Absolutely. That's very often how customs works. As a general rule, the sender is responsible for postage, while the recipient is responsible for customs, and the package only gets released to them once they pay it.
But many times there are no customs fees, so there's no issue -- it depends entirely on the pair of sending and receiving country and the category and amount of merchandise. That may have been your experience.
Generally speaking, customs can't be charged upfront with your order. Perhaps there are exceptions with certain delivery services in certain countries which have managed to modernize some of it, but I haven't come across that yet.
But many times there are no customs fees, so there's no issue -- it depends entirely on the pair of sending and receiving country and the category and amount of merchandise. That may have been your experience.
Generally speaking, customs can't be charged upfront with your order. Perhaps there are exceptions with certain delivery services in certain countries which have managed to modernize some of it, but I haven't come across that yet.