Tariffs apparently already having an impact on non-DJI resellers.

PropSpin · May 24, 2019

Last Saturday I decided to purchase a battery from the retailer that I purchased my M2P from. I just learned today that they are out of inventory and are not sure when they will receive new stock. According to the rep I spoke to, it has to do with the recent tariffs and supposedly their shipment is stuck in port or some such nonsense.
So I decided to buy a fly more kit on Amazon for $322 - last one. It's fulfilled by Amazon - hopefully there will be no issues with it.

Former Member · May 25, 2019

Something tells me that you timed this well. I think most inventory is going to sell quickly before/if they raise prices again in November if the full tariff goes into affect.

PropSpin · May 25, 2019

Thunderdrones said:
Something tells me that you timed this well. I think most inventory is going to sell quickly before/if they raise prices again in November if the full tariff goes into affect.

Yeah, my understanding is that prices on a lot of things, electronics anyways, are going up end of year.

Thomas B · May 25, 2019

Made me think... just picked up 2 more M2P batteries... bought from DJI through Amazon Prime. Info says they will arrive Sunday May 26....Free shipping and 6 months to pay. Just wanted to make sure I had power to fly while all the tariff stuff is sorted out.

AMann · May 25, 2019

I just purchased two survey grade GPS units for my school, the prices were not inflated...yet, and I received a educational discount for them, but now Fedex says they will be charging me an extra 20% for duty and tariff fees due on delivery

What the heck, there are no affordable good survey units made in the US, in fact the good ones all used to come from Switzerland or Germany, and now they come from Asia.

PropSpin · May 25, 2019

As it turns out, the fly more kit I bought wasn't the last one - just the last one from the particular vendor. I was confused as only one kit/vendor showed up on Amazon when I searched for it, and it's no longer as obvious that other vendors were selling it. In fact, there was no way to see the two other vendors selling it for that price ($322). I only saw other vendors after I went back to the product page after my purchase and it was acting glitchy until I closed my browser and redid the search.

PropSpin · May 25, 2019

AMann said:
I just purchased two survey grade GPS units for my school, the prices were not inflated...yet, and I received a educational discount for them, but now Fedex says they will be charging me an extra 20% for duty and tariff fees due on delivery What the heck, there are no affordable good survey units made in the US, in fact the good ones all used to come from Switzerland or Germany, and now they come from Asia.

That's lousy. Seems like they are obligated to give it to you at the price agreed at the time of purchase. BTW, what does Fedex have to do with the whole process? They're only delivering.

Maybe this will be an opportunity to bring some manufacturing back to the US. It never seemed to be such a great idea to me to outsource our manufacturing ability to other countries.

tcope · May 25, 2019

AMann said:
I just purchased two survey grade GPS units for my school, the prices were not inflated...yet, and I received a educational discount for them, but now Fedex says they will be charging me an extra 20% for duty and tariff fees due on delivery What the heck, there are no affordable good survey units made in the US, in fact the good ones all used to come from Switzerland or Germany, and now they come from Asia.

They should be charging the seller as that is their customer. If the seller won't honor the selling price, that is Bait and Switch.

AMann · May 25, 2019

PropSpin said:
That's lousy. Seems like they are obligated to give it to you at the price agreed at the time of purchase. BTW, what does Fedex have to do with the whole process? They're only delivering.

Maybe this will be an opportunity to bring some manufacturing back to the US. It never seemed to be such a great idea to me to outsource our manufacturing ability to other countries.

Fedex is the import agent for the transaction, its the US charging and keeping the fee. Look at where all good high end optics, measurement systems, cameras, sensors, etc., are made. Those are going to get expensive for us for awhile until the US catches up, but I think most of us won’t benefit by it in the long run.

AMann · May 25, 2019

tcope said:
They should be charging the seller as that is their customer. If the seller won't honor the selling price, that is Bait and Switch.

Its not the seller’s fault- they are exporting it at the same price to all countries. Its the US that is charging the tariff and collecting it during import.

tcope · May 25, 2019

AMann said:
Its not the seller’s fault- they are exporting it at the same price to all countries. Its the US that is charging the tariff and collecting it during import.

I'm not saying it is anyone's fault but it is the sellers responsibility. If I tell you I'll ship something to your house for $xx... I can't then tell you that you have to pay more than that. It's the same as me selling you a widget for $10 and then showing up at your house the next day saying that I can't make a profit so you own me another $10.

AMann · May 25, 2019

tcope said:
I'm not saying it is anyone's fault but it is the sellers responsibility. If I tell you I'll ship something to your house for $xx... I can't then tell you that you have to pay more than that. It's the same as me selling you a widget for $10 and then showing up at your house the next day saying that I can't make a profit so you own me another $10.

I agree but they are not responsible for VAT (Europe’s import fee), US tariffs, etc. Also, each country has a different fee, and they may change a lot like the US’s, so its really up to the buyer to find out the import fee. The company has free shipping, which is independent of each country’s import fee, and do inform that buyers are responsible for import fees and taxes at final checkout. Get used to is if you buy directly from exporters- it seems to be the norm now. If you buy from an importer (B&H, US Nikon, Best Buy, etc.) the cost is rolled in to the sale price already.

Like it or not, we the buyer pay the tariffs, not the manufacturers. Ive sold to England on EBay from the US, and Fedex collects the VAT fee (which I had no idea what it would be) from the buyer when it gets there too.