That seems unbelievably high. Import tariffs here for that sort of thing are about 2%. VAT is 20%, obviously, but that’s still a lot less than 30%. The only other charge is usually a customs handling fee from the courier, never more than about 1.5% and often less.
Thanks for the heads up if DHL are not living up to this.
The problem is that they often assume that the declared value is a lie. Even when there is pretty paperwork. And they can, apparently. They just charge random fees which they think of appropriate.
You can refuse to accept the package when it’s delivered but then it‘s returned to the sender and the sender has to pay additional fees to receive his package back.
Yes in it’s 20% VAT plus 15-20 EUR collectors fees. Which is about 30% in total for me, usually.
What’s annoying is that the vendors from Asia often use „free shipping“, or cheap shipping, like 20 EUR.
Carrier says then that the actual shipping costs are more like 100 EUR (which’s is ridiculous when it’s a 50 EUR product with free shipping).
The shipping costs are included in the VAT and customs fees calculation.
At least in my country, Austria.
So when I buy something from Asia it either slips through free or in the worst case the price doubles.
Same here. Elektron arranged the shipping via UPS. A few days after I sent it I got a phone call from UPS asking if it was coming back to the UK again, I said yes, they said thanks. I guess that was so they could do the paperwork to say it wasn’t being exported out of the UK or being imported back in again, just going on holiday for repairs.
If you get overcharged for import fees in the UK you can apply for a refund. I haven’t actually tried that to know if it works (although I do need to, if I haven’t left it too late).
I bought a Microcosm from US when i was in Portugal last winter. It came within a week but the charger was faulty. The company sent a new one which was locked in customs after they wanted to charge me more than its value. They sent a new one, it got through after some paperjob.
Meanwhile i bought an instrument from Zimbabwe. It was after 6 months delay of post office work after the Covid peak and Zimbabwe post is not reputed for being prompt to deliver (when the package arrives). From the moment it entered Portugal, no news of the tracking. No value declared whatsoever, the sender just wrapped it in a box and sent it. It arrived like a week after arriving in Portugal, nothing to pay. Go figure.