AMAZON IS DISHONEST
 

i am posting this on behalf of a friend.
Being overseas buyer, Amazon had lost one of our shipment.
so Being nice they offered to ship to him via DHL Express.
However, to his horror when the package arrive, the customs declaration form had over stated the value of the package buy a whopping $100. The actual value is only $140 but Amazon stated it as almost $260.
As a result, it had resulted in taxes for my friend. He then requested Amazon to resend an invoice with the correct value of to DHL so that they can claim for a refund from the authorities, the answer from Amazon was :-

Thanks for writing to us at Amazon.com.

I have reviewed our previous correspondence and your order.

I sympathize with your frustration in this matter. However, please
understand that the information provided in our last message
correctly represents our policy at this time.

As my colleague previously mentioned, because your original shipment
never passed through customs, a replacement shipment may be subject
to the taxes and duties of your country. Any customs or import
duties owed on the value of the original shipment will be levied once
the package reaches the destination country. Customs policies vary
widely from country to country; you may want to contact your local
customs office for further information.

Generally, customs forms for international packages will list the
value of your order's contents by product type. For instance, orders
containing CDs, books, and videos will generally be listed in a way
similar to the following example:

Books value: $29.95
CDs value: $9.95
Video value: $39.95

Your privacy is important to us, and we know that you care about how
information about your order is used and shared. We would like our
international customers and customers shipping products outside the
U.S. to be aware that cross-border shipments are subject to opening
and inspection by customs authorities.

Also, we may provide certain order, shipment, and product information,
such as titles, to our international carriers, and such information
may be communicated by the carriers to customs authorities in order
to facilitate customs clearance and comply with local laws.

If the order is a gift, the cost of the items is still stated on the
customs form. Customs authorities require us to state the value of
gift items directly on the package.

Any customs or import duties are levied once the package reaches the
destination country. Additional charges for customs clearance must
be paid by the recipient; we have no control over these charges and
cannot predict what they might be. Customs policies vary widely from
country to country. You may want to contact your local customs office
for further information.

Further, you may also refuse this shipment when it arrives. Refusing
the shipment allows you to return it without having to pay for return
shipping.

Thank you for shopping at Amazon.com.

Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question

All we wanted for Amazon to do was to give an invoice with the CORRECT value to DHL... we are not even asking them to absorb the tax or anything........

Comments anyone ? I simply cant understand why did Amazon overstated the value of the package. IS it even legal to over declare the value ? there is a clause on the custom form that says that they declare that the infomaion given on the form is true and correct... Newsflash.. its NOT true nor correct

Could it be that they are listing the "Retail Value" of the item as opposed to the price you actually paid? Just a thought.

all we had requested for Amazon to do is just to give a copy of the invoice with the correct value of the package.
and the answer that we got is the email reply as above....
fired a few VERY VERY strong email to them in response to that email....

Somehow I am missing how Amazon did anything in the wrong. They on their customs form listed the retail price of what you ordered, not what you paid, but what their value is.

They lost the initial shipment and solved that by sending a second one, they seemed to have done the most they can via customer service.

Its a Customs issue, take it up with your country of residence. If they base customs on what the retail price/value is its not the stores fault.

First of all thanks for your reply.

as i stated, all we need is for Amazon to give DHL a copy of the invoice with the amount of what i have paid and DHL will be able to claim back the tax. Being a reshipped package, the invoice inside my package has the amount that i paid as zero. We dont even care how they arrive at the amount that they put on the customs form.
All we need from Amazon is to give a copy of the original invoice with the amount that i paid to DHL and to confirm that was the amount that i paid.
Is that too much to ask from Amazon ?

PS
its not my 1st package from Amazon but its the 1st time that they misprice the form. Before this package, they always put the price as per their website, though before STL.

