DHL Express review: customs charge scam 16

DO NOT USE DHL, they are thieves.

I paid £36-odd (incl shipping) for a VR accessory, VAT was £5.93, so they decided to charge me £11 on top of that! Basically charging me almost double the orginal VAT merely for the privelige of paying said VAT! Have asked the firm that makes the gadget for a refund, hopefully they will switch to an honest courier when all their customers tell DHL to shove it.

if you have any issue or refund, please send your details to this email along with your full details drwilliamsbill19@gmail.com or drwilliamsbill19 at g mail dot com

very high taxes and bad services!
Don't choose DHL even they are your last choice

From PAKISTAN
DHL charged me around $100 for the custom charged for some pcb cards which customs does not charge.

They are the looters and should go to burning hell as if I m already paying $50 or $60 for shipping.

FRAUDESTERS ... Don't choose DHL even they are your last choice

DHL Bucharest Scam

Do Not use DHL when shipping to, or from, Romania! Better yet, avoid DHL completely!

I was sent two parcels from New York, containing gifts from a friend, to my home in Romania. The gifts were a new book and a set of ship line drawings.

After an unusually long period having not recieved the items I inquired about them and after 3 - 4 days was told they had been sitting in Bucharest for two weeks. ZNo explanation was given as to why I had not been notified. DHL told me of the VAT due and, appearing to be quite excessive, I found that my friend, not understanding what value to include on the documentation for insurance purposes, had included all of his costs including packaging, shipping, etc., in the value. I provided both Desk Agents at DHL Bucharest an e-mail from my friend, along with his contact information, explaining his error and his not understanding what the accurate value was expected on the paperwork for the parcels sent. I received no response from the Desk Agent (Mariana Ion) handling the mailing tube, who had been rude and unprofessional from the outset, and she still assessed an incorrect 20% VAT. The Desk Agent handling the book did respond, was very communicative and professional, and assessed a proper 5% VAT with a revised value.

To add injury to insult the book was received in damaged condition in a DHL envelope marked “repacked”. The book had black marks all over it, had been gotten wet to an extent that ink on some pages had blurred, and the cover had clear teeth marks where someone had presumably held it in their mouth while repacking it!

I made a damage claim and refund request for the excessive VAT charge for the mailing tube through rocomplaint@dhl.com and received a reply from Marin Funduc, Customer Care Advisor, who assured me that the incidents represent an isolated case and do not conform to DHL International quality standards. Mr. Funduc also requested that I reply with any damage details (number of damaged items, pictures of the outer packaging and goods) which I did. Mr. Funduc in turn placed the blame for the damage on the sender even though the book was removed from its original packaging for inspection by DHL in Bucharest, damaged, and repackaged in a DHL envelope. Mr. Funduc also went out of his way to twist the facts surrounding the damage to the book, and the VAT overcharge. He became rude and dismissive of the matter, and simply sought to cause me to go in circles. I asked Mr. Funduc for the name of his superior when it was obvious he had no intention of assisting me, but he refused to provide any information and ignored all e-mail requests thereafter. I then spoke with a representative with DHL International who stated DHL did accept the book and the mailing tube from UPS in New York and is indeed responsible for the complaints, contrary to what Mr. Funduc has stated. However, after hearing nothing from DHL International I again contacted them and was basically given the same dismissive attitude towards the matter as I received in Bucharest.

In light of the issues I had I looked into other complaints regarding DHL Bucharest, and it is obvious my ordeal isn’t unique. DHL Bucharest is engaged in swapping paperwork and DHL workers pocketing the difference in VAT charges. E.g., in my case paperwork sent to me, the victim, shows a 20% VAT fee while the “official” paperwork showing a 5% VAT is submitted with the 15% difference being pocketed by corrupt DHL workers.

I have a company in Romania with a satellite office in the U.S. and we had preferred DHL over all others. Needless to say that with this experience we no longer ship or receive items via DHL! We make it very clear to entities shipping items to us that we will not accept anything delivered by DHL, or even handled by DH at any point along the way!

Given that the incidents clearly represent standard cases and conform to DHL's International quality standards, despite what Mr. Funduc and DHL International claim, and that damages and excessive fees will be dismissed by DHL despite their assurances otherwise, your best bet is to ship via one of their competitors.

I have been overcharged by dhl many times ordering lights from China, receipts dhl provide's it clear says 0tax but handling charge and vat tax also some times storage charge I know every time I paid this amount to dhl it was a scam but if I don't pay them don't get the item, The problem is how can I make the complain and to whom they are big company no one listen.

They charged me £33 for a screen replacement value of £47 there is no explanation of how such big amount come from.

i received a shipment from DHL about a month ago and today get a bill from dhl for $23.49, $16.99 for duty fee at 2.60% and $6.50 for payment deferment. i already paid over $140.00 for dhl to ship the item and they're going to charge me $6.50 for payment deferment? i called dhl and told them i had no problem with paying the duty fee but i refuse to pay a deferment fee for something that i was not giving the option to pay on my own prior to them paying it. it's not a lot of money, it's the point! i asked the woman i spoke with, how would you like it if i paid your cable bill without your permission and then sent you a bill for almost 1/3 commission on top of your bill. she said, she understood where i was coming from, so i told her i'm not paying. she told me that the bill would probably end up in collections. well let me know how that works out for you dhl with no ss#. furthermore congrats on losing another customer because i will make sure that you never ship a package for me again and for anyone else i know.

It's a common scam by the DHL customs brokers. I've had shipping papers conveniently "lost" by DHL and then have them create new papers with triple the items value. Their brokerage fee is actually legit, it's just borderline criminal how they try to hide it. The problem is that their custom brokers will do everything to increase the customs value to earn more money.

Don't use DHL if you aren't prepared to pay ridiculously inflated fees for customs.

At least they gave you a bill you can dispute/ignore. Here they collect at the door and if you don't pay up, you won't get your shipment. They will hold your property hostage until you pay whichever amount the custom broker decides he should earn.

I imported a phone lead, weight ~ 50g from Australia via DHL (not my choice). Value £24, with £20 shipping. 6 months after delivery, I got an invoice from DHL for £30, more than I paid for the intem. I saw on the web that if improper information is given with imports, customs often hike the value as a deterent, so I got DHL to email the paperwork. To my surprise, it was clear and comprehensive. It showed the values for goods and shipping from the seller. Then, all of a sudden, the "freight charges" became £71.95, and the VAT chargeable value totalled £105. None of this added up, so it looks like an invented figure. I talked to customs, and they said that the VAT payable should have been the simple £44 x 20% ie £8.80. DHL wanted £20 plus a ten pound admin fee. To compare, I imported some glassware from China valued at over £100. The Chinese used the post office, and all I was charged was the VAT.

I was charged 30% from a .3% import fee for clothing from DHL, Looks like they have a coder who confuses fractions of % with whole numbers. And this is USA from UK import fees for clothing, I think they have an incompitant coder or they are willfully charging this math error.

I bet your fee can be the same math error.

I will contest my bill of 60 dollars that is supposed to be 6, due to their math error

DHL are currently trying to charge me duty for a duty free item (Vacuum cleaner - section 85.08 of the NZ customs & excise duty charges document says this is duty free). DHL think I need to pay another $165. I've just used the NZ customs & excise online duty calculator, and according to that I should only be charged $38 for the import fee. For some reason DHL think I should be paying an import fee, GST and duty on the item. I guess they just send out bills and hope that people won't question it, I'm switched on enough that I'll check the customs documentation though and I *will* be contesting this charge. Only issue in NZ is that they don't let you have your stuff until you pay their ransom.

I'm not sure what you find amusing, that a company would openly try and steal money from someone willing to pay it or that I have yet to have that experience with any other courier service. I'm sure it probably sadly does happen but luckily DHL is the only one to try it with me yet. I cannot figure out why in the world anyone would try and justify what and how they tried to charge me either, unless they worked for DHL. You also tried to tell me that I will be fined and still owe the amount, which was either just a complete lie or ignorance, not sure which. I think you are missing the point also, so I will try and explain it one last time.

First of all, I didn't use DHL, an item was sent to me as a gift through a company that used them, then DHL turned around and tried to charge me customs clearance for an item in which no customs clearance was needed or would have been charged. Evidentally, they ship a bulk amount of items at once, then they decide on their own what to charge individuals for each item, even if there is nothing charged to them on an item.

I call that a scam, if you cannot see what a scam it is to decide to charge someone $50 for a $19 item that had no customs clearance charge, then there is no reasoning with you. As far as the other companies, I have used them and have yet to have any other company try and charge something so ludicrous. If you have been shipping to Australia for 20 years, then you should be quite aware that no duty fees, taxes or customs charges are billed on anything imported that is below the value of $1000. $19 is far from being confused as being close to that or being confused as an item calling for a $50 customs clearance charge.

The entire point of making a complaint here is because of how ridiculous this whole thing was and what a scam it was for DHL to try and find someone ignorant to this tactic that they could make a couple extra bucks off. Personally, I think these companies make enough money and if they don't, then I would say they need to raise their rate for shipping rather than try and scam the person once they get an item, it is a shady and dishonest tactic to say the least. The reason I replied the way I did you your post is because you actually tried to justify it, misinform others on it and to top it off tried to say that I stiffed DHL. As nicely as I can say it, that is just incorrect. That is all, take care.

Wrong again, sorry if I offended you but not really. I have not and will not hear another word about it from DHL or any other countries because it was and is a common scam as I stated. What you don't seem to understand is that they are just mass billed for any and all shipments, then they try and pass it on to customers as they please. In other words, they decided on their own that I should pay them 50$ for a 19$ item going through customs. Any person and any company with the slightest bit of common sense would realize how ridiculous that was, they were just trying to get someone to pay it because apparently they couldn't pass it off somewhere else and like I said, in this case, fail!

I am very familiar with the custom charges here in Australia, perhaps you should check them out before trying to sound as if you know when you obviously don't have a clue. I think it is pretty sad that you try and say that I stiffed DHL. Also, for your information since you are misinformed and trying to spread that misinformation, USPS or FedEx would never try and pass on such a ridiculous charge. They would charge when it was appropriate, for an approprate amount, which would be quite different than what was done here. K, thanks.