US woman fires up at $300 fee after Glassons order as Aussies defend the brand

A US woman has fired up after copping a $300 fee after ordering from an Australian site – but her rant has been met with little sympathy from Aussies.

A US woman has been left gobsmacked after placing an online order from a store in Australia, only to be hit with a more than $300 fee after checking out.

Taylor Toftemark recently took to TikTok to share her disbelief after buying roughly $125 ($US80) worth of items from fashion brand Glassons, with the order to be shipped from Australia to the US.

Glassons was founded in New Zealand but also has a strong presence in Australia, with headquarters in both countries.

But it was an email she later received from shipping company DHL that left her “so mad and sad”.

“Today I get an email saying I have to pay $200 ($A312) to get it shipped here,” Ms Toftemark said, adding that she initially assumed it was a “scam” email.

The email stated that she needed to pay the import duty fee and, if it was not paid within five days, the parcel would be returned to the sender.

On its website DHL explain import duty fees are “specific taxes charged on imported goods”. “The rate is determined by the product’s classification, its value, and its country of origin, the website states.

She quickly realised it wasn’t a scam and that, if she wanted her items, she would need to pay the fee – and she wasn’t happy.

“Like what are you f**king talking about?” Ms Toftemark said.

“Why would I pay double what I paid? And I already paid. Why wouldn’t you tell me this at checkout and I could have saved myself the hassle?”

While the email from DHL did not explicitly state the reason behind the high fee, there has been a rise of American shoppers receiving similar emails after ordering products from overseas.

It follows a recent change made by US President Donald Trump to the ‘de minimis’ rule, which allows imports valued under $800 to enter the US duty-free – provided they are posted directly to individual buyers.

In February, Mr Trump imposed a 120 per cent tax on the value of any items or package originating from China, or a flat fee of $100 from May 2.

This means that even products manufactured in China but then shipped from Australia to the US are impacted by this change.

Taylor Toftemark initially thought the DHL email was a scam. Picture: Taylor Toftemark/Instagram

She questioned why she wasn’t told about the fees before paying for her items. Picture: Taylor Toftemark/TikTok

So, in Ms Toftemark’s case, even though she purchased the items from Australia, Glassons products are manufactured in China, India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam.

Australian social media users were quick to defend the store. The video gained more than 1000 comments, with the majority pointing out Ms Toftemark’s own government was responsible for the extra fees and it had nothing to do with Australia, with many of them calling out the tariffs imposed by the US.

“Why are you blaming Australia for American tariffs?” one person asked.

“You do realise Australia wanted nothing to do with tariffs, right? Don’t pin this on us, it’s not our fault,” another said.

Others pointed out the money wasn’t going to the company and it wasn’t their responsibility to calculate the taxes being imposed by the US government.

“It’s your government imposing additional taxes, it’s not the international communities’ job to do the maths for you,” one said.

Another wrote: “It is not the job of foreign companies to educate Americans about American taxes.”

Others questioned how there were still people in the US who didn’t understand how tariffs work.

“Glassons isn’t charging you $200 to ship the product babes lol it’s your government’s tariffs. How are Americans still not getting it. It’s been months at this point,” one social media user said.

Another added: “Americans finally finding out what tariffs mean.”

The US has imposed a 10 per cent baseline tariff on a swath imported goods, including from Australia.

In addition to the 10 per cent baseline tariff, higher “reciprocal” tariff rates have also been announced for many other US trading partners.

However, the majority these higher reciprocal tariffs are subject to a 90-day temporary suspension until July 9, 2025.

China was hit harder, receiving tariffs of up to 145 per cent and, in response, the country raised tariffs on US goods to 125 per cent.

Earlier this week, the US and China announced that had agreed to a 90-day pause on the ultra-high tariff levels, with the deal involving a drop of 115 percentage points on both rates.

The US is also rolling back changes to the exemption low value goods, with that tariff falling to 54 per cent and, while the $100 flat fee will remain, a planned rise to $200 in June will not go ahead.

American shoppers have been left gobsmacked by the import duty payments. Picture: zmellymel/TikTok

People have been taking to social media to share the emails. Picture: nanifranzitta/TikTok

The recent announcement will be welcome news to many US shoppers who have grown accustomed to ordering products from overseas businesses and have been left horrified by the recent exorbitant import fees.

Social media user, Nani Franzitta, recently took to TikTok to share that she had been hit with a $US1834 import duty payment after placing an order with Australian fashion brand, White Fox Boutique.

“I’m sorry, what??” she captioned the video.

Another American shopper, who goes by Mellymel online, was horrified after copping a $US115.91 import fee after ordering from Australian activewear brand, Crop Shop Boutique.

“So I ordered this package from CSB and it’s over $300 and I just got this email from DHL saying I have to pay $115 to accept my package. I can’t. I’m sorry, but I can’t pay that,” she said.

Originally published as US woman fires up at $300 fee after Glassons order as Aussies defend the brand