Buying from America

Nhale

Please help...

In October 2011, I bought some music equipment from Amazon Marketplace. I wasn't aware that there would be customs & excise fees. I found out the following day and emailed the seller to cancel the order/delivery as I would not be able to afford additional fees. Apparently they couldn't.

DHL came to the door the following week and I refused the item. I had informed the seller I would do this.

A couple of weeks later I received a refund from the seller minus delivery (fair enough, I put it down to experience and took the hit to the tune of $150).

Today, I recieve a letter from debt collector acting on behalf of DHL looking for £170 in excise and customs fees.

I feel sick, am I liable for more fees on an item I never had possession of?

Thanks for reading.

Zinger549

DHL will have paid the customs fee's on the item when it came in to the country. I think you will just have to try and find the money because DHL won't be able to claim it back.

System

I think if DHL return to sender then they can claim back the custom fees? I am not certain but I think they can get the custom fees back.

However you will probably have to pay the DHL handling fee(which will be part of the £170). The only thing you can do is phone DHL and clarify that you need to pay customs duty on an item that has been returned to sender (so in practice exported back to America).

Nhale

Thanks for replies,

Goater, I did speak to DHL at the time when I was trying to stop the package entering the country and I did ask if I would be liable for customs fees if I refused the package and they said no. I have no written proof of this however, but it ties in with what u are saying. Where will I get the definate answer? The letter I received was not recorded delivery... Are they pulling a fast one?

visidigi

Nhale wrote: »

Please help...

In October 2011, I bought some music equipment from Amazon Marketplace. I wasn't aware that there would be customs & excise fees. I found out the following day and emailed the seller to cancel the order/delivery as I would not be able to afford additional fees. Apparently they couldn't.

DHL came to the door the following week and I refused the item. I had informed the seller I would do this.

A couple of weeks later I received a refund from the seller minus delivery (fair enough, I put it down to experience and took the hit to the tune of $150).

Today, I recieve a letter from debt collector acting on behalf of DHL looking for £170 in excise and customs fees.

I feel sick, am I liable for more fees on an item I never had possession of?

Thanks for reading.

You need to call DHL - they need to provide the proof to customs of the export of the shipment in order to claim back the duties and taxes. You cannot ignore it, you just need to speak to DHL to get them to reclaim from customs.

visidigi

Nhale wrote: »

The letter I received was not recorded delivery... Are they pulling a fast one?

They are not pulling a fast one, if the package was attempted delivered to you then the shipment cleared customs - this will have triggered duties and taxes - the return of the shipment wouldn't trigger a credit of the duties.

You need to speak to DHL again and get it credited back.

DHL have paid it, until they get credited they WILL pursue you for the amount, especially as its as high as it is.

Nhale

Visidigi,

Sorry for sounding daft but what should I say to DHL? They will already have a note of the incident. I was sent an invoice from DHL a short time after the attempted delivery with a photocopy of the 'waybill'(?) and customs fees, which I though was just their procedure, but I binned this as I was told on the phone at time that I would not incur these fees.

From your understanding, will I have to pay or is there a misunderstanding somewhe?

I was under the impression that the seller would incur the fees if the item was returned. That's why I did not get my delivery fees back!

unholyangel

Nhale wrote: »

Visidigi,

Sorry for sounding daft but what should I say to DHL? They will already have a note of the incident. I was sent an invoice from DHL a short time after the attempted delivery with a photocopy of the 'waybill'(?) and customs fees, which I though was just their procedure, but I binned this as I was told on the phone at time that I would not incur these fees.

From your understanding, will I have to pay or is there a misunderstanding somewhe?

I was under the impression that the seller would incur the fees if the item was returned. That's why I did not get my delivery fees back!

Contact them and just tell them that you never received the parcel as you rejected delivery and see what they say.

visidigi

Nhale wrote: »

Visidigi,

Sorry for sounding daft but what should I say to DHL? They will already have a note of the incident. I was sent an invoice from DHL a short time after the attempted delivery with a photocopy of the 'waybill'(?) and customs fees, which I though was just their procedure, but I binned this as I was told on the phone at time that I would not incur these fees.

From your understanding, will I have to pay or is there a misunderstanding somewhe?

I was under the impression that the seller would incur the fees if the item was returned. That's why I did not get my delivery fees back!

In an ideal world what you describe would happen by default. But the return of an shipment does not automatically return the duties.

Firstly, shipping charges, you didn't get these back as the shipper would have had to pay the fee to get it to you AND the return. The shipper is not responsible for the duties, this is you.

The duties and taxes are not automatically returned - so you need to call DHL and tell them...

The shipment was refused on delivery and was returned to the sender.
As such you need them to reclaim the duties paid for the item as it was never delivered to you.
There may be a fee for this from Customs, DHL may pass this or to you or not - you will need the AWB of the shipment coming into you - they should be able to find the AWB it went back on (both are needed for this to be reclaimed from customs).

The longer you leave this (its already quite old) the hard it will be to get the credit of the duties and taxes back. So don't delay on this - don't deal with the debt collector as all they want is the money, they cannot and wont help with the tax reclaim.

You don't have to pay it, but the processing has been done and the fee has been paid by DHL, they need their money back and until they reclaim it they are holding you liable.