Sima Stillson1 Answers
Dani Avitz Staff answered 5 years ago
As a seller, you are not usually responsible for customs fees. Your customer is the importer, and they are responsible for customs fees.
The only exception to this rule is when you make use of Amazon FBA. In this instance, you become the importer and will be held liable for any customs fees. But when you’re shipping anywhere outside of the USA and not making use of Amazon FBA, your customer is responsible for the customs fees.
This is mainly because customs fees and laws vary widely from country to country. So it’s basically impossible for Amazon or you, the seller, to predict these fees beforehand.
Therefore it’s the recipient of the product’s (your customer) responsibility to ensure that their shipment is legal and that all import costs and customs fees are paid.
Most buyers don’t know this, however. And it could cause and has caused bad reviews - claiming that they were hit with unexpected extra costs after the fact. Sellers have little control over this, however.
That’s why Amazon FBA or local selling is often done by choice, even this hurts more than helps, in my opinion. It’s very limiting to sell to just one market when you could be selling to more markets. Your opportunity for profit is simply lower.
So don’t be put off by bad reviews when it comes to things like this. Just ensure your follow-up customer support is on-point and you can prevent issues like this. A simple email or notification is enough to ensure the customer knows that they are, unfortunately, liable for any import fees.
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