WARNING : Don't use Buy Shipping for international shipments unless you want to pay the duty fees
I just happened to look through my payment details only to see an adjustment for -$33 on an order we shipped to Chile using Amazon Buy Shipping with DHL. I come to find out it was to pay the duty fees on this order. Since when are sellers responsible for these fees? And how is this fair to charge sellers this with no warning. As far as I can find out there is no setting to not pay this. Why would any seller want to pay these fees? I like the ease of using Buy Shipping, but never again. We’ll just print postage directly from DHL from now on. I’m afraid to look back in my payments to see if this has been going on for years.
15 replies
Seller_LVZcgxAgZ2xBv
We disabled all international orders (with the exception of Canada, where we have FBA set up) because of unpredictable import duties and returns. It's just not worth it.
Seller_rI7BZIczK8iAC
You should probably do what @Seller_LVZcgxAgZ2xBv says. If YOU don't pay the customs duties you risk that the buyer doesn't accept your parcel and it will return to you. Additionnally you risk a bad feedback from said buyer....
Seller_ua4enSEyhAzgH
It's been like than for a long time. If you shipped before and didn't pay duties/taxes it means that went through customs without problems and customs didn't care about it.
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/G201468500?mons_sel_mkid=amzn1.mp.o.ATVPDKIKX0DER&mons_sel_mcid=amzn1.merchant.o.A2QHYK5XX4H47J&mons_sel_persist=true
Seller_9Ykm6aD0jaipi
Somewhere in the agreement it says we are responsible for all duties, taxes and customs fees. While the USPS base rate can be higher than DHL or UPS, I have never been hit with these fees when I ship with the post office. Or, you can add shipping fees based on these anticipated charges, but it's guess work and you risk getting spanked by Amazon for charging too much for shipping.
Seller_YQ9RpQINoZbUe
I recently turned off all my international stores too. I can't even stomach going back to look how much stuff of mine I PAID for other people to have over the years. It used to be just a few dollars here in there for import duties and went back and saw multiple charges for 20-40 something dollars each. How can we verify this money is even going to what Amazon says? It seems so shady!
Seller_PtRGEJiStRDor
Actually this is stated when you buy DHL shipping, also any fuel surcharge. You decide what service to use. Its easy enough to calculate whats better usps or dhl. Usps cost me twice the dhl cost, takes longer and buyer gets stuck with the customs fee.
Also if you buy the same shipping directly from DHL it will be 2-3 times the cost. DHL through amazon is always under $40 + maybe $5-15 for custom fees for me, the same type package was $140 through DHL
So once you do the math you should see substantial savings.
edit; I ship books up to 5 lbs with DHL under 4lbs I will sometimes us USPS first class international shipping which for me actually gets there quicker than the priority mail.
Seller_4HsL3GZbyDLea
This SHOULD be illegal. If a foreign seller comes on the American marketplace then that customer should be the one paying the fees. The fact that Amazon allows these back charges is criminal.
Seller_OsTCzqmnWLFhS
Amazon will also not give you A-z protection for INR. Have had 4 shipments debited that should have been a-z protection eligible.
Seller_frFwQYkBnEhCD
This is the biggest reason I stopped shipping International a few years ago. :-(
Seller_4K7eqIN4GuF2E
If you read the terms and conditions (which almost nobody does) you will find out you are responsible for all duties and import fees if the buyer does not want to pay for them.
Because of this we do NOT ship anything outside of the United States with Amazon and have NOT enabled any marketplace other than the United States market.
