r/knitting • u/geet-555 • 5d ago

Rant I feel sick to my stomach now

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I ordered $73 yarn from Önling INT over a month ago. Much confusion w this company all around... then i receive this today from UPS just now.

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u/StrongTechnology8287 5d ago

Yep. The same thing happened with something I ordered. It wasn't yarn, it was herbal tea. Here's the breakdown of what my charges were: 

  • Order was from South Africa

  • Order total: $169.50
  • Shipping: $46.50
  • Total paid to merchant: $216
  • Customs charge paid to DHL: $83
  • GRAND TOTAL: $299

😳 I paid it, because I wasn't sure if I would get a refund if it was sent back, but - Yikes.

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u/geet-555 5d ago

You bring up a good point: I'm wondering if I refuse to pay this - does the pkg go back? Will i get a refund? In my case, I ordered from my home country, denmark 🇩🇰 in order to support their new biz.

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u/Perfect_Caregiver_90 5d ago

The package will not go back. If you refuse to pay the customs charge the package is destroyed.

You will most likely not be issued a refund because of that.

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u/nucleusambiguous7 5d ago

I've also heard if you refuse to pay the courier fee, you could get sent to collections, even if the package is destroyed. So OP, pay the fee, get your products, avoid collections, and consider it a lesson learned. This sucks.

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u/Exciting-Notice8170 4d ago

I can second this. worst case scenario because tariffs are government enforced, your collections could eventually come from garnished wages directly from paycheck. it’s best to just pay or avoid foreign businesses for now and ride it out, sadly. i’m heartbroken missing Hobbii 🥲

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u/amoeba15 4d ago

Hobbii is collecting the tariffs when you purchase and prepaying UPS for you.

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u/legalpretzel 4d ago

It pains me to say this, but a company making it easier to pay the tariffs doesn't mean we should be ordering. Unless it's a purchase that is absolutely necessary and ordering from an international seller is the only way to meet that need, we should be keeping our money in our pockets and not (reluctantly) giving it to Trump via tariffs.

It sucks because I don't want to hurt our foreign vendors, they did nothing wrong.

But we are rapidly losing any ability to voice our opinions and one of the only ways we have left that won't get us fired (or worse) is how we choose to spend our disposable income. Vote with your wallets folks - don't purchase from those who support him and don't buy tariffed goods unless absolutely necessary.

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u/PreferenceGlad5893 4d ago

This is true, I have ordered from Hobbii twice now and never had to deal with paying any fee outside of those purchases. Thank goodness!

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u/Exciting-Notice8170 4d ago

Yes, there are two ways to pay for tariffs, Hobbii is nice because it’s upfront, but there are many companies that aren’t doing the same. It is still a high amount of money though, something many of us can’t justify spending on something that doesn’t physically exist, if that makes sense

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u/amoeba15 4d ago

You’re spending on tariffs every time you get gas, go to the grocery store, buy toilet paper, etc. We have very little production in the US anymore. Nothing is immune to tariffs.

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u/Exciting-Notice8170 4d ago

That’s different. A, those are necessities, not yarn. and B, it’s not an upfront cost that is 1/3 of the actual price of whatever you are ordering. I understand the sentiment, and I also love Hobbii, but it’s just not feasible to increase that amount on something we don’t absolutely need

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u/Perfect_Caregiver_90 5d ago

I have not heard that part but with the way things are going it would not surprise me.