Options to get stuff shipped from China...Lets discuss

nRiTeCh said:
Ok and how about custom duties? Do you get slapped for all items or only for items huge in sizes or amounts?
As customs is the most haunting and interested play here..
Click to expand...
No customs for the items I have ordered (small - medium electronics, nothing over $50 except for the mini pc).
 
  • Like
Reactions: raksrules
raksrules said:
Wow. Thanks a lot for that link because it changes lot of things w.r.t freight forwarders. Like I saw something is 5900 gms in weight but based on package dimension, weight comes to 8.3 kg. That can escalate costs.

What kind of stuff are you ordering?
Click to expand...
chungus said:
What do you usually order btw. I'm thinking of buying some chassis fans ?
Click to expand...
Have ordered items in the range of $5 - 50 with declared cost around the $10 mark. One of the orders of around $15, declared at $10, did get charged but I managed to get it reversed as customs had overvalued it at $27.

Generally you are good for items costing up to ₹2000 but anything over that might get flagged depending on the evaluator's discretion.

Considering that most Amazon sellers are selling the exact item at 2-2.5 times the cost, it is generally worth it if you can wait the 2-3 weeks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mh09ad5578 and -purpleshad0w-
can we place order for winter jackets under Rs.2000/- ? isn't the large packing attract extra custom duty etc.? did any one ordered such things/clothing's?
 
t3chg33k said:
Have ordered items in the range of $5 - 50 with declared cost around the $10 mark. One of the orders of around $15, declared at $10, did get charged but I managed to get it reversed as customs had overvalued it at $27.

Generally you are good for items costing up to ₹2000 but anything over that might get flagged depending on the evaluator's discretion.

Considering that most Amazon sellers are selling the exact item at 2-2.5 times the cost, it is generally worth it if you can wait the 2-3 weeks.
Click to expand...
Could you please explain how you got that customs fee reversed. As someone who also buys some bits and bobs from eBay, this would be very helpful to know. Thanks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mh09ad5578
t3chg33k said:
Have ordered items in the range of $5 - 50 with declared cost around the $10 mark. One of the orders of around $15, declared at $10, did get charged but I managed to get it reversed as customs had overvalued it at $27.

Generally you are good for items costing up to ₹2000 but anything over that might get flagged depending on the evaluator's discretion.

Considering that most Amazon sellers are selling the exact item at 2-2.5 times the cost, it is generally worth it if you can wait the 2-3 weeks.
Click to expand...
How did you get custom fees reversed? Did you visit the customs office.
I have a fake lego set coming through dhgate and total price paid is under 3000 so i want to make sure they don't rip me off with customs. It was free shipping but that seller had marked it $10 on package. So i.told him to give me invoice for $10 product price and $22 shipping so everything matches the amount ( at last in ballpark). I really don't want to pay any duty due to price being low.
I am even OK visiting office of customs as i am in Mumbai.
Let us see how it goes. It was shipped just 2 days back so Delhi door hai.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mh09ad5578
raksrules said:
How did you get custom fees reversed? Did you visit the customs office.
I have a fake lego set coming through dhgate and total price paid is under 3000 so i want to make sure they don't rip me off with customs. It was free shipping but that seller had marked it $10 on package. So i.told him to give me invoice for $10 product price and $22 shipping so everything matches the amount ( at last in ballpark). I really don't want to pay any duty due to price being low.
I am even OK visiting office of customs as i am in Mumbai.
Let us see how it goes. It was shipped just 2 days back so Delhi door hai.
Click to expand...
Raised it on PG Portal against the customs department. The officer who has appraised the item reached out to me over phone and paid me the amount charged as duty.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dc983059, VijayB, mh09ad5578 and 2 others
I am trying to buy vape devices which are not available with Indian sellers at this point.
Anyone has experience with that?
Looking for a Vaporesso XROS 3 specifically.

Found some on vawoo.com but no idea about this site's reliability.
in.vawoo.com

Buy Vaporesso XROS 3 Pod System Kit for the best price in India | Fast and cheap delivery

Order Vaporesso XROS 3 Pod System Kit in our vape shop, favorable delivery conditions, a large selection of products and great prices for comfortable vaping. Delivery across Delhi and the whole India.
in.vawoo.com in.vawoo.com
 
Anyone here has any experience with freight forwarder "Imports from China"? Their website is www.importsfromchina.com and as per their website and all they say they accept even 1 kg by air as minimum.

