Dame Products seeks tariff refund as Customs portal issues delay claims

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Dame Products tariff refund

Highlights

Dame Products seeks about $90,000 in tariff refunds but faces delays due to prolonged login issues with the U.S. Customs refund portal since Monday.
China-based manufacturing raised costs when tariffs increased last year, forcing Dame Products to adjust forecasts and deal with stockouts amid retailer pricing constraints.
Dame implemented a $5–$15 Trump tariff surcharge on its website but changed the display after heavy cart abandonment, later refunding less than $10,000 following a recent court decision.

Refund claim faces early processing hurdles

As first reported by Business Insider, Dame Products is trying to file for a tariff refund after U.S. Customs and Border Protection opens a refund portal for importers on Monday. Cofounder Alexandra Fine says the company is struggling to log in to the system, delaying the first step in submitting its claim.

Fine says the company has not accessed the portal in more than five years, even though its customs broker uses it regularly. She says an operations employee spent more than five hours on hold on Wednesday before being disconnected, after a three-and-a-half-hour wait the previous day ended the same way, and only received a callback at 2:30 a.m. on Friday that did not resolve the issue.

The refund is significant for the business because Dame says it is seeking about $90,000. Fine says the company had been reducing overhead before tariffs increased, but the added import costs erased that progress for the small team.

China manufacturing exposure raises cost pressure

Dame, founded in 2014 by Fine and Janet Lieberman, sells sexual wellness products through its own website and retailers including Walmart and Target. The company says it initially kept part of its supply chain in the U.S., but moved production to China because final assembly was costly and silicone mold production, a key input for its vibrators, was difficult to source elsewhere.

When tariffs rose last year and again after what Fine describes as "Liberation Day," the company says incoming inventory suddenly costs far more than expected, forcing it to revise forecasts and leaving it out of stock for some periods. Fine says retailer pricing constraints also limit its ability to pass through higher costs quickly, since some chains require 90 days' notice for price changes.

Dame responds by adding a Trump tariff surcharge to website orders, framing it as both a price adjustment and a consumer education effort. Fine says the move brings publicity but also drives heavy cart abandonment, and the $5 to $15 fee does not fully offset the tariff burden.

The company later changes the checkout display so the surcharge appears crossed out and customers do not pay it. Fine says Dame decides early that if court action leads to tariff refunds, it will automatically return the separately charged fee to customers, and it refunds less than $10,000 within weeks of the court decision cited in the interview.

A spokesperson for U.S. Customs tells the publication that the agency does not immediately comment on the login problem but is looking into it. Fine says the company is continuing with the process because the refund amount matters materially to its operations.

Our earlier report on the U.S. Customs CAPE refund portal explained how its launch intensified pressure on major retailers and shipping groups to decide whether they will pass IEEPA tariff refunds back to consumers and small businesses. It outlined Senator Edward J. Markey’s push for detailed disclosure on expected refund amounts, timelines, and distribution plans after the Supreme Court struck down the tariffs, alongside broader calls to make reimbursements more automatic and less burdensome.

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