Huge DHL customs duty ?

Hello, I have been living in Japan for 4 months now. I have had my friends in the u.s. mail things to me, they have reached me without problem and without charges to me. I also have had a number of eBay purchases mailed to me, all without charge to me, and without problems.

Today, I received a note from DHL in regard to a package that some friends mailed me. It tells me that when I pick it up, I will be charge 4300 yen customs duty, 300 yen tax, and 500 yen administration fee. Paying 5100 yen will not kill me. But, seeing as how 5100 yen is more than the entire worth of the package and its contents, it does make me unhappy. I can not talk with DHL about it, as I unfortunately do not know Japanese well enough yet, even though I am trying to learn it as fast as I can. It makes me unhappy enough to make it very clear that I never want to use DHL again, not here in Japan, and not if I ever live in the u.s. or any other country either.
Is DHL using 'customs duty' as an excuse to attach a huge charge to my package for their own improper benefit ? The charge is handwritten by a DHL employee. Does customs actually charge them for bringing the package into Japan ? If so, does DHL charge them such a huge amount ? More than the whole package is worth ? Why have none of the u.s. post office deliveries to me charged me any customs duty or tax at all ? Thank you for any help you can provide. :)

I have had a similar experience receiving goods with DHL in another country.

The items sent were cards, shoes, textas etc. Nothing of value. The sender put the actual value of each item on the con-note.

My parcel landed with others containing gold & electronics. So the same rate of duty was applied against the declared value on all parcels. Even the ones with goods that don't attract duty taxes.

DHL paid this duty without my authorisation.

I don't think DHL is running any scam. Just to make things quicker they won't defend the interests of each customer.

I refused to pay and the parcel was sent back to the sender.

Customs duty sometimes does not require the amount soemthing is worth but sometimes levied on the type (or amount of type) of item recieved.

Even items sent by US Mail (which btw once it reaches Japan, JapanPost takes over) can be subject to Customs duty.

If you are being charged a customs duty, it means Japan Customs (not DHL) inspected the item(s) and charged DHL, DHL is now charging you the amount that Japan Customs applied to them (along with processing fees etc).

Everytime someone sends something overseas, no matter what service you use, you are subject to customs duty.

Japan charges different levels of duty on different items, and often the duty is much higher on something when the government wants to protect domestic manufacturers. One such item is shoes - for political reasons, Japan wants to restrict imports of cheap shoes to protect domestic shoemakers, so if you get mail order shoes from overseas, the duty level is very high. If things are used, however, I think it is different - there may not be any duty, or much less (you would need to check). So if the shoes you were sent were used, but you were charged duty as if they were new, you might be able to get a refund. If they were new, then you're stuck with the high charges. My advice is don't get new shoes sent to you in Japan.

I have found out that it is indeed the decision of customs and not DHL. It does seem that even though everything coming into Japan can be charged a duty, that for some reason customs seems to usually charge more for things coming in through DHL than from us postal service, and always more for new items than for used. Thanks for the help!

Leather shoes definitely attract a high import tax- I got burnt once that way. It also doesn't surprise me that electronics and jewelry attracted customs duty- they do in most countries.

Nothing to do with DHL, and it's the same in any country, some items are taxed, depending on that country's laws.

The problem with sending things by such freight carriers as UPS, FedEx and DHL is that they require a detailed customs declaration. In my experience, DHL required the most detailed declaration, down to describing what the materials are made out of and so on (to follow the international tariff codes).

Your friends may have had to do this, and although the declared value is much less, the composition of the items and where they were made (the shoes for example) are scrutinized and taxed accordingly.

Therefore, we usually use Express Mail when sending items from the US. They aren't as strict usually with the mail mainly because of the sheer volume. Of course there still may be taxes imposed, but the likelihood is much much less than using other freight carriers.

If you are using Global Express Guranteed from the United States Postal Service, they use FedEx to deliver those items and you'll have to fill out a detailed customs form with those items.

Regular Global Express mail from the US is sent via US Mail, before changing to Japan Post when arriving in Japan.

