New pain in the a**

[Alex]

In the two years I have been shipping to China I've never had any problems..till now. I Fed exe'd a parcel with documents and a small necklace to my SO...of course I filled out a declaration. The parcel is being held for "customs", and my SO is being asked to pay 200 yuan to get her parcel from the Chinese Fed-ex people..is this a scam?

[xtal]

In the two years I have been shipping to China I've never had any problems..till now. I Fed exe'd a parcel with documents and a small necklace to my SO...of course I filled out a declaration. The parcel is being held for "customs", and my SO is being asked to pay 200 yuan to get her parcel from the Chinese Fed-ex people..is this a scam?

156958[/snapback]

Did you put $ amounts on the declaration by any chance? I know I had problems with that when I shipped something to Canada to a buddy of mine a few years back. Made the mistake of putting the value on it instead of declaring it as a gift - customs promptly charged him when the package arrived.

[HanLi]

In the two years I have been shipping to China I've never had any problems..till now. I Fed exe'd a parcel with documents and a small necklace to my SO...of course I filled out a declaration. The parcel is being held for "customs", and my SO is being asked to pay 200 yuan to get her parcel from the Chinese Fed-ex people..is this a scam?

156958[/snapback]

Did you declare the necklace as a gift? If not, the customs wants their slice of the pie..... something similar happened to me.

[ckhang]

I don't have any problem using USPS for shipment to China.....done it many times...even declaring $$$ amount....my wife dont have to pay for custom.

[Guest DragonFlower]

All of the commercial shippers use customs brokers.

You are much more likely to be charged customs for goods.

Excluding shipments marked as documents.

Ever notice they charge more to ship same weight non-documents.

This is to pay the broker to handle it.

Post office does not use brokers.

 

long

Edited September 27, 2005 by DragonFlower (see edit history)

[Alex]

Actually, I DID declare the jewelry...but it was a gift from my Mother to my SO. My SO was charged 200 Yuan....everyone 's got their finger in the pie! Sometimes I hate myself for being honest!

[warpedbored]

I really amazes me how fast things depreciate in value as soon as they have a post mark to China on them. Why just earlier this month that $150.00 birthday gift for my step son was only worth $40.00. Sent it US mail and it got there no problem and no duty.

[sailorboy]

Actually, I DID declare the jewelry...but  it was  a gift from my Mother to my SO. My SO was charged 200 Yuan....everyone 's got their finger in the pie! Sometimes I hate myself for being honest!

157052[/snapback]

Never hate yourself for being honest....you'll get your just reward one day. I concur with an earlier post, use USPS. I've never had any problems at all. I sent a ton of presents last year for Christmas and lately sent my digital camera to my wife. Declared it as a gift and insured it (which is to say I stated the value). No problems, no customs. And it arrived exactly when they said it would!! Good luck next time.

 

Dave

[amanda]

My wife recently sent a CD player to her friend. It only worths 20 bucks here, and we declared it as a gift. The darn custom wanted 200 yuan before they release it! How the heck did they come up with that amount for something that doesn't even worth that much? Some darn greedy guys just wanted some money from her friend the way I see it.