No chance of that. Sales taxes are as built into the social fabric, just like tipping. Businesses would fight hard against a VAT.
The current issue is the uncertainty associated with frequent, significant tariff changes. I haven’t been impacted directly (yet), so I console myself with a taco.
Merlin is a well established UK store with a physical shop. Back in the late 90s they had a well-regarded wheelbuilding service and their own steel frames, whereas now they seem to sell a lot of OEM parts. I’ve no idea about international shipping etc, but they are legit.
Is it possible that all of your prior orders were less than $800 and this order was over $800?
$800 is the current threshold for when import duties get taxed and has been since 2015. That exemption has been removed for goods from China but is still in effect for goods from anywhere else. I ordered a DA groupset from Merlin two years ago and I was charged import fees because it was over the limit.
It clearly states in Merlin’s delivery section that it is the responsibility of the buyer to check what import duties you may have to pay.
Without being harsh, I’m afraid it is a little naïve to not check (or expect) any import duty - especially with what’s going on in your country right now.
Merlin are an excellent company that I have dealt with for many years and I would hate for them to get negative press through something that’s no fault of their own.
Don’t open a UPS payment account. I had one, and UPS started billing the card for a monthly subscription to something called “UPS My choice”, which I never signed up for. It took 3 months and a lot of yelling, escalation and threats of complaints to the State Attorney general’s office to shut the ripoff down.
As a Canadian that’s ordered more goods from US, Europe and Asia than I care to add up, I order everything with the assumption that I’ll need to pay at least taxes and duty on entry, and depending on type of shipment (FedEx and UPS ground) maybe brokerage fees, which will add up to a lot. It is always a pleasant surprise to see no duty/tax charged, and once in a while you get the less-than-pleasant surprise, but unless at check-out it explicitly states duty/taxes are paid, you run the risk of being charged those on delivery.
Yep, the good old CBSA lottery. Order something and wait and guess What’s it going to be this time.
I’ve had really good luck with bike24 so far, only one rather large order got dinged. They ship DHL and in this case it got picked up and delivered by Crappy Post.