$534 customs charge advise please

martindow

bris wrote: »

No, it's stuck in customs because fedex are not paying the fee, if they were it would be with the buyer by now. Fedex don't charge the shipper, they charge the recipient so the op wont get fedex chasing them.

Is this correct? I thought Fedex gave options of shipper paying, recipient paying or shared fees.

porto_bello

martindow wrote: »

Is this correct? I thought Fedex gave options of shipper paying, recipient paying or shared fees.

The way OP's description of the situation reads, it seems clear that they never intended paying the buyer's (then unknown) customs charge. The problem arose because the buyer refused to pay when the customs charges were billed for them.

stuartroberts

If you ship goods outside of the EU , there are many different customs policies depending on the country you are sending the goods to.

AS mentioned earler Fedex are only acting as the middle man for customs purposes here and from what i have read, it must be malaysian customs policy for the duty to be paid before the goods are cleared for delivery. I will check the process and come back to you..

In most cases it is the recipients responsibly to pay the duty and tax unless you have instructed on the original airwaybill you want to pay it.

If the buyer refuses to pay the costs incurred, some countries insist the duty is paid in order to clear the goods whether it to be for return or delivery to the buyer.

In some cases this can be totally beyond the control of the carrier as it is the policy locally.

stuartroberts

bris wrote: »

No, it's stuck in customs because fedex are not paying the fee, if they were it would be with the buyer by now. Fedex don't charge the shipper, they charge the recipient so the op wont get fedex chasing them.

this quote is not true for all countries, if the recipient has previously used the carrier and paid duty & tax, the carrier may clear the item ( in some countries) and bill the recipient afterwards.

Should the recipient not pay the d&T in the recipient country after a number of months. The carrier Fedex/DHL/UPS usially then bill; back to the shipper to recover costs.

In this particular case Malaysia prefer clearance before release and the carriers take payment of this before releasing the shipment.


I hope this helps

dlmcr

Update:

I basically followed the advice on here and did nothing other than prepare my case in case there was an ebay / paypal dispute. Nothing happened and the item was finally delivered to the recipient on 26th Sep after almost 5 months stuck in customs. Thanks for all your help.