@marnotom! wrote:
@lotzofuniquegoodies wrote:
Prior to de minimus being removed I sent a number of orders to US customers (businesses) that were well over 800 USD. I and they are familiar with what it's involved and they would have to pay when applicable. Buyer paid the duties charged at time of delivery or were billed. For them, the cost of doing business. Just like CP, at their descretion on incoming charged the buyer prior to delivery.
If a US buyer were to refuse the shipment over being assessed and charged duties, I would think that USPS would follow the exporter’s instructions on the customs form or mailing label to destroy or return the item if it were undeliverable, just like any other postal service handling a DDU item.
Unlike a personal import sent by UPS, FedEx, and the like, the duties would not have been advanced by the carrier. USPS would not need to be "paid back".
Are you taking into consideration the options with CP and ebay labels are limited when it comes to refused/bad address. The default is RTS. There should be an option to destroy but ebay labels has never offered that. At 1 point in time it was included with CP manually filled out forms. And as for Canadian goods returning too sender due to refused/returned there, in theory should be no duties owing. Just the possibility of return shipping costs but that can be hit and miss.
In the past UPS etc just billed at time of delivery. There was no prepaying. The shooting match got thrown into a tizzy when the Orange Haired ______ got his fingers into the process. Couriers have always had the option DDU/DDP etc.
The practice of couriers prepaying duties on behalf of the sender has been an available service for some time (known as Delivered Duty Paid or DDP shipping). However, the requirement for all postal couriers shipping to the US to ensure duties are prepaid in advance of shipping began on August 29, 2025, due to a change in US customs regulations.
Historically, many low-value shipments were exempt from duties under "de minimis" rules, meaning duties often weren't an issue. Private couriers like FedEx and DHL have long offered the option for the sender to pay duties in advance or for the courier to advance the fees and collect them from the receiver, often adding a brokerage fee.
The recent shift in August 2025 was prompted by an executive order that eliminated the US de minimis threshold for all countries, meaning every shipment, regardless of value, could be assessed for import duties. This change forced major postal services, like Canada Post and Australia Post, to implement new systems (e.g., partnering with tech companies like Zonos) to collect duties at the point of shipping to meet the new US requirements.
As a side note I dealt with B13's and manual exporting in the 80ies.
