UPS Duties and Taxes Calculation

M

mpina

Cathlete
Hi,

I was simulating the purchase of some fitness accessories with the total amount being above 50 USD to get free-shipping and the amount I get from UPS is almost the double I get from a simulation on my national post office.
While UPS wants to charge me 43,30 €, the simulation I get from the Portuguese Postal Services is 26,26€. 1631530671467.png

1631530702436.png
Is the calculation from UPS correct?

Is for situations like this that I think we, international customers, should be able to choose wether we want UPS or USPS.

Marta
 
HI mpina, I'm not exactly sure how you are comparing rates, but the reason we don't offer USPS International rates is our International Economy UPS shipping rates are cheaper in every scenario we have looked at. Duties and taxes should be the same, regardless of the carrier, unless you select a non-economy UPS expedited service.
 
Our Portuguese Postal service has a tool to simulate all the taxes we would pay. I used the same item code that customs used for some fitness equipment I bought last year and simply inserted the amount of the purchase in Euros. The VAT would be 14,26 Euros and there is a tax we have to pay each time a package is presented to customs, which is 12€. I just want to understand where the 43€ come from. The difference is so big.
 
mpina said:
Our Portuguese Postal service has a tool to simulate all the taxes we would pay. I used the same item code that customs used for some fitness equipment I bought last year and simply inserted the amount of the purchase in Euros. The VAT would be 14,26 Euros and there is a tax we have to pay each time a package is presented to customs, which is 12€. I just want to understand where the 43€ come from. The difference is so big.
Click to expand...
Are you getting the 43€ from our site or from your simulator? And what is the total price of the order you're testing?
 
the 43€ is from your checkout page. The Total order was 52,62 USD with free shipping, which converted to the 49€ subject to VAT and Duties.
 
Hi mspina, I did a check, and on a 118€ order shipped to Portugal, the total Vat and Duties and Taxes are only 24.66€. Your recent order is only for 49€, which is far less than the 118€, so your duties and taxes are not going to be anywhere near €43. If you're seeing these incorrect duties and tax prices, here is why:

If after you have added products to your shopping cart page and proceeded to checkout, you will see the correct price; however, if you then leave the checkout page to make changes to your cart and then return to the same checkout page this will cause an error and the checkout page will now show you duties and taxes for what you previously had in your cart plus whatever changes you made. If you do this several times the duties and taxes error will continue to balloon.

If you need to make changes to your cart items after you are already on the checkout page, I would suggest clearing your browser's cache and starting your order over. Since a 118€ order only has duties and taxes of $24.66 to Portugal, a 49€ order will probably only be around 10€.
 
Hi,

I did what you said and for this orderof 53.64 EUR, The VAT and Duties are 45.40€:
1631623762513.png

While on the Portuguese Postal Service Simulator, using that same amount of 54.64€, I was given a total of 27,10€

1631623878484.png

So, I think the problem is the UPS calculation.

While these type of amounts continue to appear of the site, sadly I won't shop again from Cathe and for new videos, I'll only be purchusing the download version.

Marta
 
Hi Marta, The reason you're seeing this high price for duties and taxes is we don't offer free shipping on the TPE Stretch Bands Bundle and this is what is causing your unusually high rate. The software package we use for International shipping looks like it has not updated the new fitness products properly, hence your seeing an unusually high price for the duties and taxes that is not correct. We will get this corrected for International customers ASAP and this will result in much lower duties and taxes in this case, but your shipping charges will not be free and will increase.

Unfortunately, there is just no way to ship heavier and larger fitness products Internationally for free as our costs would exceed what we charge. However, all of our DVDs and lighter fitness products still ship for free Worldwide as long as your order totals over $50.
 
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Wondering if you were able to get this corrected....I have been trying to order the calendar and items that are free shipping but my duty is the same price as the cost of the items in my cart....Thanks
 
Huh, that's so freaking weird. I think these shipping companies want to make us broke. I mean, their charges are insane and totally unmotivated! I mean, UPS calculated 43.30 euros, while a simple postal service said 26 euros. Man, that's a difference of almost 20 euros! Don't you think they scam us? The first time I mentioned these companies charged way more than simple postal services was back in 2015. I ordered some fitness accessories, and the DHL calculator said it would cost me more than 50 euros, while the local postal service wanted only 30 euros! I also asked DHL to make check stubs online to see what I'm paying for. They refused.
 
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