BEWARE - Kindle International, Latin America

[jtdavies1000]

This is inteneded purely as a warning for others in my situation.

I bought the Amazon Kindle to be shipped to Uruguay. This part of the process was fine.

When the kindle arrived at Uruguayan customs, i was informed that i would need to be 184 US dollars of import fees to release it. Needless to say this shocked me as i had not been informed beforehand that the import fees would be anywhere near as high.

I could not bring myself to pay so much and am hoping it will be possible to decline the product and obtain a refund. I am disapointed partly with Amazion for not being clearer about these fees, but mainly DHL, the shipping company, who made no refernece of them to me despite frequent emails beforehand.

I don´t suppose that anyone else has experience this and can offer advice? The 184 dollars are specifically for DHL´s Broker service. They say i can find my own broker which i intend to try, but i cannot imagine another broker´s fees would be far lower.

I am seriously gutted. I was so looking forward to having a Kindle at last.

I hope others are not caught out this way.

James

[rcuadro]

Ouch!!!

[wellwet]

Bought 3 kindles to Istanbul/Turkey (2 for friends) only paid 80 USD tax for one 400 USD declared DX (in here we have 20% taxes items higher than 200 USD)

But 184 USD is unbeliavable! Sorry for that...

[jtdavies1000]

Lol i wish it had stopped at 184!

That was apparently just the fee for a broker, which was obligatory.

Total cost, all costs and duties told, would have been 450. lol. ANd, what´s more, to refuse the delivery send it back, DHL uruguay tried to charge me 170 lol!. Luckily i talked to amazon and they said they´ll take care of it, so lets hope so!

[wellwet]

It's better not to use DHL or FEDEX for customs problem countries. USPS is best choice, for customs you only pay taxes. But for DHL etc. you have to pay extras to the carrier sometimes if there is a customs problem. I heard lots of stories in here about DHL-FEDEX-UPS.

[yrvn]

Originally Posted by jtdavies1000

This is inteneded purely as a warning for others in my situation.

I bought the Amazon Kindle to be shipped to Uruguay. This part of the process was fine.

When the kindle arrived at Uruguayan customs, i was informed that i would need to be 184 US dollars of import fees to release it. Needless to say this shocked me as i had not been informed beforehand that the import fees would be anywhere near as high.

I could not bring myself to pay so much and am hoping it will be possible to decline the product and obtain a refund. I am disapointed partly with Amazion for not being clearer about these fees, but mainly DHL, the shipping company, who made no refernece of them to me despite frequent emails beforehand.

I don´t suppose that anyone else has experience this and can offer advice? The 184 dollars are specifically for DHL´s Broker service. They say i can find my own broker which i intend to try, but i cannot imagine another broker´s fees would be far lower.

I am seriously gutted. I was so looking forward to having a Kindle at last.

I hope others are not caught out this way.

James

I think that you didn't read. And that's something obvious. That's the reason why I never bought any gadget in internet. Hope that amazon returned your money but i have to say that was your problem. And agree the taxes here are too expensive.

[rhari79]

Did you buy the kindle through Amazon or through some other store?
Amazon tries to give an estimate of the customs duty and tries to pre-charge this when you pay. That will be the max payment you would have to make; Amazon takes care of everything else. If your payment is in excess, Amazon will refund it back.

Again I think its best you research the customs+ issues before making international shipping.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by rhari79

Did you buy the kindle through Amazon or through some other store?
Amazon tries to give an estimate of the customs duty and tries to pre-charge this when you pay. That will be the max payment you would have to make; Amazon takes care of everything else. If your payment is in excess, Amazon will refund it back.

Yes, Amazon do this automatically if possible, and import taxes should be included in your payment to Amazon.

The same thing happened to me (in Denmark), where it was shipped with DHL and they charged me directly upon delivery. I paid that and complained to Amazon. I was told that that happened regularly with DHL and that they'd look into it. Took a month until I got a refund from DHL, but I got it. And then I later got the taxes I paid through Amazon refunded as well

BTW, when you pay import taxes through Amazon you don't pay any of the fees that the courier services usually charge for handling import tax. That's actually rather nice.

[t-town]

Attention! Import fees and taxes is only included when it is stated as so by Amazon.
If not, you can look up the import fees with your government.
Import fees could be zero because it's a computer device.

[cheerio6414]

Wow, that is a lot in fees

[bzImage]

Bought my Kindle 2 from Amazon.com and they charged me $40 USD as "Customs deposit" (or something similar).. so the total was something closer to the $300 USD (250 for the kindle2 + the customs deposit).

Got 2 kindles in Mexico city via UPS with no additional charges or customs or imports or nothing.. did you bought your kindle via amazon.com ? if you do.. you must have been charged with a extra customs fee.. DHL or anyone must not charge you additional fees as far as i know.

[t-town]

Not true, for Uruguay:

Your country may charge import duties, taxes and fees you may have to pay ahead of delivery. You are the importer of record and responsible for compliance with local law including the payment of these fees. Learn more

(found on the Amazon Kindle 2i webpage.)