My parents sent me my snow gear from Canada to Tokyo Via DHL (boarder jacket..around 270 CAD$-about 27,000, snow pants 90 CAD$-9,000, and some gloves about 75CAD$-7,500) and I just received a call from them saying they are going to put some duties on the items. However, these items are for my personal use(for my job here), and they are USED!! I plan on bringing these Items back to Canada When I leave. Is there anyway to get around this duty? Can I get my money back later?

for some reason my Yen symbol came out as a slash, just clearing that up for the prices.

My parents sent me my snow gear from Canada to Tokyo Via DHL (boarder jacket..around 270 CAD$-about 27,000, snow pants 90 CAD$-9,000, and some gloves about 75CAD$-7,500) and I just received a call from them saying they are going to put some duties on the items. However, these items are for my personal use(for my job here), and they are USED!! I plan on bringing these Items back to Canada When I leave. Is there anyway to get around this duty? Can I get my money back later?


Probably not.

I'm not surprised items those you mentioned were subject to inspection and duty.

It does not matter if they are personal use if someone sends it to you, it is considered a "gift" and subject to duty, if you had carried those items over yourself you are allowed a personal customs exempt or for unaccompanied baggage and you have had to declare to customs you arrived in Japan, however, if someone is sending the items they are subject to duty just like everything else.

I just received Customs duty invoice from DHL. it ask me pay for U.S$45.I use the first express, it said I will received my package in 3days.but actually I received it about 2 weeks. It use too many date for doing clearance delay. when I use post office to mail something, I never do the clearance delay before. I very regretto use DHL. I pay for the fee for mail my package and still need to pay for customs fee.

This does not only happen in Japan, I just had 4 bottles of weight loss tablets sent to me from a company that specialized in weight loss programs in the UK. DHL delivered them to me 2 months after being sent from the UK, the boxes had FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and customs labels all over. THe delivery guy gave them to me but did not mentioned anything about custom fees. this is my first time something like this happened so did not think anything and just started taking my wt loss tablets---a week later I get an invoice from DHL for $60 dollars for customs duty. by reading more into how this works I understand there is a fee but shouldn't we be advise by the sender or DHL before delivering the package?
I am so dissapointed- the price of the items I bought was about $45 but duty is $60. Do you think I can still call DHL and return the packages to avoid having to pay customs the outrages customs fees?
Thanks

long story short DHL IS scamming you - UPS was just sued last year for doing the same kind of stuff. Anyone who used UPS for international shipments last year will remember the irritating automated phone calls asking for your authorization to clear shipments and a breakdown of the various fees they would be charging you.

Try using a different carrier but check their website first for information on their fees, almost all of them have fees to some extent for international shipments.

I also got charged big time by DHL. Is there anyway around this? Like is using Fedex better?
Thank u!

the only way to stop getting scam brokerage fees is to stop using dhl, fedex, ups, or any other courier service for parcels.

use the national mail carrier and use their express service and you will never have insane brokerage fees.

the alternative is call UPS or DHL or Fedex and give them a customs broker that you use, sign a power of attorney document that states they MUST use your customs broker, if the courier still tries to charge you for a customs brokerage fee you can sue them and you'll win.

DHL will ALWAYS channel your items through customs and ALWAYS you'll pay for that.

DHL is the worst!!

I think FEDex is better..

But without a doubt, better to avoid courier services altogether and go for Global Priority etc.

I regularly receive goods from the US via regular mail services and hard to recall when I last paid duty (on items up to and around 60-100,000 yen).

I've used Fedex and DHL to receive packages from US to Tokyo. They use sleazy customs brokers who will pocket nearly 50 % of the customs duty you are forced to pay. This gives the brokers a huge incentive to open your packages - They hope to find something expensive hidden in the box. Even if they don't find anything expensive, and therefore not worth their trouble, they will still put you thru the customs duty process. Why? Because they have already opened your package. They need a legitimate reason for opening your package. The problem is that once they see nothing of values, they are not motivated to move fast in processing the paper work for you to pay the fees, thus the long delays.

Over the decades, I have never had to pay customs duty using US Postal Services. The good old US Postal Services is the best choice for you.