The invoices are sudden and discordant: $ 1,400 for a part of the German computer, $ 620 for an aluminum box in Sweden and $ 1,041 for Spain bags.
Some American buyers say that they are being affected by the surprise positions of international shipping carriers as the exemption of the import tariffs of articles below $ 800 expires as part of the tariff impulse of President Donald Trump.
That is leading to some frustration and confusion, since buyers and carriers try to navigate a new reality for anyone who orders goods from abroad.
“It is a maximum chaos,” said Nick Baker, co-leader of trade and customs practice in Kroll, a company that advises cargo carriers.
Thomas Andrews, who directs a business in the north of the state of New York, restoring old computers from the eighties and ninety years, said he was surprised to receive a UPS rates bill for approximately $ 1,400 in a part of $ 750. He said he assumed that there must have been an error.
“That is extortion,” said Andrews.
On Friday night, a UPS representative told Andrews that the initial position was really incorrect: the tariff’s bill should only have been for around $ 110. But it was too late: Andrews had already rejected the shipment to avoid paying the position. Shortly after learning about the corrected position, he realized that UPS had already begun to send the article to Germany.
The final discomfort, Andrews said: He is charged for return sending: around $ 50.
In a statement, UPS said it has available solutions for merchants designed to navigate the new environment. He did not approach the customer billing situation.
On August 29, for the first time in almost a century, small articles in the United States, also called Minimis goods, began to face import tariffs. That means that even small and personal orders now face considerable rates imposed on US business partners. While a recent ruling of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit considered that many of Trump’s duties are unconstitutional, they remain in force, while Trump appeals the case to the Supreme Court.
To comply with the new minimis rules, a wave of countries has stopped shipments to the US. Which has caused postal traffic to the United States to decrease by 80%, according to a United Nations agency.
But many orders still flow. And since the new minimis rule began to enter into force, social media platforms have been filled with accounts of US clients who receive shock invoices from the main loaders such as DHL, Fedex and UPS, without having received any notice about the positions of the foreign merchant they had ordered.
The chargers, in turn, are flooded with messages from customers who dispute the charges, together with the requests for return to trails, since customers reject shipments to avoid having to pay the invoices.
A DHL representative said the company “is committed to supporting customers through recent tariff changes and ensuring that their shipments are managed efficiently.”
“We encourage customers to take note of the shipping policies of the brands they buy and also remember that tariffs are paid to the United States government,” he said.
The Trump administration has announced the billions in revenues that the tariffs are bringing, and in the case of the new minimis rule, it argued that the change is essential to stop the flow of illicit drug packages and small -sized drug ingredients. In a statement published on the day the new minimis rules, US Customs and Border Protection said that the logistics industry “has already adapted to changes with a minimum interruption.”
“This change has been months in process, and we are fully prepared to implement it,” said Susan S. Thomas, commissioned Interim Executive Assistant of the CBP trade office. “Foreign operators and postal operators received clear deadlines, detailed orientation and multiple options to meet. The only thing that ends on August 29 is the route that criminals have used to exploit United States borders.”
Baker said that foreign merchants are obliged to provide information to the sender about the classification of the article, which is key to the calculation of rates, but from a regulatory perspective, the client, as a registration importer, is finally responsible for the accuracy of that information.
But many people are still being taken by surprise.
After receiving a rate invoice for $ 620 in a $ 300 aluminum computer box, Robert Wang decided to reject shipping.
Wang, a software engineer, in the San Francisco Bay area, said he placed his order on August 22 with Louqe, a high -end Swedish merchant. More than a week later, he received an UPS notice about the bill.
“The confusion went to a night panic,” Wang said, while frantically investigating the situation. Finally, UPS confirmed that they had charged the 200% rate that Trump has slapped certain aluminum products.
Wang said he tried to communicate with Louqe about the position, but did not receive an answer. The company did not respond to a request for comments from NBC News.
Baker said that many foreign companies who trust American customers now face the dilemma of eating the tariff cost, assuming that they are having it properly first, or transmit it to their customers, which could scare business. Many merchants abroad have published on social networks to alert American customers to suspend shipments there.
Some small companies are also paying a price. A day after receiving a shipment from Spain by bags, he said they were worth around $ 600, Herciso said that he and his wife, who run a brick and mortar shop in Dunedin, Florida, which reveals products from Europe, obtained a tariff bill for $ 1,041.44 of DHL.
“We cannot understand how it is possible to evaluate with that level of tariffs,” said Narciso.
They said they plan to present a dispute, but that the answer could take two to four weeks. Narcissus is worried that his store does not survive recent changes if they begin to obtain similar invoices in the future.
“This last quarter will probably accumulate us,” said Narciso. “The margins in this type of business are thin to start.”
He added: “It simply does not feel like the American path for me.”
CORRECTION (September 8, 2025, 9:08 PM ET): An earlier version of this article indicated badly to the carrier from which Thomas Andrews received a tariff bill. It was UPS, not DHL.
