Question Scuba Gaskets order - duty payment required???

[Seepferdchencam]

I'm completely on board with the idiocy of the tariffs.
I'm NOT on board with absolving ScubaGaskets of any responsibility; they have chosen the easy path of just letting the end customer pay the bill instead of working out a way to ease the pain. It demonstrably can be done, as Aliexpress has shown.

You are the importer, not ScubaGaskets. Pay your taxes, or manufacture your own service kits. The orange king wills it.

 

[tbone1004]

I'm completely on board with the idiocy of the tariffs.
I'm NOT on board with absolving ScubaGaskets of any responsibility; they have chosen the easy path of just letting the end customer pay the bill instead of working out a way to ease the pain. It demonstrably can be done, as Aliexpress has shown.

also work in international logistics.
Tariffs are, and always have been paid by the importer of record. The import tariffs are based on the FOB cost of the materials and Cyprus is subject to 15% tariff along with the rest of the EU. Any charges above that are done by DHL for dealing with the hassle of all of the paperwork and frankly the $18 that @Scuba-74 paid to clear it is a steal and I wish we could pay so little for our imports. There was mention of other international imports that didn't have it, the exemption for de minimis was suspended on 8/29/25 so anything before that would probably have come under that threshold.

As far as what they could do to ease the pain, the only way to do it is to have distributorships setup and frankly they are nowhere near big enough to do that on their own like Ali has. They could go through someone like @DiveGearExpress who has been doing that for the industry for a couple of decades now and stop selling direct and then DGX would bring in pallet size orders like they do now and file the paperwork in bulk but it would require Scubagaskets to have stock in the US and have that stock managed by someone and you're going to pay for that as well.

I don't support these tariffs, they've been a nightmare for our business and continue to be, but importing goods is a paperwork nightmare and always has been if you are the importer of record and this is where the value in companies like DGX, Northeast Scuba Supply, Cave Adventurers, Dive Right in Scuba, etc. that are bringing in large enough orders to have economy of scale with this and act as unofficial distributors has worked in this type of industry.

 

[Lorenzoid]

It's not a problem, it's the law since Trump ended the < $800 de minimis exception for goods mailed to individuals.

Aliexpress is doing their best to work around this by doing bulk shipments to US warehouses for popular products. They then ship from the warehouses when you place an order. It even looks to me like they are taking actual orders for items they don't have here and aggregating them into a single shipment to one of their warehouses to reship. This results in much lower costs because the duties are based on the wholesale rather than retail cost and they don't have to use an expensive express shipper which is otherwise needed to handle the collection of payment of the duties for individual shipments.

So, they're operating pretty much as companies traditionally did before e-commerce turned this into a circus.

 

[Scuba-74]

This is not a ScubaGaskets issue. It is not their fault and there is really nothing they can do about it.

They easily could have put a notification on their site, either based on shipping address, or just a general note visible to customers before they place the order. They've supposedly done it on their social media, but made a choice not to do it on their point of sale.

 

[Scuba-74]

Tariffs are, and always have been paid by the importer of record.

I understand that, but as a retail customer I am not used to two things: 1) not knowing the total price of the purchase when I make it; 2) paying for it piecemeal, first when making it and then a week later when it crosses the border.

I make nearly all my buying aside from food online, have done so for years, and this is literally the first time I'm dealing with that.

I think it's a fair practice to let the customer know the total price upfront. That's all I'm asking.

 

[tridacna]

I understand that, but as a retail customer I am not used to two things: 1) not knowing the total price of the purchase when I make it; 2) paying for it piecemeal, first when making it and then a week later when it crosses the border.

I make nearly all my buying aside from food online, have done so for years, and this is literally the first time I'm dealing with that.

I think it's a fair practice to let the customer know the total price upfront. That's all I'm asking.

But does the seller even know this? Isn’t that a new number imposed by the importer. Does the international seller know that number? How can it be incorporated intovthe final number?

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I understand that, but as a retail customer I am not used to two things: 1) not knowing the total price of the purchase when I make it; 2) paying for it piecemeal, first when making it and then a week later when it crosses the border.

I make nearly all my buying aside from food online, have done so for years, and this is literally the first time I'm dealing with that.

I think it's a fair practice to let the customer know the total price upfront. That's all I'm asking.

I'm with ScubaGaskets on this one. Keeping up with all of this and making the required system updates to their web-based purchasing applications is a HUGE effort and I'm sure a total PITA. They at least took efforts to communicate it via their existing communication channels. The fact that the de minimis exemption was expiring has been extensively covered in the news. Anyone purchasing anything from overseas should expect surprises. While some very large vendors (Aliexpress) are able to cushion the blow a bit (although you are still paying the duties, just baked into the price), the majority of the online vendors will not be able to do so.

This is a learning point on what can be expected going forward due to the insanity (and outright lies) of the current administration.

 

[Scuba-74]

But does the seller even know this? Isn’t that a new number imposed by the importer. Does the international seller know that number? How can it be incorporated intovthe final number?

In this particular case, they absolutely do. I received 5 or 6 emails from them yesterday indicating that they know it very well, and have posted it on their social media and newsletters. Just "forgot" to disclose it where it matters.

 

[Scuba-74]

I'm with ScubaGaskets on this one. Keeping up with all of this and making the required system updates to their web-based purchasing applications is a HUGE effort and I'm sure a total PITA. They at least took efforts to communicate it via their existing communication channels. The fact that the de minimis exemption was expiring has been extensively covered in the news. Anyone purchasing anything from overseas should expect surprises. While some very large vendors (Aliexpress) are able to cushion the blow a bit (although you are still paying the duties, just baked into the price), the majority of the online vendors will not be able to do so.

This is a learning point on what can be expected going forward due to the insanity (and outright lies) of the current administration.

I hear you, and if it becomes the new norm - so be it. We'll adjust and I'm sure will survive.

But it hasn't yet. And I doubt that it will, it's just very unconventional - buying something not knowing how much you will end up paying. I'll venture a guess that the businesses that are going with this model will lose large portion of their customer base.

In either case, it was complete news to me, and if anything I hope this post raises awareness of the issue.

 

[Whitrzac]

Having to pay import tax is a thing in every other country(that I know of)

Its on you to know that you had to pay it.


Most small sellers have just stopped shipping to the USA. There are a few things I want to buy, but cant because the sellers/stores refuse to ship to the USA now.