charged $37 'import tax' by French gov / DHL (+$68 shipping)

[SeanF]

Hi team
So i ordered a set of 5 sample products, samples total cost $49. Shipping was $68.
Total $117. To then be asked to pay an extra $37 by french border control/DHL is a complete kick in the teeth
I've asked my supplier for a breakdown of the $68 shipping cost they gave. Not holding much hope out here
Can I claim anything back through paypal for this? I even asked them twice via email for confirmation that I would not have to pay import tax and it was covered by the shipping

 

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[Phones]

LOL

Friend... You paid 31%, which is probably just VAT, Duties and maybe some extra charge. I would be so happy if DHL only charged that here in Portugal.

DHL, Fedex and any other express company here in Portugal charge 30 to 60€ just for the Customs Work.

This means you order a 30€ item, 20€ in shipping, total 50€, around 15€ in VAT and stuff, and BAMM, 30€ just for DHL.

I don't know what you are mad about really. Your biggest concern should be that shipping price, unless what you are shipping is very big or heavy, you were ripped of.

DHL normal charge to Western Europe should be 5 to 8 usd / kg. Once you get to 150-200Kg you can get air freight which, right now, is at 2.5 USD /kg

Edit: Seems like they though it would pass through customs and told you you wouldn't paid import tax. Next time demand that it is send with "DDP - Delivery Duty Paid". But really, there's no reason for you to do that, you will be paying duty/vat anyway plus the extra charge for that service.

 

[SeanF]

LOL

Friend... You paid 31%, which is probably just VAT, Duties and maybe some extra charge. I would be so happy if DHL only charged that here in Portugal.

DHL, Fedex and any other express company here in Portugal charge 30 to 60€ just for the Customs Work.

This means you order a 30€ item, 20€ in shipping, total 50€, around 15€ in VAT and stuff, and BAMM, 30€ just for DHL.

I don't know what you are mad about really. Your biggest concern should be that shipping price, unless what you are shipping is very big or heavy, you were ripped of.

DHL normal charge to Western Europe should be 5 to 8 usd / kg. Once you get to 150-200Kg you can get air freight which, right now, is at 2.5 USD /kg

If you look further down the threads, you'll see already that I had asked in a thread if $68 was a normal shipping charge considering the weight and China to France and the consensus was 'yeh seems ok' so I had no reason to question it at the time.

For the record i ordered 5 sets of exercise resistance bands, which weigh maximum 2kg.

 

[Phones]

If you look further down the threads, you'll see already that I had asked in a thread if $68 was a normal shipping charge considering the weight and China to France and the consensus was 'yeh seems ok' so I had no reason to question it at the time.

For the record i ordered 5 sets of exercise resistance bands, which weigh maximum 2kg.

I missed the import tax thing. Sorry. So 68$ is not that off, the regular DHL price for this should be around 30-40$ do France.

This was given to me 3 years ago (should be cheaper now) :
POL:China
PODotugal
weight:1kg/34USD 2kg/45USD 3kg/54USD 4kg/63USD 5kg/72USD
Express lineHL

Portugal is more expensive to ship than France.

Anyway, you should always be the one paying the VAT, not the supplier, the DDP services are expensive.

Next time check EMS rates, usually they are better.

To get better shippingcost/unit you need more weight and units on each shipment. Then you can get prices from 5 to 6 USD per Kg by DHL. Also note that they charge volumetric weight if it's higher ( cm * cm * cm / 5000 ).

You can claim with Paypal... but do you really think it's worth the 37$? specially if the product quality is up to what you expected, you'd probably be better building a relationship with the supplier.

Sorry if I was a bit harsh on my first post, I often forget how frustrated I was on my first shipments/problems But you live and learn. But seriously, don't rant over 37$ on a sample shipment, you have bigger things to deal with. Next time you will know.

 

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[nomeus]

Wanted to order some kind of a t-shirt from the US to Eastern Europe, decided not to:

Living in Europe might suck some times..