DHL Import Duty

[Disparate Dan]

2 minutes ago, Ralf001 said:

 

You courier was DHL ?

No, another global outfit.

[Ralf001]

Just now, Disparate Dan said:

No, another global outfit.

 

 

so nothing strange at all.

 

DHL will charge the customs duties 100% of the time.

 

The fact you used a different courier means diddly squat in this thread.

[FlorC]

On 6/10/2021 at 6:58 AM, Lammbock said:

I was rather shocked this morning to find an email in my inbox from DHL to pay up 4,058.17 THB import duty (customs duty, customs service VAT & disbursement) for a pair of shoes that i ordered from the EU that cost 222 EUR. (Value 8,796.18 THB)

Do you have to pay this in advance to DHL's account or with creditcard , or cash on delivery at your door ?

 

Non delivery of the 222 Euro shoes would be painful , paying another 4000 THB in taxes in advance , and it gets lost , near unbearable.

Does the 222 euro include shipping ?

[Lammbock]

1 hour ago, FlorC said:

Do you have to pay this in advance to DHL's account or with creditcard , or cash on delivery at your door ?

 

Non delivery of the 222 Euro shoes would be painful , paying another 4000 THB in taxes in advance , and it gets lost , near unbearable.

Does the 222 euro include shipping ?

DHL send an email as follows:

 

The amount is THB 4,058.17.

We will pay your import duty/tax to the authorities on your behalf to speed regulatory clearance. To avoid any delivery delay, please pay us this amount securely online now.

[scubascuba3]

6 hours ago, FlorC said:

Do you have to pay this in advance to DHL's account or with creditcard , or cash on delivery at your door ?

 

Non delivery of the 222 Euro shoes would be painful , paying another 4000 THB in taxes in advance , and it gets lost , near unbearable.

Does the 222 euro include shipping ?

if you don't pay you won't get the item most likely. I won't be using DHL again, most likely I won't buy a more expensive item from abroad

[Heng]

Yeah, I stopped shipping myself items through Fedex and DHL as well.   They know they have you either way.   Do you want your stuff or do you want us to have your stuff is the choice you have.   

[FlorC]

6 hours ago, Lammbock said:

DHL send an email as follows:

 

The amount is THB 4,058.17.

We will pay your import duty/tax to the authorities on your behalf to speed regulatory clearance. To avoid any delivery delay, please pay us this amount securely online now.

So absolutely no way to pay on delivery ?

Or at one of their centers like thai delivery services have ?

 

That is seriously f-ed up , like scuba and Heng said .

[Yellowtail]

7 minutes ago, FlorC said:

So absolutely no way to pay on delivery ?

Or at one of their centers like thai delivery services have ?

 

That is seriously f-ed up , like scuba and Heng said .

 

The forwarder has to pay to get the goods released, they would be stupid to do so without having received the funds from the buyer. 

 

The reason imported products are generally expensive, is because whomever imports them has to pay the taxes. Why would it be fair to allow individuals import goods duty free while compelling legitimate tax paying businesses to pay duties? 

 

 

[FlorC]

2 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

The forwarder has to pay to get the goods released, they would be stupid to do so without having received the funds from the buyer. 

They have your package as a hostage .

 

I ordered from RS electronics with free delivery , and paid the taxes when they delivered it at my door.

I don't remember which delivery service.

[jackdd]

31 minutes ago, FlorC said:

So absolutely no way to pay on delivery ?

Or at one of their centers like thai delivery services have ?

It could be possible to pick the parcel up, and pay the duties when picking it up. But you would have to go to customs at BKK airport to do this.

[Crossy]

12 minutes ago, FlorC said:

I ordered from RS electronics with free delivery , and paid the taxes when they delivered it at my door.

I don't remember which delivery service.

 

Yup.

I've had >USD 2,000 worth of equipment delivered (DHL IIRC), duty and VAT collected by the delivery driver no problem.

 

The courier emailed and called to ensure the cash was available.

 

[monty1412]

On 6/10/2021 at 7:48 AM, pjmorton said:

According to a business student of mine who took a job with one of the major international courier companies in Taipei, the company negotiated a flat-fee deal with the customs authorities, allowing them (the courier) to assess and pocket the "customs duties" for incoming deliveries. If this is the model here in Thailand too, then don't be surprised if the estimate is on the high side. The money goes directly to the courier's bottom line, even though it is presented as if it is an import duty.

This ia 110% correct.. had a mate who worked for one of the companies and he said there most profitable line is the imposition of import duties that in reality are not even assessed by customs.. they all are ripoffs

 

[Mark1066]

On 6/10/2021 at 3:01 PM, scubascuba3 said:

I've read that sometimes it can be avoided by not using DHL. The seller should be including the import duty in the sale information, but of course that would put people off buying. I bought something recently from spain and had to pay 2,000 baht

How would a seller in the EU know what import duty would have to be paid in Thailand? It's not their responsibility and it would involve a lot of effort for them to do it on individual cases.