I am trying to get in touch with them and ask about how much will it cost for something that I plan to order.
 
raksrules said:
Good to know but aliexpress just doesn't allow India shipping and that part won't change. That is what my concern is.
Click to expand...
The reason for this is the strong crackdown at customs.
A family member shipped who's in Beijing shipped me something that cost $15 and is not worth more than $20 at most to any sensible assessor.
The declared value was $15, the assessed value was $50 and the custom charged was 1900 approx which I had to go pay in cash at the local post office. This was last week

Aliexpress still ships to India officially (you will find stuff if you search) but Most buyers from India will simply let items return undelivered in such scenarios as the 2-3X cost makes it unviable for them (and the hassle)
Thus sellers don't want to ship coz it ends up causing them losses and thus mark most items (esp low value) as not shippable to India
 
  • Like
Reactions: mh09ad5578
superczar said:
The reason for this is the strong crackdown at customs.
A family member shipped who's in Beijing shipped me something that cost $15 and is not worth more than $20 at most to any sensible assessor.
The declared value was $15, the assessed value was $50 and the custom charged was 1900 approx which I had to go pay in cash at the local post office. This was last week

Aliexpress still ships to India officially (you will find stuff if you search) but Most buyers from India will simply let items return undelivered in such scenarios as the 2-3X cost makes it unviable for them (and the hassle)
Thus sellers don't want to ship coz it ends up causing them losses and thus mark most items (esp low value) as not shippable to India
Click to expand...

Is there any way that when postman comes home and demand X amount of duty, we can dispute that and tell that we want to reevaluate and are ok to visit customs office for that. I am in Mumbai so I can so that too if worst comes.
Like i dont want those guys to treat a fake lego set i ordered as original and charge duet based on original as original costs like 5x or 10x
 
  • Like
Reactions: mh09ad5578
raksrules said:
Is there any way that when postman comes home and demand X amount of duty, we can dispute that and tell that we want to reevaluate and are ok to visit customs office for that. I am in Mumbai so I can so that too if worst comes.
Like i dont want those guys to treat a fake lego set i ordered as original and charge duet based on original as original costs like 5x or 10x
Click to expand...
its honestly not worth the hassle..
I really doubt you will get the time of the day at the customs office.
Your practical options are to accept the package or refuse delivery.
(And since a lot of people would refuse delivery in such cases and claim a refund, that's the reason why most Aliex sellers disable India as a shipping destination now)

This is pretty much what happened with me as the assessed duty itself was more than the actual cost of the item.
You will be better off paying slightly inflated prices locally as against lower price but high risk of it turning out expensive with Aliex.

We had a good run with Aliex for almost last 15-20 years but until the current dispensation stops cracking down on these little things, you are better off avoiding
 
  • Like
Reactions: txh, mh09ad5578, Black_Hawk and 2 others
I have some experience with customs as I order stuff quite regularly from overseas and one thing I have learned that never low ball item's value, these guys are not idiots.

I have been buying stuff for years, and if you don't low ball the value they will only charge you GST+freight charges and sometimes customs charges not always.

And I'm talking about ordering from states and Delhi customs the most notorious in India, I always keep declaration around 40-50$ USD, if the package has more items will declare the value 65$ and I pay 1200-1400 to postman.

But I declare most items and will not have any expensive gadget in the package.I mostly buy LPs and other audio accessories.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mh09ad5578 and raksrules
Has anyone bought anything through Pandabuy? How has been your experience? To test it out, I have ordered single item, a small knock off lego set which weighs under 400 gms.
They uploaded QC pics after the set arrived at their warehouse and I chose the cheapest shipping option. It has been shipped from their warehouse to my address. Now let us see when I actually get it and how it goes through customs.
Till now, the process has been pretty straight forward and pandabuy updates and all has been great.
everythingeek said:
I have some experience with customs as I order stuff quite regularly from overseas and one thing I have learned that never low ball item's value, these guys are not idiots.

I have been buying stuff for years, and if you don't low ball the value they will only charge you GST+freight charges and sometimes customs charges not always.

