New Charge Imposed by DHL Express on International Shipments

I've had similar experiences with DHL (and, to a lesser extent, FE). Regardless of the nature of the shipment, they charge a standard 25% import duty plus an extra 'service fee' (literally: 'lending fee') to the tune of 18 Euro. They've been doing this since, well, forever. Fortunately, coins as collectibles are exempt from all import duties in Norway. So the import duties are easy to disprove. And, since DHL in Norway carelessly disguise their extortion, sorry, fees, not as a 'service fee' but as a 'lending fee', then, once you've proved that there are no import duties due they can't legally charge a lending fee either.

So far this has worked. But I haven't received any shipments in '22 yet, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

As to the option of clearing a parcel yourself and bypassing DHL, as mentioned in the CBC article: this works in theory only. Why? Well, if you choose to clear a shipment yourself, which is your legal right, then the parcel will be held by DHL until the paperwork is in order. And this gives them the opportunity to jump in with yet another ingenious invention, called, wait for it...: the 'storage fee'!

 

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I live in a country in EU. And I only buy from EU, so in theory no customs, no delays.
Won some coins in the weekend, package got shipped and I can see FedEx are not using the same route (more than 500 kilometers longer than the one they normally use!) and it's already delayed. Not sure if this is related.

 

There has been an interesting development/resolution to my disputing the 23% VAT charge.

I received two items in the post today:

A letter from An Post, looking for €135.23 to be paid by 09/02/2022 - "Customer please note that if these charges are not paid by the above "Pay by date" your items will be returned to sender." (their highlighting).

The second item was the letter from Leu with the coins



As of yet, I haven't received any response to my email looking for a reduced antiquities VAT rate, but maybe they've decided that 0% is enough.

ATB,
Aidan.

 

So I won about a $400 coin at a Spanish auction and paid the invoice December 19. The coin hasn’t shipped yet because the auction house has to work with “the Culture Ministry in order to receive the export licenses.” They anticipate shipping the coin DHL by the end of this week.

I certainly hope I don’t get hit with a $44 charge, especially since my coin is it not in the $2000 range. If that charge is the new normal, I’m afraid my already limited auction participation is going to drop dramatically, at least for international auctions.

 

There is a simple solution.....

Have the coins sent via Royal Mail. Roma sends all my coins that way=no customs fees/ hassles.
Naumann which refuses to send stuff by Austrian Post/ send via DHL express which means on a 1000 euros coin= 1500 Canadian $= 13 % fee at customs =$195+ 25 handling fee
That is what I call, "Highway robbery"
Most auction houses will send stuff according to my wishes/ Thank God!

 

If this is the new normal, I will make that request in the future. It took 12 days from the auction date anyway for dhl to make delivery.

 

Yes; if the purpose of a steep DHL charge is express shipping, that purpose is blunted if I have to wait a month for the coin to ship in the first place. If I can wait a month, I can wait another 3 weeks if they can offer a cheaper shipping option.

 

Not necessarily....
I had recent coin sent via Royal Mail/ from Coin Cabient Auctions/ took 5 days. Sincona sent me a $$$$ coin via Swiss Post/ 4 days.

 

I’ve had Roma send by Royal Mail in the past, and yes you avoid the ransom and fees. However, twice through Royal Mail my coins were ‘delivered’ but not actually delivered, because I paid using PayPal only one time I was able to get my money back. Unfortunately Roma no longer accepts the use of PayPal (probably for this reason).

I've made the choice that I’m willing to be financially abused by Fedex if it means I’ll actually receive my coin. From my last experience even with Fedex you still aren’t guaranteed to get your coin.

All this hassle makes me lean back to my local bricks and mortar store more and more. Now that the boarders are opening they should get better stock.

 

I ordered from Numiscorner (France), and it showed up super fast (via the Post Office). No extra fees, although the total order was under $250.

 

Also, I noticed that Roma accepts credit cards only for orders under 2,500 GBP. Above that amount, it seems wire transfers are the only option. In other words, if the coins never arrive, you're out of luck unless the shipping insurance comes through. And we all know that insurance companies are in the business of denying claims whenever they possibly can!

 

I've had a package go missing from Roma (from Fedex) (paid via CC) that they refunded me on just fine without any hassle

 

Who refunded -- the credit card company, Fedex, or Roma itself via their insurance?

 

Roma refunded me. I would expect they then went to their insurance; but I'm not sure how they got their money back.

 

I have had in past 20 years about 600 coin shipments sent via post/ valued at 1M+ euros/ pounds/ Swiss frcs/ US$ all arrived safe and sound. However in 1998 I had a reg. letter (with 2 Aurei) go MIA valued at $11K from Triton I/ CNG. The tracking went dead at the Canadian customs/ easy to figure out who dunnit To this day that remains a mystery.

 

I won a coin at NN last month. Total was €55 plus € 8.20 commission and €20.63 DHL shipping. Grand total €83.83. Not a large amount by any means but I wanted the type.

Got a message from DHL today that I owe $34.70 Canadian for "Import duty/or tax and customs clearance service charges."

I guess I have to bid and win more coins so they can all ship together

 

This. I was told by a Fedex customs broker last year that any shipment valued over $2K will have an import duty charge upon entering the US. It doesn't matter what shipping company is used.

 

Whoever told you that was either wrong or speaking very imprecisely. If such a charge is imposed by customs (rather than Fedex or DHL themselves), it's clearly not an actual import duty -- especially when the category of goods is exempt from import duty by law! -- but a so-called "merchandise processing fee" And even then, as I read the relevant U.S. government websites, there's supposed to be an exemption from the MPF for duty-free goods, regardless of the goods' value.

 

Sorry, I'm just relating what I was told over the phone by a Fedex customs agent. Regardless, there seems to be some sort of threshold of $2K for both Fedex and DHL to impose additional fees, for whatever reason!

 

When I looked up the definition of the fees on their web site, they're not actual customs duties but are charges to examine the items for customs duty.

So, from what I gather, at $2k for shipments via DHL and FedEx, we incur these fees so customs can look at our coins and say there are no fees...