Boston grandma receives $30 Barbie from Canada, then $802 tariff charge from shipper

 BOSTON (WCVB via CNN) — Bonnie O’Connell has a long history of paying her bills on time.

“I tend to do the right thing,” she said. “If I get a bill, I pay it.”

But not this time.

When O’Connell received an $802 invoice for a package she received recently via FedEx, she knew something was wrong.

After all, the bill was for a Barbie doll that cost just $30.

“I just got a pain in the pit of my stomach,” O’Connell said. “I didn’t even know what to do or what to say.”

A veteran bargain shopper, O’Connell was thrilled when she first spotted a Barbie wearing a Professional Women’s Hockey League jersey with a Tim Horton’s logo.

It was a perfect holiday gift for her 4-year-old granddaughter, who just started skating and is enamored with Barbie dolls, so she asked her cousin in Nova Scotia to pick it up and ship it to her.

But with the United States adding a 35% tax — or tariff — on goods from Canada, that means filling out all sorts of new paperwork to ship them.

A clerk at the local FedEx told her cousin they would take care of it.

“They just did it for him,” O’Connell said. “What he didn’t notice — because there was a line behind them — is when they handed hi...