It sounds like Amazon is following the laws of your country. If you don't like paying the cutoms taxes then vote for someone else.

sorry really dont get what you mean.
are you trying to tell me that AMazon is following the law of my country by :-

1) overdeclaring the value of the package ? or

2) refusing to resend the original invoice with the correct amount that i paid to DHL to enable them to claim a refund ?

really do not understand what AMazon is doing!!

i did not say that i do not wish to pay taxes.... but i do wish to pay taxes on the right value!!!!

Whenever Amazon sends a replacement product, they create a new order under your account, but set all the prices at $0 as to not charge you again. That's why the invoice was at $0. Can't you logon to your account and print the original order's info yourself?

Custom and DHL both require the invoice from the the originating source...
i had already printed it out for them but they do not accept the copy that i printed out from my account....
so i have no choice but to request it from Amazon

It sounds like the person who replied to you didn't actually read your letter and sent you a form. Call or email again, and maybe the next rep will understand what you're asking.

tasha

That's not really a valid point. When I go to Best Buy and pick up a DVD with a retail price of $27.99, and only pay $19.99, I don't pay taxes on $27.99.

What are your duty fees? You probably just paid an extra $10, or so, right? If I were your friend, I'd never order from them again.

When you look up your order info from your account, there is a "Need to Print An Invoice" button with which you can print out an official invoice. What Amazon sends out in an order is more like a packing slip. In general, packing slips from most retailers do not contain price information anyway.

The packing slips I receive from Amazon usually have all the pricing details listed.

sorry... firstly, Cusoms authorities will only accept original invoices and not those that are printed out from the website.

secondly, since mine is a reshipped package, so the packing slip i received with the package have a stated value of zero

Till now, after so many days, Amazon has yet to respond to me to let me know what could be done.

But when you send a present to your friend in another country, you pay the customs fee on the value of the item, not on what they (or you) actually paid.

I find it funny that you did not mention this was reshipped in your original post. So, the original package was shipped to a location in the U.S. and then someone forwarded it to you at an international address.

Amazon is not obligated to send you any kind of additional invoice. They are only required to send you the original receipt that was shipped with your domestic package.

It was very nice of them to send you an additional customs invoice, and I don't blame them for sending you a receipt with replacement costs due to the high potential for fraud in a case like this.

sorry pal.. please read my first post. i had already stated in the very 1st post that Amazon had lost our package.. thats why there is a reshipment.

Both me and my friend are living abroad so there was no domestic shipping at all.

Amazon did not send me a invoice with the correct value at all so i do not understand what do you mean by Amazon is already very nice to send me an additional customs invoice. The new invoice was what i was asking for since before Christmas and it is still under consideration by Amazon

I am not very sure how they calculate slaes tax in your country but in my country of residence, we pay tax on the price we paid, not on the MSRP.

Re: AMAZON IS DISHONEST
 

Sorry, I thought you were trying to say that your package had been shipped to a third party who then forwarded it to you.

Can you explain the following statemtent from your original post? :

What do they mean by "your original shipment never passed through customs"? I noticed that they never state that the package was lost.

My statement had nothing to do with printing from the website. I was responding to the previous posters comments about the packing slips from Amazon.

how much money are we talking about here?

Re: Re: AMAZON IS DISHONEST
 

yup no mention at all.. think it is a cut and paste answer from them......

yeah. sorry.. i understand what you mean....

just that i wish to say that authorities usually requires original copies of invoices to prevent fraud. No offence meant :)

its about US$20 bucks.

Its not much but hey....its a matter of principal. Why should i pay extra to the authorities for nothing..

Well, you want to pay nothing which is also wrong.

Amazon stated the value of the items in the package, they are required to do that. The value is not ZERO as you claim, the DVD's are still worth something, and you wouldn't sell them for ZERO. That is why you have to pay duties and taxes on the DVDs.

Why not in the future, order from the amazon site for your country and avoid all of this? Do you really need the region 1 DVD's?

It seems that since your first package was lost, and you got a replacemement for free, you think that it should be free when it passes thru customs, I don't see your logic here. As Amazon stated, since the original package did not pass thru customs, and you did not pay duties or taxes, you are obligated to pay these duites and taxes on the replacement shipment.