Why is it even a question that this should be the default? Each company has extensive records of which customers paid which portion of tariffs and exactly how much they were.
FedEx sent me a bill for tariffs. I disputed it, because I thought it was too high based on what it was (something I shipped out for service and got back… not a net-new import). It sat with no updates for months, despite repeated calls every time I got another bill, despite the dispute saying all attempts to collect would be placed on hold while the dispute was active.
The same day it looked like the tariffs would be reversed, they sold the disputed bill to a debt collector. Now I don’t know what happens. I disputed with the debt collector as well, since FedEx failed to follow their own process and public statements. FedEx could have just done nothing and cleared the debt when they got the refund, which is what their website said they were doing, but that’s not what they did.
At every step of the way they have failed to follow the communicated processes. It probably would have been less trouble to just pay the thing… but after all this, I’m never willingly doing business with them again.
For an import of a finished good sold directly to an end-user perhaps.
Many tariffs are on components that went into finished goods. In cases like that, consumers may have experienced higher prices but without the importer knowing who they are.
Or goods imported and then sold through a distributor (traditional or marketplace). That final sale was more expensive because the import was more expensive but the distribution channel knows who got the goods, but not how much the increase was and the importer knows the refund amount but not who the customers are.
>He continued: "Still, it took a lot of work for us to file all the paperwork to get the refund from the government, and it took work to build a little system to process the refund, and sometimes it felt like, wait, why are we seemingly doing more work than even gigantic companies are on this issue? That felt weird. But I guess it makes sense in a way, because our small size means we’re far more directly affected by something like a tariff."
Because it cost time/money to send money back to their customers
Why is it even a question that this should be the default? Each company has extensive records of which customers paid which portion of tariffs and exactly how much they were.
FedEx sent me a bill for tariffs. I disputed it, because I thought it was too high based on what it was (something I shipped out for service and got back… not a net-new import). It sat with no updates for months, despite repeated calls every time I got another bill, despite the dispute saying all attempts to collect would be placed on hold while the dispute was active.
The same day it looked like the tariffs would be reversed, they sold the disputed bill to a debt collector. Now I don’t know what happens. I disputed with the debt collector as well, since FedEx failed to follow their own process and public statements. FedEx could have just done nothing and cleared the debt when they got the refund, which is what their website said they were doing, but that’s not what they did.
At every step of the way they have failed to follow the communicated processes. It probably would have been less trouble to just pay the thing… but after all this, I’m never willingly doing business with them again.
For an import of a finished good sold directly to an end-user perhaps.
Many tariffs are on components that went into finished goods. In cases like that, consumers may have experienced higher prices but without the importer knowing who they are.
Or goods imported and then sold through a distributor (traditional or marketplace). That final sale was more expensive because the import was more expensive but the distribution channel knows who got the goods, but not how much the increase was and the importer knows the refund amount but not who the customers are.
>He continued: "Still, it took a lot of work for us to file all the paperwork to get the refund from the government, and it took work to build a little system to process the refund, and sometimes it felt like, wait, why are we seemingly doing more work than even gigantic companies are on this issue? That felt weird. But I guess it makes sense in a way, because our small size means we’re far more directly affected by something like a tariff."
Because it cost time/money to send money back to their customers
The Rules of Acquisition - Rule 1: Once you have their money, you never give it back.