Can I refuse a DHL delivery ?

[Kerryd]

10 hours ago, Dan5 said:

My guess is that if you looked closely at the charges and maybe questioned DHL, you'd discover that some of the fees are from DHL, not Customs.

 

Probably a large portion of them. Actually it's not DHL, but the Customs Broker that they use that are probably to blame.

 

Long story short. Shipped 2 boxes of personal effects (work boots, clothing, books, etc - I valued everything around $1,000 US and included copies of my passport and Visa/Extension of Stay stamps with the shipping docs) via DHL because the company was paying the shipping charges.

The Customs Broker that DHL uses in Bangkok contacts me to tell me I have to pay 22,000 in fees (almost 63% of the value of the shipment) to get my boxes out of Customs and delivered (in a week or so) ! Went there and was told if I wanted my stuff that day I could use a "private" broker and it'd cost about 17,000. Right then I knew it was a rip off.

Used the private broker, took about 6 hours, finally got my stuff. 

Looked at the Customs paperwork afterwards and it appears the actual import duties and tariffs were less than 3,000 baht (about 8.6% of the value of the shipment) !! The rest was the Broker's fees and I know he only shelled out a couple hundred baht here and there to get the paperwork expedited as I was watching. The Broker DHL uses was going to charge 5,000 more and take a week to do the same job !

 

When I've had to pay for things delivered by USPS or EMS, I've only been charged for the actual Customs fees. With USPS I usually pay the driver and for the EMS deliveries I have to go to the post office and pay there. Once I had to go to the Customs Office in Laem Chabang to collect a parcel shipped by Amazon. Had to pay a whopping 300 baht Customs fee (less than 10% of the value of the shipment) and that was it. 

 

[bermannor]

Don Mega, of course DHL charged me in €.

I just wanted to say that there is a general service fee on arrival in Germany. They just increased it.

[Don Mega]

2 minutes ago, bermannor said:

Don Mega, of course DHL charged me in €.

I just wanted to say that there is a general service fee on arrival in Germany. They just increased it.

 

 

Ahh ok fair enough, as this is a Thailand forum I assumed the package came into Thailand. My bad.

[bermannor]

Don Mega, I think DHL fee structures are similar in each country. I received goods also by TNT, FEDEX and UPS and all had some kind of service fee for paying customs upfront and of course the greedy taxman opened also his palm for VAT (19%) ?

[mogandave]

It is terrible that people are expected to pay taxes.

[SteveB2]

I've been importing items into Thailand for over 20 years. Sometimes as a private person and sometimes for a limited company. Items shipped are from 1-150Kg.

Here's my experiences with the various shipping agents in order of preference.

 

• EMS, Royal Mail(signature required for delivery)
  • 20 years ago very sporadic. Lots of stuff got lost in the post
  • Big improvement after introduction of the Thai bar code/computerised EMS tracking system across all post offices around 12-15 years ago.
  • Now our preferred method for small parcels of relatively low value(up to few hundred dollars) shipped out internationally or sent to us from overseas.
  • Rarely gets opened by customs - and if so, customs charges are minimal and by the book
  • Drawback: Tracking system works well in Thailand, but doesn't link well with other EMS affiliate agents overseas tracking systems
• UPS, FEDEX,
  • tracking system works well internationally
  • import duties are as expected
  • International support is excellent.
  • Delivery estimates excellent
  • Our preferred system for more expensive items (from a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars) where we must be able to track them continuously
  • Very reliable. No shipment has gone missing so far after more than a decade of using the couriers
• DHL
  • Overall most expensive and problematic - many problems requiring a visit to either Thai Customs Laem Chabang or Suvanbhumi Airport to sort out.
  • All shipments sent to us by DHL get danced upon by customs, with no exceptions  - I think the pretty packaging yells "come dance with me' to passing customs pirates.
  • Nefarious storage charges for no fkin apparent reason
  • Nefarious local agent handling fees for no fkin apparent reason
  • Bovine levels of staff competence when dealing with issues either over the phone or face to face (you know the one - how come this has been in your office for a week and not delivered to us)

 

In short, for all items sent to us by DHL, everything ends up being an expensive problem which takes days (sometimes weeks) and thousands of Baht to sort out while our gear sits on the shelf at some expensive daily rate.

 

This has always been the case for any items sent to me as a private person by DHL, or to our limited company by DHL (which is one of the few companies in Thailand is to registered 'Paperless customs clearance privileges' no less...)

 

I just don't know what the issue is with DHL - Is their main incoming parcel center run by a bunch of thoeving monkies? I don't know. Seams that way though.

 

Shipments by all other agents come through to us fine. It's just DHL which has consistently given us problems over the years.

 

It's been so bad over the last few years, that whenever I hear a supplier has sent us something by DHL, I groan out loud and my staff all cringe as I launch into some rant about "how much are the b'sturds gonna gouge us for this time"

 

I feel much better now. Where's my cigarettes... 

 

[jasonsamui55]

Why is there so much discussion about this. It seems quite obvious to me. Just don't answer your door bell when DHL cones knocking. Eventually you'll never receive it but the maximum amount lost will be the value of the item and the original shipping costs. It happens to me all the time when the shipper says 3-5 days delivery or similar and I'm only at "home" in Thailand for 1-2 weeks and the I go away for 1-2 months. Shipments always seem to arrive a few days after I've left and then I never see or hear again from the vendor/shipper and of course never any money is refunded either.

[bermannor]

Seems quite a money destroying machine by you. A nice way to through money out of the window.

[Rhys]

yes you can do anything ...

[Jimbo53]

A few years ago my nephew in the UK sent me an Apple TV box valued at £50,he put a £200 valuation on it for insurance,(<deleted>wit)DHL called me in Pattaya to tell me that there was over Bht 17,000 payable in taxes and duty,I couldn't believe it,I checked the Customs Harmonised Website,(Thailand is party of an International Treaty of  140 countries) relating to this.I refused to accept this calculation(Which I think is done by the freight company (DHL) on behalf of the Goverment Customs Department,after checking the HS tariff,I calculated I should only have been assessed around Bht 1700,I challenged it after speaking to other personnel,and eventually paid Bht 4250,still over the top,but a lesson learned,NEVER take or trust the valuation of a freight forwarding company without checking yourself what you are up for. TIT.

 

http://www.foreign-trade.com/reference/hscode.htm

 

http://internet1.customs.go.th/ext/Tariff/Tariff.jsp

 

http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-hs-code-lookup/

 

[ianf]

On 12/28/2016 at 6:41 PM, ukrules said:

 

DHL has a valid place in this world, it's for urgent worldwide deliveries.

 

It's not really supposed to be for people ordering trinkets off the internet but if you are prepared to pay the fees you can use it for whatever you want.

 

Customs agent services along with VAT and Duty payments made on your behalf cut out a lot of the crap you won't want to deal with but they come at a price.

 

It's a higher end service with a higher end price attached.

 

In my opinion it's a dishonest rip-off.

[bermannor]

Smart peoples wouldn't get ripped off. They are well informed.