DHL/Customs unethical practice

D

DuCy

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I bought an LCD screen for SGSII for from Alibaba.com for 129USD (~R1000). Few days later DHL requested that i send them invoice and receipt for customs clearance. Now i just got another email from DHL asking me to pay R2107.40 in order for them to release my parcel, the reason apparently is because the seller's declared value is less than what i paid for. Surely this kind behavior is unacceptable, why do i have to pay a penalty for something the seller did, i wasn't even aware of it.

Negotiating with a DHL argent at customs isn't helping. Anybody knows what route i can follow to have this resolved?
 
It's not their fault,they are merely following the law. Fact is the seller probably under-rated the price to try to bypass customs tax and now it's come to bite back. The responsibility here lies on the seller and you. Buying items from overseas moves the Tax liability squarely on you to be aware of

THink of it like this: if you bought a stolen car and the car is recovered,do you blame the police or the seller?
 
It's likely they misdeclared the value and content,and you get slapped with a whopper of a fine

My recommendation is thus:
Request a statement of the exact fees being levied for this package from customs,from there you can determine exactly the charges being added. If I remember right electronics aren't subject to duties but will be VAT charged.

After this if you disagree you may be able to find use in the following bit of info
The right to appeal Customs disputes is preserved in the revised Kyoto Convention and is provided for in the legislation and procedures of many Customs administrations that are signatory to this instrument. In South Africa, Sections 77 A to H of the Customs and Excise Act No.91 of 1964 (the Act) prescribes the measures to be followed in order to lodge a valid appeal.

An appeal is deemed to be valid if specific predefined criteria are met. Amongst which, the appeal must be delivered in writing on the prescribed form DA51 to the SARS branch office having raised the assessment or decision in question. This is termed the internal administrative appeal (IAA) process.

It is essential that the DA51 is accurately completed and the grounds for appeal are extensively substantiated. Where clearing agents have been delegated to oversee the procedure, be sure to place emphasis on the timing and the accurate referencing of all submissions to SARS.

The various stages within the appeal process are governed by strict timeframes and it is imperative that the requisite documents and forms are timeously submitted at the respective SARS office.
It is important to note that no Customs duties or VAT which are due and payable may be waived in terms of the appeals process. Assessments raised should be provisionally paid on a DA 70, pending the outcome of the appeals process.
Click to expand...

To appeal the amount you still have to pay the full amount and then lodge your appeal as I understand it,or have it be reassessed by customs if they misrepresented the content
 
Best would be to contact the seller and request a re-send. (tell them the full story - mis-represented amounts etc)

Or else just buy a new one(and get proper sales amount on import papers), seems less money and effort than fighting customs. - Seems they may be right anyway.
 
A company sent me some spare parts marked GIFT. The parts were some screws for a computer case worth a few rand at most.

The customs guy spent 30 minutes haggling with me about the true value and then pronounced what he thought the value should be. TOTALLY UNPROFESSIONAL lot imho!
 
When this happens you should then refuse the parcel and have it sent back to the US.
The seller should then give you a full refund.

Better than paying exorbitant customs fees.
 
PsyWulf said:
It's likely they misdeclared the value and content,and you get slapped with a whopper of a fine

My recommendation is thus:
Request a statement of the exact fees being levied for this package from customs,from there you can determine exactly the charges being added. If I remember right electronics aren't subject to duties but will be VAT charged.

After this if you disagree you may be able to find use in the following bit of info


To appeal the amount you still have to pay the full amount and then lodge your appeal as I understand it,or have it be reassessed by customs if they misrepresented the content
Click to expand...

Thanks for the useful info. i received the detailed invoice:

Penalty: R1516
Vat: R161
Clearance: R350
Disbursement: R80

I've sent the email to seller if that doesn't work I'll try getting refund via paypal. I have no intentions of paying or wasting my time fighting with DHL/Customs on this one, i see hellopeter has tons of similar complains. I wonder what do they do with all our uncollected stuff.
 
What did the seller declare the value as? Maybe he actually declared it right but customs didnt "believe" him.
 
DHL declared a modem as worth $20000 dollars once when they were told $200. Customs delayed it by weeks until I could prove the value. Even then it caused problems because they don't have common sense at customs.
 
DuCy said:
The declared value was US$15, on my receipt i sent to DHL it shows US$129 + US$35 (shipping)
Click to expand...

This looks fairly intentional to bypass customs,and unfortunately they got suspicious and now you get a lovely bill for their sneakiness,without the fine the bill would've been acceptable I suspect
 
PsyWulf said:
This looks fairly intentional to bypass customs,and unfortunately they got suspicious and now you get a lovely bill for their sneakiness,without the fine the bill would've been acceptable I suspect
Click to expand...

It definitely was but my problem is that i had no idea this was the case, hence i was happy to present them with a proof of the actual value without realizing i was putting myself up for a penalty. This could happen to anyone and i think the penalty is too excessive, i wonder what the consumer protection council would say about this.
 
Technically speaking they can only intervene with local sellers,as your purchase was from overseas they cannot say much. The Customs issue is SARS which is also not covered in the CPC's mandate.

These are some of the reasons purchasing overseas items is risky,sometimes it goes right and other times its a royal ****up
 
When ever I buy something, I instruct the seller to attach the paypal invoice to the exterior of the package.

I once ordered speaker cable from the UK... ordered the exact same cable twice, one week apart... first time I got whacked as PC Parts... second time nothing.

Custom don't know their head from their arse.
 
hahahahahahahahaha

seriously
you try and cheat customs and this is your thread title:

DHL/Customs unethical practice

What exactly have DHL done wrong here?
You got caught and fined, how unethical,
ROFL
 
Why blame anyone except the sender? The thing is that nine times out of ten undervaluing something will fly right by customs, although some common sense has to be applied when assigning a value. I know in other countries people use various tricks to get things through their local customs without paying duties.

xrapidx said:
When ever I buy something, I instruct the seller to attach the paypal invoice to the exterior of the package.

I once ordered speaker cable from the UK... ordered the exact same cable twice, one week apart... first time I got whacked as PC Parts... second time nothing.

Custom don't know their head from their arse.
Click to expand...
It's actually sometimes tricky trying to figure under which heading something belongs. I have seen some weird choices.

Since wire is made here too I wonder if there actually should've been high duties, but it got misclassified.
 
noxibox said:
It's actually sometimes tricky trying to figure under which heading something belongs. I have seen some weird choices.

Since wire is made here too I wonder if there actually should've been high duties, but it got misclassified.
Click to expand...

The first time when I was charged, it took them about 3 weeks to decide what it was... kept watching the status via online tracking CAPEMAIL > CUSTOMS > CAPEMAIL > CUSTOMS > CAPEMAIL > CUSTOMS.
 
lived666 said:
hahahahahahahahaha

seriously
you try and cheat customs and this is your thread title:

DHL/Customs unethical practice

What exactly have DHL done wrong here?
You got caught and fined, how unethical,
ROFL
Click to expand...

Obviously you didn't read the thread properly
 
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