Quince customers mistakenly hit with tariff bills
Some Quince customers are receiving tariff bills days or weeks after receiving their orders, according to social media posts on sites like Reddit and X.
The company confirmed the incidents to Modern Retail, citing the issue as a clerical error on shipping partner FedEx’s end. Because Quince sources and ships products globally, some customers’ orders were marked and billed the current tariff rate. As an example, one customer reported being billed a 48% tax on a Quince order coming from India.
Through communications in recent weeks, Quince assured customers “You do not need to pay any additional fees.” The company says it prepays the latest duties on behalf of customers and absorbs the costs.
“This issue was a FedEx error. We are aware that approximately 9,000 customers received tariff bills in error after receiving their Quince orders,” Antonieta Moreland, head of brand at Quince, said in a statement.
Moreland said Quince is continuing to work with FedEx on the back end to resolve the matter. “We want to be absolutely clear: Our customers are not responsible for any of these charges,” she said.
According to one customer who posted on X, Quince addressed the issue immediately. Moreland also said that a small subset of affected customers paid the erroneous invoices. “And although the error was FedEx’s, Quince immediately stepped in to proactively refund customers directly out of pocket to expedite resolution,” she said.
According to logistics experts, the error is emblematic of the complicated nature of fulfillment and shipping under today’s tariff policies.
Kelly Martinez, co-president and founder of logistics provider ePost Global, said in the case of Quince, what may have happened is that “one of Quince’s manufacturers shipped an order internationally using a Delivered Duty Unpaid (DDU) service, meaning duties and taxes were not prepaid and were instead billed directly to the customer.”
“Most brands proactively cover or include these fees upfront to prevent surprise charges at delivery,” Martinez said. In this case, FedEx attempted to collect directly from the customer, which prompted the confusion.
This incident highlights a broader challenge many e-commerce companies are navigating, Martinez said. “With new tariff regulations recently implemented, previously reliable shipping strategies are being re-evaluated,” she said. “Retailers are now reassessing their cross-border fulfillment models to prevent delivery delays, unexpected costs and customer dissatisfaction.” Martinez expects these types of clerical issues to become even more critical to resolve during the peak Q4 season.
Meanwhile, Quince will monitor these orders to prevent future orders from resulting in tariffs billed to the customers. “We believe our customers should never bear the burden of an error like this, and we acted decisively to ensure that didn’t happen,” Moreland said.