Cannot buy Nexdock due to "new tariff regulations"

Hardware
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I tried to buy a Nexdock from https://nexdock.com/ but they suddenly cancelled my order, they emailed me with this explanation (this was last week):

We are in the process of changing our website to close all sales to non-USA destinations due to new tariff regulations which will take effect at the end of week. New changes will make it complicated to manage returns, shipping /customs related issues at foreign borders or warranties therefore we decided to stop international sales at this point.

Can someone remind me again how those new super high tariffs are good for US businesses?

Anyone know if there is a way to buy a Nexdock (or something similar) in Europe at the moment?

(Edit: A Nexdock is part of the “Lapdock kit” that Purism sells Lapdock Kit – Purism but that seemed to be out of stock so I tried to order from the Nexdock company.)

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You can try using an online marketplace or a package forwarding service.

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I see Amazon doesn’t carry them any more - just screens. But when I tried Amazon Europe, Amazon insisted on using Canada as my country to ship to. I deleted all my Amazon cookies, and it still forced me to use Canada as my ship-to.

You may fare better.

When I last looked for a compatible 'Lapdock as shown by Puri and didn’t want to wait for stock to be refilled, Nexdock was for sale at Amazon. There was no noticeable difference between the one on Amazon verses Purism site, except it was cheaper at Amazon.
I suggest you look at all the other Docks available at Amazon Europe.

I wasn’t aware that NexDock had to pay to export. I thought it was the recipients (Canada as another victim) pays at the border before the shipment continues. We (in Canada) pay the tariff of 25% on things we buy from US.

I thought tariffs by the US, were like if I sold you a Nexdock from Canada. US customs collects the tariff from you.

IMO: Tariffs only hurt consumers. Example, US tariffs against Canada aluminium would raise the price of US vehicles because what holds Detroit together, car makers, would have to pay US govt the tariff imposed by your president, on Canadian aluminium. I think this one is designed to force US car makers to use US aluminium - which the US has very little of.

Canada put 25% on US goods coming in to Canada.

So why is NexDock cancelling orders to be shipped? Shooting themselves in their other foot as well maybe?

~s

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I interpreted it as: Someone would have to pay time and/or money in order to import into the US if the unit gets returned for any reason, including warranty and non-warranty repair. Just not worth the hassle, particularly if the processes at the US border are new and immature.

As a hypothetical … I buy a Librem 5 from Purism. My government charges import duty. Fair enough (up to a point). Now the unit has to go back to Purism for repair. I or Purism has to fight at the US border to get the unit back in to the US without paying the new duty - and then after repair I or Purism has to fight at my border to get the unit back to me without paying the duty again.

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That is usually due to IP address geolocation, so if you use a proxy or Tor, Amazon (and other websites) will behave differently.

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Or a VPN. And if using either a proxy or a VPN then the other end has to be in the desired country.

So if you want to order from Amazon Europe but Amazon keeps throwing you back to Canada, and you use a VPN, then you would need a VPN provider that offers an endpoint server in Europe (which doesn’t sound like a big ask as many VPN providers offer a wide choice of server locations and you can easily change from one endpoint server to another).

Of course actually doing the order is an additional challenge. Amazon Europe could refuse to deliver to Canada and you would have to find a forwarder in Europe who will take delivery for you and then forward the package to Canada.

In my experience, it also depends on the specific seller. If the item is not being sold by (fulfilled by) Amazon itself then some sellers are fine about shipping anywhere and some sellers are quite restrictive.

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Here is an example package forwarding proxy service with Monero cryptocurrency payment support:

  • https://anonshop.app/

If you already have an Amazon(.com) account, you can use gift registries to order through a package forwarding proxy service as well:

  • https://peershop.app/
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  1. Log into the foreign Amazon site using your existing Amazon login details.

  2. Confirm an item you want to buy allows international shipping.

  3. Add the item to your shopping cart.

  4. Proceed to the purchase screen, add a different shipping address, and select it. (Or add the address to your existing Amazon account first, no difference; it will show up when you log into the foreign Amazon site.)

  5. Finalize purchase.

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Yep. I know about a lot of their spyways. I don’t use Tor much because just about everywhere I go, the site, or their cloud, requires me to play their stupid Google ‘Find the bus’ games, and some do it over and over even if the clicks are correct. Imunify360 is as paranoid.

Meh. What ever eh Frankless? It set out to be the “information Highway”. Now it’s the Google catalogue and our cage.

Yeah! Looks like summer is here - finally. I’d like to say all my roses, lilies, and fruit tree were budding. The deer killed all the branches on the lower part of fruit trees, and ate all the flower buds. I love deer, on a platter.
Have a good day - someone should,
~s

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That’s right. It was supposed to be the “information superhighway” but in reality it’s a small circular goat track that keeps you from getting away. :wink:

In isolation, that doesn’t work if the foreign site enforces geoblocking and persistently redirects you to their local site.

