Customs duty when ordered from MP4Nation

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nishantgandhi

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I had ordered SoundMagic PL-30 Pro IEM (with Free Shipping) from MP4nation on Mar 23, 2010. The price was USD 22.50, which I paid thru CC (via PayPal).

At that time, I didnt know any online shop in India selling these. And Lynx did not have it in stock.

The earphones arrived today. To my utter surprise, there was a customs charge attached to it for Rs 343. I was quite shocked, but had to pay in order to take delivery.

I had asked MP4nation to mark it a GIFT, which they did. Why did the customs charge me then? I asked the postman but he had no clue.

What is the way out? Isnt this cheating?
 
Not to crap on your parade, but technically speaking, buying something and having it marked as "Gift" can be called cheating, but not what the customs did. Just live with it :)
 
you had to pay customs coz it was marked as gift i think

what ive seen is more often than not, they charge customs for items marked as gift,, 20$ was not a huge amount and you should have asked to send them as is with proper bill in which case they might not have charged you

custom people have their own chart of values of products and levy the amount according to them, when they see a new product marked as gift, they will definetly know its been done to avoid customs and charge you, they are not that stupid mind you :P

this is especially the case with the Mumbai FPO. In any case, now that you have paid it and got it, enjoy the earphones, nothing much can be done about the custom part now
 
But i suppose Dealextreme also marks as GIFT and that thing comes in speedpost and we are usually not charged any customs. I have ordered couple of times from DE and never ben charged customs.
 
FYI guys, the item was priced at USD 22.50, but when they marked as GIFT, the value was quoted as USD 25. The bill is stuck on the top of the parcel.

raksrules said:
But i suppose Dealextreme also marks as GIFT and that thing comes in speedpost and we are usually not charged any customs. I have ordered couple of times from DE and never ben charged customs.
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Yes, even I have ordered many times from Deal Extreme, and never got charged as Customs duty. And both packages come from HK and delivered via Speed Post in India.

Rave said:
you had to pay customs coz it was marked as gift i think
what ive seen is more often than not, they charge customs for items marked as gift,, 20$ was not a huge amount and you should have asked to send them as is with proper bill in which case they might not have charged you

custom people have their own chart of values of products and levy the amount according to them, when they see a new product marked as gift, they will definetly know its been done to avoid customs and charge you, they are not that stupid mind you :P

this is especially the case with the Mumbai FPO. In any case, now that you have paid it and got it, enjoy the earphones, nothing much can be done about the custom part now
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So you mean in future I should not get any package marked as gift? Or is there some rule regarding minimum value?
 
Was there any thing to ascertain that the money went to customs and not the postman's pocket ? Some form etc ? Isnt customs levied only on products > 5000 bucks ? irrespective of gift or not ?
 
manu1991 said:
Was there any thing to ascertain that the money went to customs and not the postman's pocket ? Some form etc ? Sint customs levied only on products > 5000 bucks ? irrespective of gift or not ?
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Yes, I signed on a customs receipt.
 
Its just random I guess. In my case, some packages worth more than 10k has come without any duty whereas I was charged duty on much cheaper items.
 
No, customs is becoming very strict with international purchases. I have had to pay custom duty for all 5 packages that came recently. Once package was $7 (incl shipping) and I had to pay duty of 190 bucks !!!! :(

I believe this is mostly done by the Mumbai customs dept.
 
sometimes customs people value the products by themselves, cos they know that people declare wrong value.

I have heard they go to the extent of going online and searching the price of the products.
 
BF1983 said:
No, customs is becoming very strict with international purchases. I have had to pay custom duty for all 5 packages that came recently. Once package was $7 (incl shipping) and I had to pay duty of 190 bucks !!!! :(

I believe this is mostly done by the Mumbai customs dept.
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Damn! I have plenty of packages on the way. Guess I have to keep minimum of 30-40% of the value in hand :no:

On the other hand, I could get lucky at least with some of the packages :P
 
^ This is scary and I had plans of ordering a good 100-200$ amp in the future :|.

Anyways in OPs case ,I think it's just plain bad luck .Usually small parcels of lesser value get away with any duty.Once in a while they might just pick some random consignments and charge them.

I once received a 170$ consignment with a duty charge of ~2k. The packaging as well as product was severely damaged and I returned it back to customs.The original company reshipped my order and the next time it came without nay customs duty. 95% of the time , its your luck !
 
Not really. Lately the customs guys are getting very strict. I have ordered tons of stuff from abroad - both camera items and audio stuff and nothing got slapped with duty for the last year and a half. Now however they are more vigilant and properly checking the items before slapping duty. Most of my recent packages have been opened by customs before sending to me. :(
 
But how many have been charged duty ? I guess small items like headphone amps etc usually get away ? Your P3+ was charged ?
 
I was charged 250 Rs as customs for an mp4nation nanite mp3 player + brainwavz pro about 2 months ago. Also mp4nation had marked it as a gift even without me asking them to.
 
Gifts/non-gifts cane be dutied only if the value exceeds 5K. Below this there are no customs. bad luck :( try asking them that for this value customs cannot be levied.
 
thetechmind said:
its over. stop thinking abt it and enjoy your new purchase :)
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Ofourse its over and he will eventually stop thinking about it , smartass. What he is doing is to try and understand how the custom process works.

To the OP: I personally ordered a couple of items directly and never asked them to be marked as a gift or anything. Both where small items and neither got charged by customs. So like someone said, its probably random.

For small/inespensive items, its better to have them sent normally and pray they dont get charged by customs. For everything else, there is KMD :ohyeah:
 
FaH33m said:
But how many have been charged duty ? I guess small items like headphone amps etc usually get away ? Your P3+ was charged ?
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No it wasn't. But that was because it was shipped via UPS and not USPS or EMS. Both USPS and EMS deliver your item to customs and the local post office finally delivers it to you. However UPS takes your parcel and personally passes it through customs, and then delivers it to you. So they take care of the custom duties and I believe the custom dept is cracking down on shipments via USPS and EMS (China).
 
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