New Member - Hello There

[DRG]

Hi All....I'm a finance professional from Mumbai.....I'm extremely fond of music from the 60s and 70s...so in the last few years I have built my small collection along with an audio visual setup at home....It consists of a 5.1 Yamaha YHT 196 receiver with a sony bluray player and a panasonic 43 inches HD TV.....I'm keen in collecting box sets and some of my precious ones in my collection are
1. Beatles - Sgt Peppers Lonely hearts club band 50th anniversary deluxe box set
2. Beatles - Abbey road 50th Anniversary deluxe box set
3. Beatles - White Album 50th anniversary box set
4. Love - Forever changes 50th anniversary edition (only 15000 copies worldwide)
5. The Who - My generation Super Deluxe
6. Guns n Roses - Appetite for destruction Super deluxe
7. Rolling Stones - Totally Stripped, Havana Moon, Steel wheels deluxe
8. Jethro Tull - 7 box sets of their anniversary releases
9. Pink Floyd - Delicate sound of thunder box

There are more but these are my absolute favorite box sets......due to covid I couldn't order from Amazon UK, France, Italy, US, Germany etc as they were not shipping to India....Today i ordered a shipment from Amazon France ....its a cd/blu ray box set by rolling stones....they charged me 39 Euros for the product and 13.50 Euros for shipping.....Will I be subject to customs duty on this shipment...since I have not ordered anything from overseas for almost 1.5 years I'm not sure what the current laws and policies say about such purchases.....A warm hello to everyone here and any guidance on this will be very helpful.

Happy Listening!!!!

 

[Analogous]

Hi,
I don’t have a clue about customs except that they seem high.
But welcome to the forum.
A thought: You may get more responses to your questions on customs charges if you edit the subject line to include this.

 

[alclik]

Welcome to the forum!

I have noticed that they don't charge customs duty for products under 100USD/Eur if it's addressed to an individual (not company).
Not sure if there's a different system for Amazon shipping or the specific courier they are using.

AFAIK there hasn't been any change in the last 1-2 years in terms of Customs.
Did you get charged earlier for smaller amounts when you bought them from Amazon of another country?

 

[Analogous]

My experience(ordeal):

I ordered a replacement speaker grills for my Harbeth P3ES bookshelf speakers.
These cost £75 (pair) That’s Rs.7500/- Local postage to my friend in UK and DHL to India along with 7500/- cost me 12850/- Now DHL is asking for 3800/- customs duty to deliver it.

So total cost: 16K for a couple of cloth covered frames (10”x8”) !!!

I am thinking I could have bought a decent pair of bookshelf speakers for this amount.

I can’t understand how the customs duty for this is calculated for two cloth covered wooden frames.

They hold the item and me hostage till I pay up. If I delay payment there is the threat of storage charges that increases day by day till infinity.

At the time of writing this I still haven’t received the item and DHL says they have not received the ransom and my bank says it has debited the amount.

Sorry for ranting. I am angry with myself for this stupidity and at our system that inflicts this kind of punishment on me.

 

[zero7]

My experience(ordeal):

I ordered a replacement speaker grills for my Harbeth P3ES bookshelf speakers.
These cost £75 (pair) That’s Rs.7500/- Local postage to my friend in UK and DHL to India along with 7500/- cost me 12850/- Now DHL is asking for 3800/- customs duty to deliver it.

So total cost: 16K for a couple of cloth covered frames (10”x8”) !!!

I am thinking I could have bought a decent pair of bookshelf speakers for this amount.

I can’t understand how the customs duty for this is calculated for two cloth covered wooden frames.

They hold the item and me hostage till I pay up. If I delay payment there is the threat of storage charges that increases day by day till infinity.

At the time of writing this I still haven’t received the item and DHL says they have not received the ransom and my bank says it has debited the amount.

Sorry for ranting. I am angry with myself for this stupidity and at our system that inflicts this kind of punishment on me.