[scubascuba3]

1 minute ago, Mark1066 said:

How would a seller in the EU know what import duty would have to be paid in Thailand? It's not their responsibility and it would involve a lot of effort for them to do it on individual cases.

A big company should be aware of import duties to other countries, I see that eBay shows it now

[Mark1066]

Just now, scubascuba3 said:

A big company should be aware of import duties to other countries, I see that eBay shows it now

Do we know that this was a big company then? I didn't see that information in the OP.

 

Amazon include import duties too but unfortunately they make most of them up and take 6 months to refund them.

[scubascuba3]

Just now, Mark1066 said:

Do we know that this was a big company then? I didn't see that information in the OP.

 

Amazon include import duties too but unfortunately they make most of them up and take 6 months to refund them.

Any decent company should be able to find out import duties for each country, they shouldn't have to keep re checking for new customers. The company was Bikeinn, which I think is Tradeinn or something similar, they are exporting day in day out, so no excuses. Ah yes also they don't allow negative reviews for products, one of those type of companies

[Mark1066]

7 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

Any decent company should be able to find out import duties for each country, they shouldn't have to keep re checking for new customers. The company was Bikeinn, which I think is Tradeinn or something similar, they are exporting day in day out, so no excuses. Ah yes also they don't allow negative reviews for products, one of those type of companies

Well, I'd expect Amazon to be able to find out the correct import duties for Thailand but apparently it's beyond their capabilities. Despite the fact no import duty is payable on goods and shipping that come to a total of less than 1,500 Baht, Amazon apply it anyway, on many of the products they sell. Then they send it back, 6 months later. How exactly it takes 6 months to do that, I cannot fathom.

 

Also, Amazon and eBay only quote import duties because they use an agent so they charge for them at checkout. Companies that don't charge import duties are not going to display them on their website. If they did, and the customer ended up having to pay more, they'd be leaving themselves open to all sorts of legal issues.

[varun]

On 6/10/2021 at 7:33 PM, Ralf001 said:

 

 

so nothing strange at all.

 

DHL will charge the customs duties 100% of the time.

 

The fact you used a different courier means diddly squat in this thread.

 

Incorrect - it is not DHL that charges the customs duties, it is Thai customs.

DHL or any other courier service merely acts as an agent on behalf of the customer,

to help with customs clearance formalities.

 

Of course,  the courier service will add their commission on top of the applicable duties.

 

Any kind of overseas parcel shipped via courier is a customs magnet in Thailand -

postal services like USPS/Royal Mail less so.

 

You could get lucky and have the occasional courier shipment arrive unscathed,

but depends on your luck.

 

[scubascuba3]

27 minutes ago, Mark1066 said:

Well, I'd expect Amazon to be able to find out the correct import duties for Thailand but apparently it's beyond their capabilities. Despite the fact no import duty is payable on goods and shipping that come to a total of less than 1,500 Baht, Amazon apply it anyway, on many of the products they sell. Then they send it back, 6 months later. How exactly it takes 6 months to do that, I cannot fathom.

 

Also, Amazon and eBay only quote import duties because they use an agent so they charge for them at checkout. Companies that don't charge import duties are not going to display them on their website. If they did, and the customer ended up having to pay more, they'd be leaving themselves open to all sorts of legal issues.

They could easily display estimated import duties, of course they don't want to as it puts customers off

[Mark1066]

46 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

They could easily display estimated import duties, of course they don't want to as it puts customers off

Well, we'll have to agree to disagree. Displaying import duties that they're not responsible for paying would be risky from a legal perspective, in my opinion, and I haven't come across a single example of an online vendor that does it.

[Yellowtail]

58 minutes ago, Mark1066 said:

Well, we'll have to agree to disagree. Displaying import duties that they're not responsible for paying would be risky from a legal perspective, in my opinion, and I haven't come across a single example of an online vendor that does it.

 

Prusa Research in the UK does. They have a page showing estimated import duties to many/most countries.

 

There is risk from a legal perspective as long and there is a clear disclaimer. 

[Yellowtail]

2 hours ago, Mark1066 said:

Well, I'd expect Amazon to be able to find out the correct import duties for Thailand but apparently it's beyond their capabilities. Despite the fact no import duty is payable on goods and shipping that come to a total of less than 1,500 Baht, Amazon apply it anyway, on many of the products they sell. Then they send it back, 6 months later. How exactly it takes 6 months to do that, I cannot fathom.

 

Also, Amazon and eBay only quote import duties because they use an agent so they charge for them at checkout. Companies that don't charge import duties are not going to display them on their website. If they did, and the customer ended up having to pay more, they'd be leaving themselves open to all sorts of legal issues.

 

What could you possibly order from Amazon that would be less than Baht 1,500 delivered? 

 

They overcharge for the fees, and if they're less, refund the difference. What's wrong with that? What difference does it make if it takes a while to get the credit? Are you out of smokes and the first is still a week away? 

 

On the one hand you beat up on Amazon for charging too much, and on the other you admit if they undercharged and then had to collect the fees it would be a s-storm.

