Anyone bought anything from Amazon through DHL recently?

Raymond Lin · 2 Dec 2011 at 21:37

I am asking because on the invoice it states

"Import Fee Deposit" of £51.11

Which has been deducted from my account, that I am guessing paid to DHL as the small words on the bottom says I agree to pay the courier any fees that I am liable for.

What I am concern about is that am I going to get another bill from DHL when it turns up at my door or will this "Import Fee Deposit" be the end of it?

I have never seen a retailer taking money through the initial transaction on top of shipping on behalf of a courier before. Is this new? The last time I bought something from aboard through DHL was like years go and I swear I had to pay at the door.

Worst I got £250 for a monopod thread ever

AntiHeroUK · 2 Dec 2011 at 21:47

Hi Raymond, hopefully this will answer your question

Amazon said:
The Amazon Global Programme offers customers a unique service: duty and tax estimation during checkout and customs clearance on your behalf for certain eligible countries. When products are sent to the eligible countries using eligible delivery options included in the Amazon Global Programme, an Import Fees Deposit will be estimated and collected for the delivery. With your authorisation, such funds will be used by the carrier or another agent to pay the Import Fees on behalf of you (or the recipient's behalf) to the appropriate authorities of the destination country

What if the actual Import Fees are less than the Import Fees Deposit I was charged?

If the actual Import Fees (paid by carrier on behalf of the recipient to the customs and tax authorities of the destination country) are less than the Import Fees Deposit collected by us on your behalf, you will automatically be refunded the difference to the payment method you used for the order. You will receive a notification e-mail to confirm the amount of the refund. The process takes 60 days from the dispatch date.

What if the actual Import Fees are more than the Import Fees Deposit I was charged?

For items sold by Amazon EU Sarl, you will not be charged any additional fees if the actual Import Fees exceed the Import Fees Deposit we estimated. For items sold by Merchants, please check the applicable Merchant's policies.

According to that you shouldn't expect to pay anything else and may well be entitled to money back, however unlikely it may seem

Cupra · 2 Dec 2011 at 21:48

if the above is true, that so much better than getting a bill later

Raymond Lin · 2 Dec 2011 at 21:49

Ah, that's handy. Ta!

oulton · 2 Dec 2011 at 21:53

Yes, they are scumbags. They tried to hold us to ransom for 30 quid for some soaps and tings worth 15 quid. Told em to keep it and sod off.

Lopéz · 2 Dec 2011 at 21:59

The shipper is essentially shipping you the item as DDP - normally in the retail B2C environment this is tricky to offer, because you can only estimate the clearance charges - they could be more or less, and if they are more it defeats the object.

However in this case, Amazon Global Programme are happy to pick up any excess charges, which I have to say is pretty excellent customer service.

memyselfandi · 2 Dec 2011 at 22:18

Yep, Amazon US have been doing this for a few years.

(I had a load of refunds from it in the middle of 2009 when they found they hadn't been refunding the overpayments)