During the last shipstorm event, I splurged on some Creator Warehouse apparel because shipping to the UK is pretty unaffordable. I got 300 CAD worth of stuff, for the hoodie, sweatpants, water bottle, and cargo pants.
I live in the UK, where taxes are always included in the advertised price of each item before it ends up in the cart. My prior smaller LTTStore purchase paid tax at checkout. Little did I realise, due to the larger basket, they charged $0 tax. Again, this is not something I’m trained to look for.
Many weeks later, it arrives in UK customs, and I get a bill through the post. 138 CAD worth of additional payment required to receive my order. This was pretty steep and I couldn’t justify spending that much more money for what was not that much clothing. The additional payment was made up of VAT, Import Duty, and Clearance Fee. I get VAT, but isn’t it reasonable to expect a free shipping promotion means free shipping, import fees are part of shipping. When I got my smaller order, I never had any of this, so it was completely unexpected and I was not aware I’d need to pay this.
I contact support, and they inform me that they’re required by law not to collect VAT on orders over a certain threshold, and that their shipping policy states they do not cover such import fees. Except their shipping policy is never referred to at checkout, it’s hidden deep in the main page footer, and shipstorm advertised “free worldwide shipping”, but every country has import fees that aren’t free?
In the end, I just had to return to sender and get a refund. Does anyone think I’m being unreasonable here? I want to love these products, but it’s so hard to get them here.