 

No one knows exactly what the fees are until they clear customs. All anyone can do is estimate. 

 

[Mark1066]

1 hour ago, Yellowtail said:

 

What could you possibly order from Amazon that would be less than Baht 1,500 delivered? 

 

They overcharge for the fees, and if they're less, refund the difference. What's wrong with that? What difference does it make if it takes a while to get the credit? Are you out of smokes and the first is still a week away? 

 

On the one hand you beat up on Amazon for charging too much, and on the other you admit if they undercharged and then had to collect the fees it would be a s-storm.

 

No one knows exactly what the fees are until they clear customs. All anyone can do is estimate. 

 

The 1,500 Baht threshold for import duties is quite clear so they know in advance exactly how much I will have to pay - nothing. And 6 months is a ridiculous amount of time to process a refund. Furthermore, there wouldn't be any kind of 's-storm' if they didn't charge me any fees - I'd simply have to pay them myself. As long as they didn't promise me there were no fees to pay, it would make no difference to them at all. They have been selling without charging import fees for many years.

 

There's plenty of stuff on Amazon that costs less than 1,500 Baht including shipping, that isn't available here. I'm not going to humour you by listing the items in which I was interested as it's none of your business.

 

Regarding my financial status, which is also none of your business: I don't smoke and I don't get paid on the 1st of every month, and it has nothing to do with my opinion on Amazon's policies. Try to be a little more grown up if you're going to engage in conversation online - you're not in the playground now.

[Yellowtail]

9 minutes ago, Mark1066 said:

The 1,500 Baht threshold for import duties is quite clear so they know in advance exactly how much I will have to pay - nothing. And 6 months is a ridiculous amount of time to process a refund. Furthermore, there wouldn't be any kind of 's-storm' if they didn't charge me any fees - I'd simply have to pay them myself. As long as they didn't promise me there were no fees to pay, it would make no difference to them at all. They have been selling without charging import fees for many years.

 

There's plenty of stuff on Amazon that costs less than 1,500 Baht including shipping, that isn't available here. I'm not going to humour you by listing the items in which I was interested as it's none of your business.

 

Regarding my financial status, which is also none of your business: I don't smoke and I don't get paid on the 1st of every month, and it has nothing to do with my opinion on Amazon's policies. Try to be a little more grown up if you're going to engage in conversation online - you're not in the playground now.

 

So I think it safe to assume you weren't able to find anything that you could have delivered for Baht 1,500.

 

 

[Yellowtail]

Sorry, my bad. I found a couple things under Baht 1,500, but notice there is no deposit for fees on this cheap stuff....

 

 

 

 

[Ralf001]

6 hours ago, varun said:

 

Incorrect - it is not DHL that charges the customs duties, it is Thai customs.

DHL or any other courier service merely acts as an agent on behalf of the customer,

to help with customs clearance formalities.

 

Of course,  the courier service will add their commission on top of the applicable duties.

 

Any kind of overseas parcel shipped via courier is a customs magnet in Thailand -

postal services like USPS/Royal Mail less so.

 

You could get lucky and have the occasional courier shipment arrive unscathed,

but depends on your luck.

 

Ok let me rephrase.

 

DHL as an agent will collect 100% of the time (and add collection fee's to the total).

 

Happy now ?

[BritManToo]

6 hours ago, varun said:

Incorrect - it is not DHL that charges the customs duties, it is Thai customs.

DHL or any other courier service merely acts as an agent on behalf of the customer,

to help with customs clearance formalities.

You're quite wrong, it's a conspiracy (between FedeX/DHL to extort their customers) with the help of the local customs. They've been doing this for the past 20 years in the UK.

 

Best not to use them to transport your goods as they will always charge, on every package.

And usually well in excess of the normal customs fees.

[Heng]

One thing that probably irks people is the wording they use.   Along the lines of 'your package has come under random inspection...' when in reality it's probably a pretty high percentage (considering it's a sure boost to the bottom line) and should really be worded 'we wet our beaks 7 days a week on around 98% of packages as a matter of policy.'   

[Yellowtail]

13 minutes ago, Heng said:

One thing that probably irks people is the wording they use.   Along the lines of 'your package has come under random inspection...' when in reality it's probably a pretty high percentage (considering it's a sure boost to the bottom line) and should really be worded 'we wet our beaks 7 days a week on around 98% of packages as a matter of policy.'   

 

The only reason being inspected would be a concern if if you were cheating, yes? If they inspect the package, and the contents match the invoice and packing list there is no problem. 

 

I wish they would inspect 100% and catch as many cheaters as they can.

[Heng]

11 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

 

The only reason being inspected would be a concern if if you were cheating, yes? If they inspect the package, and the contents match the invoice and packing list there is no problem. 

 

I wish they would inspect 100% and catch as many cheaters as they can.

 

I agree with the rules behind the inspections, my post was in reference to the less than accurate wording they use, and how that is what may be causing a lot/some of the dissatisfaction in these cases.