Challenging Fed Ex on Customs Duties
Has anyone here ever sucessfully challenged Fed Ex on customs duties?
I ordered an item from an online auction site in the U.S. It was an item purchased for personal use, not professional or corporate or commercial. The seller chose to use Fed Ex as the shipper. Over the past three years, I have used other shippers for a variety of shipments from several countries, and I have never had to pay commercial customs duties, as none of the shipments were for commercial purposes. This is the first time for me that a merchant has used Fed Ex and I am facing this issue.
For all mail deliveries, I use my work address as the shipping address, as I am not home during the day to receive packages.
A few days ago, Fed Ex delivered a package for me to my work address. The package had a declared value of 25 USD. Fed Ex wanted 380 QR/ 104.11 USD for customs duties. When I inquired as to why the duties were so high, I was informed that this package was treated as a Business-toBusiness (B2B) shipment, not a Business-to-Consmer (B2C) shipment. I told Fed Ex that this shipment was indeed B2C. I told the delivery driver to hold on to the package and that I would submit a letter and documentation showing that the pruchase was made from personal accounts for personal reasons, not commercial.
I am currenlty still in the process of challenging this matter.
If push comes to shove, and I agree to pay commercial duties for a B2C shipment, why is the duty 380 QR on a 25 USD item. A bit of research (not sure how accurate) shows that Qatari customs charges combined duty that is calculated on declared value of item, shipping costs, and insurance costs. However, I still don't see how customs duties can come to 380 QR on a 25 USD item that costs no more than 15 USD to ship.
Does anyone here know the breakdown for how commercial customs duty calculations are made?
Thanks for whatever information you can provide.
Update:
I ignored Fed Ex and they ended up returning the item to the seller, who refunded the purchase price.
If I can help it, I will stay away from Fed Ex in the future.
++ i challenge them a few times previously, and mention i will not pick up the item until similar cases like yours is solved i.e. item for a personal use and not company,challange,call their bosses, and they ended up telling me they will charge item which is stored at their depot if uncollected. i had no choice and felt helpless as an expact, paid the tax .
ouch. i thought i am the only one facing this issue. had so many cases over the years where item shipped to my name thru fedex and they ended up charging a bloody amount of high tax. i even tried once having item shipped to a residential building (and with a po box of my company as the reference ) for postal code. yet they still charge me those tax. and these tax arent reall cheap. i purchased big item such as bicycle frame etc with value up till usd2500 thru other courier , shipped to my company address and never once i was charged a single penny if tax. the best solution is just to avoid fedex at all cost.
Really surprising. I just hope that things get straightened out soon and your matter gets resolved.
The more one researches FedEx, the more one finds FedEx should not be trusted blindly. Additionally, there seems to be a problem with FedEx unscrupulously overcharging on shipping eBay items. Ebay itself seems to warn merchants and buyers against using FedEx.
The overcharge in my case is an unwarranted customs duty of 104 usd on an item valued at 25 usd.
When I asked for the reasons for the charge, I was shown a receipt that did not contain any explanation.
I was told only that the delivery was processed as a commercial delivery, when I am not a commercial entity.
I spoke to someone I know who works in customs and was told that there is a lot of corruption within FedEx and customs.
He said he would see what he can do regarding my case.
FedEx is an international company of repute and I doubt very much that they could be overcharging you. However, If you are in doubt about the customs duties, you can always ask them for a receipt from them for the payment they had made to the customs authorities for your consignment.
Having said that, my personal view is that the sum involved is just too small for one to turn into an issue. But then, each person views things in his own way.