And I'm talking about ordering from states and Delhi customs the most notorious in India, I always keep declaration around 40-50$ USD, if the package has more items will declare the value 65$ and I pay 1200-1400 to postman.

But I declare most items and will not have any expensive gadget in the package.I mostly buy LPs and other audio accessories.
Click to expand...
While you are right that we must not think these people are dumb as they deal with these imports literally daily, it is their job. But what if I actually have something that originally say costs like 40K INR of original brand but the one I am getting is under 5000 rupees.
One example is lego knockoffs. There are sets that cost 40k on amazon India that one can get for under 5K for a knockoff with shipping to India excluding customs. Now here I would declare what I paid as even my credit card statement would say the same.
 
raksrules said:
Has anyone bought anything through Pandabuy? How has been your experience? To test it out, I have ordered single item, a small knock off lego set which weighs under 400 gms.
They uploaded QC pics after the set arrived at their warehouse and I chose the cheapest shipping option. It has been shipped from their warehouse to my address. Now let us see when I actually get it and how it goes through customs.
Till now, the process has been pretty straight forward and pandabuy updates and all has been great.

While you are right that we must not think these people are dumb as they deal with these imports literally daily, it is their job. But what if I actually have something that originally say costs like 40K INR of original brand but the one I am getting is under 5000 rupees.
One example is lego knockoffs. There are sets that cost 40k on amazon India that one can get for under 5K for a knockoff with shipping to India excluding customs. Now here I would declare what I paid as even my credit card statement would say the same.
Click to expand...
Not pandabuy but i have used cssbuy it was smooth, everything used to come within 20 days. The custom duties are heavily dependent on where youre ordering, imo Bangalore customs was nicer, never had to pay more than 1500rs as duty.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mh09ad5578
Sot_mzmzmz said:
Not pandabuy but i have used cssbuy it was smooth, everything used to come within 20 days. The custom duties are heavily dependent on where youre ordering, imo Bangalore customs was nicer, never had to pay more than 1500rs as duty.
Click to expand...

I have ordered something through pandabuy and it landed in India just today as per tracking (was shipped on 31st Oct) and I used GB-EUB as shipping. So fingers crossed for duty (I am in Mumbai). It is a small architecture lego set (replica ofcourse) and shipping weight was 390 Gms so lets see how it goes. I am trying with small stuff before I order something which has more weight.

I recently discovered the repfamindia subreddit and saw how crazy people are for sneakers and brands.
 
raksrules said:
I have ordered something through pandabuy and it landed in India just today as per tracking (was shipped on 31st Oct) and I used GB-EUB as shipping. So fingers crossed for duty (I am in Mumbai). It is a small architecture lego set (replica ofcourse) and shipping weight was 390 Gms so lets see how it goes. I am trying with small stuff before I order something which has more weight.

I recently discovered the repfamindia subreddit and saw how crazy people are for sneakers and brands.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, repfamindia, repbudgetsneakers. I have done hauls up to 4kg in BLR with max 1500rs in customs.

I had Mumbai customs once for my haul because it was shipped to another location. It was not a pleasant experience. Did you ship with boxes? i do not think youd get hit with high duties.
 
  • Like
Reactions: raksrules
Sot_mzmzmz said:
Oh yeah, repfamindia, repbudgetsneakers. I have done hauls up to 4kg in BLR with max 1500rs in customs.

I had Mumbai customs once for my haul because it was shipped to another location. It was not a pleasant experience. Did you ship with boxes? i do not think youd get hit with high duties.
Click to expand...
No. I have got the boxes removed. I told them to put the pieces (which are in their plastic bags) and manual in brown box. Thats how the weight too decreased as original weight was like 490 gms or so.
Sot_mzmzmz said:
Oh yeah, repfamindia, repbudgetsneakers. I have done hauls up to 4kg in BLR with max 1500rs in customs.

I had Mumbai customs once for my haul because it was shipped to another location. It was not a pleasant experience. Did you ship with boxes? i do not think youd get hit with high duties.
Click to expand...
If bangalore customs is indeed lenient, in future I can get bigger lego sets which total weigh 2-5 kg to bangalore as i have someone there and tell them to ship locally to me which shouldn't be much.
Much better than getting hit with ridiculous customs in Mumbai.
First encounter so we don't know how customs will pan out.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mh09ad5578 and Sot_mzmzmz
Top Bottom