Sorry to hear the pain you are going through.
In my experience avoid DHL or FedEx and ship using that country's postal system, which comes to India Post. Most of the times there won't be any customs duty charged if it comes by India Post. 90% chance that you will have to go through the ordeal if you get items using DHL or FedEx

 

[alclik]

Sorry to hear the pain you are going through.
In my experience avoid DHL or FedEx and ship using that country's postal system, which comes to India Post. Most of the times there won't be any customs duty charged if it comes by India Post. 90% chance that you will have to go through the ordeal if you get items using DHL or FedEx

Second this. Avoid any big name courier - they are always a rip off.
Once I had to pay Rs. 2800 for 20 M2 brass inserts that one of my Chinese vendors shipped separately. Would never forget it.

 

[DRG]

Welcome to the forum!

I have noticed that they don't charge customs duty for products under 100USD/Eur if it's addressed to an individual (not company).
Not sure if there's a different system for Amazon shipping or the specific courier they are using.

AFAIK there hasn't been any change in the last 1-2 years in terms of Customs.

Welcome to the forum!

I have noticed that they don't charge customs duty for products under 100USD/Eur if it's addressed to an individual (not company).
Not sure if there's a different system for Amazon shipping or the specific courier they are using.

AFAIK there hasn't been any change in the last 1-2 years in terms of Customs.
Did you get charged earlier for smaller amounts when you bought them from Amazon of another country?

Hi...I think I have been charged customs duty...will have to go thru my old mails....but many a times I negotiated with Amazon and they refunded the amount....but things are getting tough each day...these days i think there's no threshold and every import is taxed, though im not sure

My experience(ordeal):

I ordered a replacement speaker grills for my Harbeth P3ES bookshelf speakers.
These cost £75 (pair) That’s Rs.7500/- Local postage to my friend in UK and DHL to India along with 7500/- cost me 12850/- Now DHL is asking for 3800/- customs duty to deliver it.

So total cost: 16K for a couple of cloth covered frames (10”x8”) !!!

I am thinking I could have bought a decent pair of bookshelf speakers for this amount.

I can’t understand how the customs duty for this is calculated for two cloth covered wooden frames.

They hold the item and me hostage till I pay up. If I delay payment there is the threat of storage charges that increases day by day till infinity.

At the time of writing this I still haven’t received the item and DHL says they have not received the ransom and my bank says it has debited the amount.

Sorry for ranting. I am angry with myself for this stupidity and at our system that inflicts this kind of punishment on me.

Thanks Analogous....I don't think the carrier can hold you hostage....if the customs duty is too high, i think you can refuse delivery and instruct return to seller and also cancel the item on sellers website. Is there a binding rule that you have to accept the shipment. I have refused acceptance once and they returned the item back

Sorry to hear the pain you are going through.
In my experience avoid DHL or FedEx and ship using that country's postal system, which comes to India Post. Most of the times there won't be any customs duty charged if it comes by India Post. 90% chance that you will have to go through the ordeal if you get items using DHL or FedEx

Hi...there's no option to select carrier on amazon.....the shipping fee is standard that they charge and then assign the carrier as per the amazon country or the fulfilment center from where the shipment will originate...so a buyer can't select the carrier...I have been assigned DHL, fedex, aramex more than once unfortunately.....customs duty after that is in carrier and gods hands....DHL has many layers of charges apart from customs duty...they have handling fee, storage charges and what not.....sometimes it really hurts to pay a big customs duty even when you are importing for personal use.....some laws really suck

 

[zero7]

Hi...there's no option to select carrier on amazon.....the shipping fee is standard that they charge and then assign the carrier as per the amazon country or the fulfilment center from where the shipment will originate...so a buyer can't select the carrier...I have been assigned DHL, fedex, aramex more than once unfortunately.....customs duty after that is in carrier and gods hands....DHL has many layers of charges apart from customs duty...they have handling fee, storage charges and what not.....sometimes it really hurts to pay a big customs duty even when you are importing for personal use.....some laws really suck

I agree with you. If you place the order directly from Amazon you can't select the carrier. In Analogous' case, it was shipped by a friend. In such situations, it's better to select India post option

 

[Analogous]

Thanks Analogous....I don't think the carrier can hold you hostage....if the customs duty is too high, i think you can refuse delivery and instruct return to seller and also cancel the item on sellers website. Is there a binding rule that you have to accept the shipment. I have refused acceptance once and they returned the item back

The item has been paid for and shipped to a local address of my friend in UK from where it was sent through DHL so returnng it is not option