However, I haven’t found that with Amazon specifically. When Amazon is unavoidable … I have successfully ordered from amazon.com.au but also successfully ordered other things from amazon.com, providing that the seller ships to Australia at all. When on the Amazon international site, it will even implicitly filter by sellers / products that ship to Australia. All without having to use VPN / proxy / TOR / …

In fact, it is my unscientific impression that among sites that do georedirection at all, the majority make it a choice i.e. they say “hey, you’re on the US / global site and we have a site specifically for Australia / your region, do you want to go there?” but they don’t enforce it.

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In my case, I found out directly from a customer service rep on the U.S. site that I could also shop on EU Amazon sites, although not all products are available for international shipping, of course. As you indicated, one can filter for products that can be shipped internationally.

The first time I signed in on one of the overseas sites, I found out by accident that the logins get synced, so that if you change the password or shipping address on one, the change also gets applied to the other.

One nice thing is that EU VAT gets subtracted at purchase, when shipping out of the EU. I’m still required at California tax return time to add up my untaxed purchases to determine how much “use tax” I owe for the year, whether I itemize or select one of the allowed (low) blanket estimates, which are based on one’s annual income range.

P.S. Multiple Amazon sites >>> multiple chances to be targeted for data collection. :frowning_face:
(Hopefully the GDPR mitigates some of that, though.)

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That’s not how it worked for me here in Canada.

I ordered the L5 and it came with “free shipping”.
It was shipped to the DHL clearing house in Idaho.The free shipping cost $115 USD. Declared value was 599.00 USD.

I got a RMA and sent it back. It came back to me with no duty, no taxes - ours, or US

I would have to dig through a lot of emails to check, but I very sure I never paid anything when it came back.

~s

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But wasn’t that before things changed i.e. the “new tariff regulations” referenced in the title? i.e. in your case NAFTA-later-USMCA being altered / renegotiated (again)?

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Yes it was. And He changed the name to Gulf of United States, but the gulf didn’t change.
My point, tariffs are based on % of value. If a repaired phone came through Canada Customs, and the waybill says repair fee $0.00, IMO, there will be no duty on repaired phones. US customs doesn’t put the tariff on outgoing, neither does Canada, it’s on incoming products.

I received a email response from Purism regarding the return of the L5

This shipment includes the following items:

Item # Description Qty
L5V1 Librem 5 Mobile Phone (warranty repair) 1

Notes:

Modem firmware updated

Thank you for your business and we look forward to serving you in the future!

The value on that waybill was nil, so no fees, taxes, duty or tariffs.

He put a tariff on aluminum. When our aluminum is going through US Customs and they collect it there. A tariff is supposed to price things so high that no one wants to buy it. Like the price of aluminum plus import, taxes, duty and tariff (whatever number He set for aluminium)

Canadian tariffs of 25% on goods from the United States: How they apply at the border.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is collecting the tariffs in the form of a surtax.
Source is the link below

The US isn’t collecting the 25% our seigneurs in Ottawa responded with. Full documents are at placed on all US goods coming in to Canada.

Side note that when Trump said he would use economic war, I bought 3 year more years on my servers and 2 years on domain names. No matter if he tariffs bits and bytes or not, the price always goes up anyway.

As for Nextdoc thinking they need to pay the tariff when European buys a L5, Europe collects the tariff. I let them know I am selling shares in a bridge.
CAVEAT: Canada, Europe, and others collect the tariff they put on imported unless there is a separate demand by US that Europeans collect and remit to US. But the paperwork behind is ludicrous.

It’s clear some Canadian retailers have already marked up goods by 25%.
Produce from US is already prime scam for Canadian grocers except for a few grocers that are not owned by the US.

~s

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I can’t speak for either the US government or the government of Canada but my government reserves the right to determine the true value of goods if it thinks that the value declared in the paperwork is not fair dinkum (and prima facie $0.00 is obviously not the true value, and hence would likely attract scrutiny from border officials).

The key point though is not really the value of the goods but persuading the governments that it is a repair i.e. having the necessary paperwork to demonstrate the movements of the goods and that tariffs were correctly paid at the time of original purchase. I guess Nexdock have decided to opt out of that bureaucratic BS, at least until processes are in place both within government and then within their own company.

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So what. What’s your point. I’m not suggesting everyone or anyone can change what your country does. Too, if you don’t speak for your country, “government reserves the right” is who speaking?

Back on topic:

What is the “the value” of a return from repairs that were under warranty? The TRUE value for a repair under warranty, if were not going lie and put a fake value? Picayune!

You won’t collect the tariff when you ship it out to me. My govt would collect the tariff (25% right now) when I import it in to Canada. YOU don’t charge Canada’s tariff. And you don’t add it either.

What ever. I think too many young people at Nexdock searched, oops sorry, Googled what a tariff is and got so confused, they shut down exporting their goods. They don’t have to collect any tariff when exporting. Just importing. They should return math and business math to kids.

'Nuff said
~s

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