Someone else shared this 3 years ago in Ideas, but I am making a new post that clearly outlines the problem as it has not been corrected.
Currently, the way that Shipstation is set up is so that when you hit "bill duties and taxes to the payor of shipping charges", it adds two items to the commercial invoice -
- 1. Incoterms of DDP
- 2. custom text that states to bill charges to [account used for shipping]
When the shipping account being used is our own account, this is not an issue as we are the shipper (which DDP outlines as the shipper is paying for duties) and the custom text says to use our shipping number.
When the shipping account being used is a 3rd party, these two statements are contradictory as DDP says to bill the shipper and then this custom text says to bill 3rd party.
This is a real issue that needs to get resolved ASAP as it holds up shipments and generates hours upon hours of un-needed communication between FedEx and the shipping department over the confusion of these two opposing statements.
Here is how to fix the current broken state of the commercial invoices and bill duties function. When the bill duties box is checked, the following should happen -
- 1. When the shipping account is 3rd party // Remove DDP and leave the custom text stating to bill 3rd party
- 2. When the shipping account is the shipper's account // Keep DDP and leave out the custom text
If you want to go one move further than fixing it, and make it so it is in it's ideal state -
- Be able to pick what is charged to the 3rd party - if it is just shipping or just duties or both. Depending on what is selected will either add or remove the DDP or custom text alongside changing the shipping account.
The biggest issue with the current model is that I have to check the box no matter what as I cannot have the recipient paying duties (we need to either bill ourselves or the 3rd party) and when I have to ship on 3rd party account numbers I cannot because of the two contradictory statements present on the CI.
.png "Alumni"){kind=icon}
