphhh.

Cunningham himself even claims it was a misquote, and that he never suggested such a thing.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#57

If SCOTUS finds the tariffs unconstitutional in Learning Resources v. Trump, they should order refunds.

Because I've ran into the same issue. I don't think this is actually the tariff. I'm almost 100% positive this is the shipping companies (UPS, and FedEx, but UPS seems to be the biggest culprit) are slamming receivers with massive bills because they are miscategorizing many items coming from Europe.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#58
post #46
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of a comment I think by Nancy Teeters the first female Federal Reserve board member. She said the other board members thought they could savage the US manufacturing industry to kill wage inflation and break the unions and it would come right back once they stopped. And it didn't.

Sociopaths. It breaks me to see the Fed use interest rates to cause unemployment as the lever against inflation. It all seems so cruel.

They use interest rates to protect against inflationary (and deflationary) spirals, which are known to be devastating. The effect on the unemployment rate is a known, and predictable, side effect. But formal unemployment is small compared to labour force dropout anyway, and the latter is not necessarily so sensitive to economic conditions anyway. Besides which, the unemployment rate can't really keep going down forever.

Zoom out; recent levels are actually quite impressive in the USA. Yes, they've climbed since 2023, but they're only just reaching the pre-GFC minimum (https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-une...).

Zoom out further: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE/

Had it not been for COVID you'd be at more than 16 years without a(n NBER-determined) recession, long enough to suggest a fundamental shift vs. how things worked in the several decades before that.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#59
post #6

Tariffs are great. They protect the struggling domestic IT industry and gives it time to ramp up its production of vintage computer parts.

[flagged]

If the seller from the country doesn't pay the tariff then it gets passed to the consumer. Someone has to pay the tarrif to import a tariffed good.

Re: When UPS charged me a $684 tariff on $355 of vintage computer parts

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

If the seller from the country doesn't pay the tariff then it gets passed to the consumer. Someone has to pay the tarrif to import a tariffed good.

Freedom2 was joking
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