Help Needed: Charged Import Fees as a U.S. Seller on an International Order
I’m hoping to get some advice on a situation I’m dealing with. I’m a U.S.-based seller on Amazon.com, and I recently shipped a book to Indonesia. To my surprise, I was charged $40 in import fees.
From what I understand, and as confirmed by Amazon’s policies and a forum moderator’s post, import fees should generally be the responsibility of the buyer when ordering from Amazon.com. Buyers are supposed to agree to these fees during the checkout process. Here’s a link to the moderator’s post for reference: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/international-shipping-import-fees/.
I’ve already contacted Seller Support, but their response wasn’t very helpful. They reiterated the general policy but didn’t address why I, as the seller, was charged these fees. I’ve drafted a more detailed message to them (thanks to some advice), but I’m still looking for insights or similar experiences from the community.
It’s not that big of a deal for this one order, but I want to know if I am actually responsible for these fees. Has anyone else faced this issue? How did you resolve it?
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!
Help Needed: Charged Import Fees as a U.S. Seller on an International Order
I’m hoping to get some advice on a situation I’m dealing with. I’m a U.S.-based seller on Amazon.com, and I recently shipped a book to Indonesia. To my surprise, I was charged $40 in import fees.
From what I understand, and as confirmed by Amazon’s policies and a forum moderator’s post, import fees should generally be the responsibility of the buyer when ordering from Amazon.com. Buyers are supposed to agree to these fees during the checkout process. Here’s a link to the moderator’s post for reference: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/international-shipping-import-fees/.
I’ve already contacted Seller Support, but their response wasn’t very helpful. They reiterated the general policy but didn’t address why I, as the seller, was charged these fees. I’ve drafted a more detailed message to them (thanks to some advice), but I’m still looking for insights or similar experiences from the community.
It’s not that big of a deal for this one order, but I want to know if I am actually responsible for these fees. Has anyone else faced this issue? How did you resolve it?
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!
0 replies
Seller_rI7BZIczK8iAC
You are probably right. Internationally, normally the buyer has to pay import tax and the local VAT. But when the customer notices that he has to pay additional $40.-- he maybe will just not accept your package and it will be returned to you.
You could send next time without "Amazon buy shipping" and send with USPS bringing your package to your local post office. Then nobody can charge you. But again with the risk that the customer won't accept the order. that is the risk of doing FBM.
Seller_Hi7wbO2Kbo6bl
You did not specify who charged those fees to your account. If you used DHL and bought the label through Amazon -- then that is standard.
This old post from user a_n_t talks about this:
