Australian customs charge!

SAB · Post by **SAB** » Tue Nov 04, 2003 10:04 pm

Well they got me. :evil: :evil: :evil:
Can anyone top this.
My jacket in Australian dollars worked out to be A$420.
I've just been rung up by customs and informed I owe them A$185.
(exchange rate to US is approx 0.68 if you want to know...)

Thats just over 44% of the jacket cost.
What a joke, I wouldn't have ordered if I'd known it was that much.

Here's how the shipping company broke it down for me (who were actually pretty sympathetic and easy to deal with)

$85+ = duty (apparently jackets attract amongst the highest duty in Aust)
$50+ = GST charge (on top of duty?!?)
$35+ secret charge which the government has listed as 'other services' and won't tell the shipping company or anyone what it really means. (Its apparently for use of their computers to enter the info or something - so I have to pay them to give them money??) What can I say, except ZIG HEIL!
$10 - shipping company, shipping charge (very reasonable from the shipping company)

I've imported books, videos, DVDs, and even Samurai swords and never seen anything like this. I am so mad right now my heads gonna explode.

FLATHEAD · Post by **FLATHEAD** » Wed Nov 05, 2003 6:53 am

$50+ = GST charge (on top of duty?!?)

What is "GST"?

Flathead

Farnham54 · Post by **Farnham54** » Wed Nov 05, 2003 10:13 am

Government Sales Tax. We have it here in Canada too.

Annoying as all heck; we've got Taxes up the you know what here; PST (Provincial Sales Tax) GST, Income, Inheretance, you name it.

Oh well. Could be worse I suppose!

REgards,

Farn

SAB · Post by **SAB** » Wed Nov 05, 2003 4:35 pm

I'm not sure if its the same tax with different name.
In Australia its 'goods and services tax'

Now to make things worse:

I'm getting the package delivered to my work where I can sign for it and pay on delivery. I clearly told them it was my company and not home address.

I come to work this morning at 8:30am to find a voicemail from the security guard saying the courier is here at 7:25am and needs money and my signature.

Are these people insane? What rational human being would turn up at 7:25am and expect me to be at work ? :evil: :evil:

Now I have to find out what has happened to the courier and where he's gone with my jacket. The intelligence of people boggles the mind sometimes. :evil:

Farnham54 · Post by **Farnham54** » Wed Nov 05, 2003 6:28 pm

Hmmmmmm SAB....

Now I've gone and second guessed myself! I think it may be Goods and Services tax here too...Government Sales Tax makes WAY to much sense for it to be correct.

Honestly, I think you are correct. Goods and Services sounds like something I've been corrected on before.

Regards,

Farn.

SAB · Post by **SAB** » Thu Nov 06, 2003 5:47 pm

Okay, as per my other thread, when I finally received the jacket, it is worth all that extra money

My only real complaint is, after seeing and wearing it, I would have been more than happy to pay Peter and Wested the extra for their high quality product instead of my government who did JACK for this money.

Hugh de Latham · Post by **Hugh de Latham** » Fri Nov 07, 2003 9:02 pm

Here's how the shipping company broke it down for me (who were actually pretty sympathetic and easy to deal with)

I don't know how "sympathetic," ect. they were, but many people have unpleasant surprises when dealing with shipping companies.

I strongly suggest people use POP (Plain Old Post) instead. It's a little slower but less expensive and fewer of these sorts of surprises.

Neolithic · Post by **Neolithic** » Sun Nov 09, 2003 6:10 pm

Oh boy, I am really sorry to hear about that. I'm in Sydney and was wondering how much it was all going to cost me when I get to the point of being able to buy one... hope you get your jacket soon.

SAB · Post by **SAB** » Sun Nov 09, 2003 10:37 pm

I do have the jacket now and it is worth the extra.

It is something to consider for the Australian Indy fan though, especially those working within a budget - the jacket is going to cost you a lot more in this country than just Wested's asking price...

SHARPETOYS · Post by **SHARPETOYS** » Tue Nov 11, 2003 11:25 pm

I have ordered many items from overseas and the vendor marked them as a gift and i never had to pay any duty.Could this be done on the Wested jacket.?????

SAB · Post by **SAB** » Wed Nov 12, 2003 8:47 pm

Yeah I've seen this before from small vendors for some DVDs.

I don't know if Wested would be willing to do this or not.
If I had known it would be so much, I would have asked

Not that it makes any difference to me now, but It would be nice if they would take pity on Aussie Indy lovers in the future and help out

whipwarrior · Post by **whipwarrior** » Wed Nov 12, 2003 9:40 pm

I would have been more than happy to pay Peter and Wested the extra for their high quality product instead of my government, who did JACK for this money.

LMAO!!!

Neolithic · Post by **Neolithic** » Thu Nov 13, 2003 5:58 am

SAB, perhaps if it was delivered to your house it would have been cheaper? This story has freaked me out though... it puts the jacket far, far away in terms of me being able to get one soon.
Funny though that my WPG bag (which came last week) was in a FedEx packet, in my letterbox, no worries...
When they send it, how large is the package?

SAB · Post by **SAB** » Thu Nov 13, 2003 4:59 pm

Dan -
No it doesn't make any difference where you get it sent to..
The jacket was to be sent to my home address.
I had it changed to work address after customs rang me, because I needed to pay them money and sign for it (obviously I wasn't going to be at home to do that...)

Your bag probably doesn't have a duty tax on it. Books and DVD don't. It depends what you order. Clothing in Australia apparently does have duty on it - and leather jackets amongst the highest duty.

I believe they will only bother charging you for items above a certain
dollar value - I think it is A$200. Obviously a Wested jacket ends up at over A$400 so you are way over their exempt value.

I also think it is quite easy for them to see value because Peter has his items insured and tracked. You don't want an expensive custom leather jacket to go missing in the mail and have no idea what happened to it and be out of pocket....

Neolithic · Post by **Neolithic** » Thu Nov 13, 2003 5:22 pm

Dang it.
Thanks SAB, I guess it will be a while before I order one...
For the time being I will content myself with reading the posts!
Enjoy your Wested! (there is no green envy emoticon)

)

SAB · Post by **SAB** » Thu Nov 13, 2003 8:08 pm

Yeah If I ever get another one, it'll be on a European holiday and I'll WEAR the thing back into the country flipping customs the bird as I go through the gates

Kilgour Trout · Post by **Kilgour Trout** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 1:44 pm

Hey SAB and Farn: GST actually stands for "Grab and Steal Tax!!!" I found out the hard way when My Fed Deluxe cost me an extra $40 just to get it here. I would really like to know why us Common Wealth Countries do this to ourselves. There should be some perk for speaking the same language and having the queen on our money eh?

Dazed and Confused
Kilgour Trout

Farnham54 · Post by **Farnham54** » Sat Nov 15, 2003 10:58 am

Hear hear, Rob. Good idea on the commonwealth tax-freeness.

Indiana Cojones · Post by **Indiana Cojones** » Sat Nov 15, 2003 2:00 pm

What's the deal with all these companies charging fees for customs and stuff? When I received my jacket via the good ol' US Postal Service, I don't remember paying anything extra. Maybe I just forgot it all in the excitement of the moment... but I certainly didnb't get an extra bill in the mail, as I know many people have?

Is that trick to just have the jacket mailed, and not use special shipping?

M.L. Jones · Post by **M.L. Jones** » Sat Nov 15, 2003 3:59 pm

Got my first Wested jacket last week, today arrived an invoice bill from an import company called PBB Global Logistics. The jacket was mailed by Peter using Airborn Express and thats who delivered it to my door. Today's bill from aforementioned company is for "estimated U.S. Customs fee" and an "advancement of funds fee", (is this company saying that they paid U.S. customs charges for me and now I must reimburse them?) Also attached stapled to the invoice was a copy of Peter's Wested invoice. Could anyone here in the U.S. shed some light on this practice. Something just does not seem right about this. Perhaps Peter could explain if he is engauging an importer here in the U.S. to handle custom fees for U.S buyers.??? Unless I get some kind of explanation from U.S. Customs or someone her explains this for me, I will not send this company a red cent.
M.L. Jones

whipwarrior · Post by **whipwarrior** » Sat Nov 15, 2003 4:04 pm

Well, I've had to pay a $20-$24 customs fee on BOTH of my jackets, the first back in 1998 when I lived in Louisiana, and the second last March when my Wested arrived here in Georgia. I have also had to pay varying customs dues on packages from M.B.A.

golpeo_rapidamente · Post by **golpeo_rapidamente** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 3:55 am

Gday SABwhere are you in Melbourne??
Im in little bourke street CBD.
Way back when i got my Expedioon it cost me $350 Aust in Duty and GST,this was at a time when our exchange rate was less than half the value if the US dollar.
Regards
Sam

FLATHEAD · Post by **FLATHEAD** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 6:56 am

arrived an invoice bill from an import company called PBB Global Logistics

Could anyone here in the U.S. shed some light on this practice.

All you have to do is put the words "PBB Global" in the
main search engine on this site, and you will find all
the info you need to know on this very subject.

You can then read all the things that people here have
done, and what they have not done, about this, and
what kind of threats you will get from PBB if you do not
pay.

I don't think people want to explain all of this over again
seeing that there are a ton of threads about it already.

I am not trying to be short here, but there is so much info
on this by doing a simple search that it is not even funny.

Flathead

SAB · Post by **SAB** » Tue Nov 18, 2003 8:56 pm

golpeo -

I work out in Blackburn and can luckily avoid the city drive!

$350 Australian !!!!
Man that is brutal. There is just no way to justify that.

I actually thought to myself, 'jeez at least I didn't order the Flightsuit, then my bill would have been enormous'

[/quote]

M.L. Jones · Post by **M.L. Jones** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 3:19 pm

Thank you Flathead, for suggesting the search, it provided me with the information that I needed to make a decision on paying PBB's bill or not. In my opinion it's U.S. Customs AND PBB Global AND the SHIPPER that is at fault here. The buyer (me) is never contacted by the U.S. customs dept. telling them that they owe any kind of a customs charge. The consumer is also never asked by PBB Global if they would like them to take care of the customs fee, (estimated fee???,plus a cash advance fee) for them, this in my opinion is unlawful...you are given NO CHOICE other than to accept their dictate and pay extra fees to them, who do they think they are kidding! I refuse to pay this "bill" and I would offer the same advice to anyone else here, these people are getting away with murder! This whole situation needs to be corrected starting with Peter at Wested and with the method (carrier) that he ships with. It seems to me that he should be mailing these items using the Govt. mail system, not private carriers but if he continues to use private carriers it should be U.S. customs that contacts the buyer letting him know about the charges, not some 3rd party trying to make a fast buck off of you. This is not only unprofessional by all parties,(including the U.S. Government) but also illegal. We need to take a stand and do something about this!

M.L. Jones

Farnham54 · Post by **Farnham54** » Wed Nov 19, 2003 3:24 pm

Now I don't particularily care for PBB Global, though I've never had teh displeasure of having to deal with them, however I wouldn't ask Peter to change the carrier.

I kinda like having a guaranteed delivery in little time of my jacket, by a group that will take responsibility for the loss OF the jacket.

Not that the Postal Service looses all that many parcels considering how many go through, but there is a chance that it could happen.

Just my pair of pennies

Raider · Post by **Raider** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 3:48 pm

OK, guys - listen to this... I've just got an info I am to pay OVER 50% of the jacket's price as a custom fee and VAT...

My great country which takes 40% of my income every month has suprised me once more.

Though, someone must pay for corrupted thieves at our government - I can understand that...

Raider :junior:

SAB · Post by **SAB** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 9:50 pm

OK, guys - listen to this... I've just got an info I am to pay OVER 50% of the jacket's price as a custom fee and VAT... My great country which takes 40% of my income every month has suprised me once more.

Income tax is higher than that in Australia

Jeez at over 50% of the jacket price, how much would it be to just fly from Poland to England and pick it up at Westeds door ?

Farnham54 · Post by **Farnham54** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 10:58 pm

Yeah, you would think that you could hop a discount carrier, day in day out.

Only the big cost would be getting from London to Kent.

THough on the other hand, if you are in need of a weekend excursion, this IS the perfect, guilt free excuse!

Regards,

Farn

FLATHEAD · Post by **FLATHEAD** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 7:22 am

It seems to me
that he should be mailing these items using the Govt. mail system, not private carriers but if he continues to use private carriers it
should be U.S. customs that contacts the buyer letting him know about the charges, not some 3rd party trying to make a fast bucK

Do you know the worst part of this PBB thing? They are not
even located in the United States!!

Their main offices are in Canada!! They aren't even a U.S.
based company! Talk about getting shafted.

I just got a notice from a collection agency that PBB uses that
says I did not pay my bill, so they are getting ready to come after
me for it!!

I can not tell you how many times I have sent them the information
that shows that they cashed my check for the $21.18 that they
billed me!!

I have recieved now 3 bills for just one jacket. I paid the first
one. I called and had the second one removed. But the third
one just keeps coming!

I wrote the main office in Canada, as that is where it said to
send all correspondence. I made copies of every single document,
every single invoice, every single packing label, and copies of my
bank statements showing that they already had my money, and
they are STILL trying to extort money from me.

Now, even after all of this, they sick their lame collection agency
after me with some really shabby looking documents!! All it says
is that I have to pay, and that it might hurt my credit to not pay!

But the part that really makes me laugh is this. Not one single
piece of paper that has come from this sham of a company, has
ever come registered mail!!

I have never signed for a single package, or invoice! I have
never had to go to the post office to pick up any of their
"Official Notices" that any reputable U.S. company would have to
use to make sure the right person gets the correspondence.

I can easily say that it must have been "lost in the mail", or
that the package must have been stolen off of my porch, as they
have no signature showing that a person over the age of 14 years
signed for it which is required by law by the U.S. Customs department!

I have asked them to provide me with any documentation with
my signature, or a signature of anyone over the age of 14 from
my address. And guess what they tell me? "We don't need to
prove you DIDN'T get it, you have to prove it!" Can you believe
this?

I have ordered jackets from New Zealand and Scotland, and they
always come thru the United Stats Post office no matter what
carrier the original vendor used to send it. It also has all the
proper customs documentation attached, and I have to go down
to the post office to sign for the packages! Its then that I have
to pay the custom charges, which are 6 percent of the packages
declared value. This is the same percentage for all packages
with declared values of 200 american dollars or more.

Going this way, you never, ever have any questions as to what
you are paying for, and all the documentation is VERY clear!

It just goes to show you that you some vendors may save a few
dollars using a cheaper carrier, but we, the customers get the
shaft in the end by doing this.

Flathead

ob1al · Post by **ob1al** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 8:19 am

Raider - There are cut-price air operators like easyjet which could get you to London no problem, at a great price. Then jump on the tube, catch a train and you are in Kent to get your jacket. A good adventure!

I Don't think it would work out cheaper in the end - but at least you would get a nice weekend break and know that you were not being scammed by import tax!

Al

Indiana Texas-girl · Post by **Indiana Texas-girl** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 8:21 am

I wonder if Peter is aware of his these problems; I sure hope he reads this to see how atrocious this collection company is. I wish he'd switch carriers.

ob1al · Post by **ob1al** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 8:25 am

I seem to recall Peter writing that the problem is, Wested send so many packages to the states that customs are aware of them and watch out for them, therefore marking the items as a gift etc. would not be acceptable.

whipwarrior · Post by **whipwarrior** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 8:43 am

I have asked them to provide me with any documentation with
my signature, or a signature of anyone over the age of 14 from
my address. And guess what they tell me? "We don't need to
prove you DIDN'T get it, you have to prove it!"

What a bunch of bulls**t!. I'd be suing that company so fast...

FLATHEAD · Post by **FLATHEAD** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 9:18 am

Actually, Peter has said that Airborne Express is the cheapest
carrier he has, and he has said that to go with Priority Mail
from the United States Postal Service would increase his shipping
fees by a few dollars.

He did not want to have to raise the cost of the jackets to do
this. But I think it is worth it.

All the jackets that I have had to return, I had to use Priority
Mail from the post office to get the packages there. Its the
way that all the vendors, including Peter, have asked to have
any product to them.

If he would use this method, I would not mind paying a few
bucks more just to avoid PBB and their extortionist ways.

Flathead

Raider · Post by **Raider** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 1:57 pm

ob1al, I heard these cheap flights will be available from Poland when we finally access the European Union (may 2004). Though my friend told me smaller flight operators are entering the market already and first promotions will be revealed in a few weeks.
Then - I promise you - I'll let ya know if I am to buy second Indy jacket (it is crazy but it would be more profitable indeed!).
Maybe we could drink a beer in England

Take care

Raider :junior:

ob1al · Post by **ob1al** » Tue Nov 25, 2003 2:05 pm

Raider -

Sounds good to me!

I have already talked to 2 other UK fans, Geordie Jones and Indiana Ken, about maybe doing something in the summer anyway, so maybe we could all meet up in London, visit Wested together and have a meal and several drinks

? Shame MBA isn't there anymore (or maybe it will be in a new incarnation...?) or we could have visited there, too! There is also HJ to check out the poet hats, if we are so inclined...

Anyway, stay in touch and maybe we can do something.

Perhaps other EU based fans may also be interested?

Cheers

Al

TheOther Jones · Post by **TheOther Jones** » Wed Nov 26, 2003 8:29 am

Raider, is it Szybka Paczka that's trying to rip you off? I had to pay only about 100 zlotys when my jacket came.

Raider · Post by **Raider** » Wed Nov 26, 2003 1:07 pm

and I am paying 660 zlotys (VAT=22% + 20% of the jackets value counted with VAT). Additional fees for Stolica (storage of the package) - all together it's over 50% of the jacket's value.

Raider :junior:

TheOther Jones · Post by **TheOther Jones** » Thu Nov 27, 2003 4:44 am

Well, Szybka Paczka wanted 140% of the jacket's value, believe it or not. That was back in 2000. I checked with customs regulations and it turned out that the rate for British-made goods was 0%, so one aggressive letter and a phone call later I ended up paying only 116 zl (about $25). Check the regulations before you pay them anything.
BTW, where are you in Poland, exactly?

Raider · Post by **Raider** » Thu Nov 27, 2003 6:34 am

TheOther - it is rather impossible there's no custom fee for British goods (where did you find this information??). I asked woman at customs office to give me the rate. For the leather (yes - "leather" is important info for them) jacket, it is +20% of the product's value (product's value is the price of the jacket + Polish VAT).

I am from Poznan (but from Olsztyn). I always say it this way or:
I am from Olsztyn but from Poznan

I've been living in Poznan for 8 years now.

Raider :junior:

Shalimar · Post by **Shalimar** » Thu Nov 27, 2003 1:06 pm

My sympathies... We here in Canada also have the GST :evil:

While it officially means "Goods & Services Tax" it is commonly reffered to as "Gouge & Swindle Tax"

Just one more excuse for the ###### gov't to rip us off! :evil:

Sadly given the current state of gov as a whole in any country as a rule you get shafted no matter where you live

Regards,

Shalimar

TheOther Jones · Post by **TheOther Jones** » Fri Nov 28, 2003 3:17 am

Raider, apparently things changed since then. Anyway, I guess you'll have to pay up. It could be avoided in the future though if you have a friend in the UK who could just forward the jacket to you as a gift.

Australian customs charge!

Australian customs charge!

Gst True Definition

PBB Global...Customs charge