06-01-2009, 08:44 AM
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| Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: perth, aus
Posts: 62
Car: 88 Trans Am Engine: 305 TPI | [Intl Shipping] DBSchenker
Hi
This won't apply to a lot of you guys, as most of you can go down the junkyard for parts, or have stores (camaro heaven) nearby, or only need to worry about interstate shipping.
Anyway, I recently bought a whole load of suspension gear, roughly 730 USD from one site, and 899 USD from another. Both sets of parts were ordered the same night, one bunch being shipped by DBSchenker, another by Fedex 10 days later (parts on backorder).
To break it down:
- DBSchenker sat on my parts for 4 days in the US (Fedex had a 2 day turnaround)
- Stuck them on a plane, sent them over
- Left them to sit for another 4 days in Aus (Fedex again was 2 day turnaround)
- Sent me a letter via snail-mail, telling me to call them about customs fees, or they'd start charging warehousing fees on the 25th (Fedex called my mobile)
- I rang them up, they told me there was a 125AUD (94 USD) brokerage fee for them to take the goods through customs, otherwise I'd need to find a commercial customs broker (Fedex charged no fee for the same service)
- For me to pay this, they first wanted me to fax/mail back a form giving them approval to charge the fee and take the stuff through customs (Fedex were happy for me to pay the import duties via credit card over the phone).
Who the heck has a fax at home? Or wants to wait for the post?
Eventually after all's said and done the result was this:
DBSchenker:
Goods picked up 4th May, Delivered 21st May.
Fedex:
Goods picked up 15th May, Delivered 21st May.
On top of this it's worth adding that DBSchenker:
- Lied to me about the reason for the customs brokerage fee - they claimed it was for liability purposes, in case I was importing drugs/ak47s/kidnapped-nuns and they got sued. The australian government writes the laws, they don't need to sue anyone, they'll drag my arse off to court.
- Sent the wrong valuation date through to customs (date of purchase, rather than date of export).
- Include any 'handling fees' in the value of the goods (which Fedex don't do), which bumps up import duties/taxes.
- Had the nerve to tell me that if I paid the brokerage fee, there'd be free delivery to my house (where the **** did they think they were going to deliver it?)
- Didn't give me any paperwork/invoices with the goods (Fedex left the invoices attached to the box, then sent me a full import declaration document in the mail without me having to ask)
There was a 177 USD handling fee thrown in there for good measure, I still can't figure out where this came from, DBSchenker are pointing their finger at the supplier, and the supplier is pointing their finger at the shipping co. It doesn't overly matter I guess, but I did kind of want to find out if I got a good price on inefficient shipping, or got screwed on the price of the parts.
For what it's worth, the handful of times I've used UPS or DHL, had no issues with them to this extent either. | | |
Last edited by EGG; 06-01-2009 at 08:53 AM.
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