 

[DRG]

The item has been paid for and shipped to a local address of my friend in UK from where it was sent through DHL so returnng it is not option

Yes Analogous...in this case you have already paid and the shipment was received by your friend in UK....then further directed to you thru DHL.....then the item cannot be returned I agree....maybe choosing other carrier than DHL or something like royal mail could have helped

 

[SRI 420]

Hi All....I'm a finance professional from Mumbai.....I'm extremely fond of music from the 60s and 70s...so in the last few years I have built my small collection along with an audio visual setup at home....It consists of a 5.1 Yamaha YHT 196 receiver with a sony bluray player and a panasonic 43 inches HD TV.....I'm keen in collecting box sets and some of my precious ones in my collection are
1. Beatles - Sgt Peppers Lonely hearts club band 50th anniversary deluxe box set
2. Beatles - Abbey road 50th Anniversary deluxe box set
3. Beatles - White Album 50th anniversary box set
4. Love - Forever changes 50th anniversary edition (only 15000 copies worldwide)
5. The Who - My generation Super Deluxe
6. Guns n Roses - Appetite for destruction Super deluxe
7. Rolling Stones - Totally Stripped, Havana Moon, Steel wheels deluxe
8. Jethro Tull - 7 box sets of their anniversary releases
9. Pink Floyd - Delicate sound of thunder box

There are more but these are my absolute favorite box sets......due to covid I couldn't order from Amazon UK, France, Italy, US, Germany etc as they were not shipping to India....Today i ordered a shipment from Amazon France ....its a cd/blu ray box set by rolling stones....they charged me 39 Euros for the product and 13.50 Euros for shipping.....Will I be subject to customs duty on this shipment...since I have not ordered anything from overseas for almost 1.5 years I'm not sure what the current laws and policies say about such purchases.....A warm hello to everyone here and any guidance on this will be very helpful.

Happy Listening!!!!

Hi, welcome to the forum. It was given to understand that there will be no duties for around 100 USD.

 

[Analogous]

Hi, welcome to the forum. It was given to understand that there will be no duties for around 100 USD.

Is this a fact or heresay? (No customs duties for items valued under $100)?

 

[SRI 420]

Is this a fact or heresay? (No customs duties for items valued under $100)?

My friend has imported some music CDs from UK where he was not charged any duty. This was about a year ago.

 

[efernand1]

Hi All....I'm a finance professional from Mumbai.....I'm extremely fond of music from the 60s and 70s...so in the last few years I have built my small collection along with an audio visual setup at home....It consists of a 5.1 Yamaha YHT 196 receiver with a sony bluray player and a panasonic 43 inches HD TV.....I'm keen in collecting box sets and some of my precious ones in my collection are
1. Beatles - Sgt Peppers Lonely hearts club band 50th anniversary deluxe box set
2. Beatles - Abbey road 50th Anniversary deluxe box set
3. Beatles - White Album 50th anniversary box set
4. Love - Forever changes 50th anniversary edition (only 15000 copies worldwide)
5. The Who - My generation Super Deluxe
6. Guns n Roses - Appetite for destruction Super deluxe
7. Rolling Stones - Totally Stripped, Havana Moon, Steel wheels deluxe
8. Jethro Tull - 7 box sets of their anniversary releases
9. Pink Floyd - Delicate sound of thunder box

There are more but these are my absolute favorite box sets......due to covid I couldn't order from Amazon UK, France, Italy, US, Germany etc as they were not shipping to India....Today i ordered a shipment from Amazon France ....its a cd/blu ray box set by rolling stones....they charged me 39 Euros for the product and 13.50 Euros for shipping.....Will I be subject to customs duty on this shipment...since I have not ordered anything from overseas for almost 1.5 years I'm not sure what the current laws and policies say about such purchases.....A warm hello to everyone here and any guidance on this will be very helpful.

Happy Listening!!!!

Hi,


Welcome to HFV!


I am sure you will find yourself enriched with the vast experience and knowledge shared by our FMs (Forum Members) in various threads and topics. Do browse the threads which will have ready information for the queries / challenges you may have around Audio / Video equipment etc.


Happy Browsing and wishing you all the best!