Importing an item from China

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archibald

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I need advice from members on the most economical way in importing
an item from China.The box size is 200x150x50mm.Weight 500 grams.
I assume all parcels go through Customs for duty and sales tax purposes.
I am not so sure about the postal system in view of the present back log at
the International JHB Postal Hub.
The alternative is the Courier system but which one is the most economical.
Advice and tips from members will be appreciated.
 
I recently purchased some items from China. Basically it has taken four months and I am still waiting, if I had known this then I would have paid for a courier instead.
 
I have ascertained that an incoming parcel attracts the following charges.
Vat of 14% plus 10% upliftment fee calculated on the Vat amount plus
R39 Clearance fee plus duty if applicable.
 
EMS is managed by the Post office as well, so don't use them. They take forever.

If you need it in less than a month, you may need to use DHL or Fedex.

You will pay VAT of 14% of 110% of the declared value.

You will pay customs duty of xx%, based on what it is.

You will pay a clearance fee to the handling agent. It varies, but the SAPO rate if you use EMS or snail mail is R19 or R29 if I recall.

If the shipper declares it as a gift and the value is less than R400, you might not pay the customs fee. This is limited to 2 gifts per person per year.
 
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In order of pricing:

From China - China Post is cheapest. Takes up to 6 months though at worst. Tracking sucks balls.
Taobao now has a 2 week service for international thats courier based. Tracking available.
EMS more expensive. Tracking available. May or may not incur extra charges.
DHL more expensive. Tracking available. May or may not incur extra charges, including processing fee. Usually 1 in 3 or so hits that.

Never use Fedex. Never.


You can do DHL via Guangzhou for about 150rmb odd from anywhere in the mainland (ask your sender to organize on Taobao, ton's of people do door to door service).
150RMB = R300 odd.

R1 = RMB0.50

RMB is Chinese Money (RMB = 人民币, or in pinyin - ren min bi, hence RMB..)
 
OK, so I am looking to send off some earphones to Philippines for repairs. Will I have to pay charges on their return? The repairs will cost.

Also, I may need to return another pair to China (or Taiwan as I've read online) so that they can replace the cable. They will do this for free under warranty, but I must pay freight charges. I may have to consider DHL here, probably too risky to have these stolen. How do I handle customs? It's a warranty "repair", plus I paid VAT etc when I got these. And how can I send these, Aramex gave me an amount of R410 (and that's a bubble envelope).

When I purchased them I paid around R600 for DHL, plus, on arrival, an extra R150 and VAT - but this was for 2 sets sealed in their boxes. Took 4 days to get to me though.

So basically I am looking for advice on options I have to send and then what options I have to have items posted back. Also how to deal with customs in this situation. No one has really ever helped at customs or the post office (latter is better though).

I just can't afford to have these lost or stolen, but at the same time I'm not looking to spend a fortune. Maybe DHL has a "slow" method I can use (not looking for the method where they are just the carrier though, where they take it from country to country only). I'm sure I may go through the post office to send but receiving has always been a terrible thing here. EMS took about three weeks the one time I used them.
Maybe others have more knowledge?
 
archibald said:
I need advice from members on the most economical way in importing
an item from China.The box size is 200x150x50mm.Weight 500 grams.
I assume all parcels go through Customs for duty and sales tax purposes.
I am not so sure about the postal system in view of the present back log at
the International JHB Postal Hub.
The alternative is the Courier system but which one is the most economical.
Advice and tips from members will be appreciated.
Click to expand...

The only time it will not go through customs is if the package is a small envelope and the declared value is less than USD20.It will go through customs regardless of whether you use a courier or Sapo.

The courier company will get your parcel back from customs in a maximum of 48 hours,whereas the post office will leave it with customs for an unspecified time,in my experience,usually a week or 2 weeks max.

All in all. You will have your parcel in about 6 weeks


When the sender sends off your parcel,you can track the parcel on sapo website.It will show up on the site as soon as they receive it.Then you can track it further
 
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