My buying a Leica M6 from the UK DHL shipping experience

GregY · Mar 30, 2023

Sirius Glass said:
I could have sold you a Hasselblad for less and you still would have been able to use Zeiss lenses.

mshchem · Mar 30, 2023

GregY said:
View attachment 334296

That's funny, we are all pals here

mshchem · Mar 30, 2023

Huss said:
Nothing to do with luck. You have to look up the customs charges for whatever product you are 'importing'. Cameras are not charged customs. But lenses are.

Post #1 in this thread has the link to the customs charges.

But, you will have to pay sales tax in California if the importer reported it. Which DHL did.

I've had DHL collect sales tax after Ebay has collected sales tax, and weird tariff fees too. Usually it's not enough to get me to challenge the charge. Iowa sales tax is 6%, it was 2% when I was a kid. No VAT, of course the US is not a stellar example of fiscal discipline

Huss · Mar 31, 2023

mshchem said:
I've had DHL collect sales tax after Ebay has collected sales tax, and weird tariff fees too. Usually it's not enough to get me to challenge the charge. Iowa sales tax is 6%, it was 2% when I was a kid. No VAT, of course the US is not a stellar example of fiscal discipline

I hate dealing with DHL - they tried to collect a tariff off me when I sent Sover Wong an F2 for service! They wanted to charge a 'tax' as if I was buying the camera from him even though:
1/ there is no tax on camera purchases
2/ there was no purchase, it was an item sent for service.

Luckily before all this, I had made sure to fill out all the pro-forma paperwork explaining what was going on. Initially they tried to claim that it was too bad, just because they had missed looking at my paperwork, I would have to pay. I got into it with them, saying I was not going to pay for their admitted errors, and that was when they backed down.

It seems that the way DHL works is to try to add as many 'fees' on top of the already paid for shipping after the fact, and see what they can get away with.

I let Sover know, and he said he wouldn't use DHL any more. Not sure if that is the case or not.

Sirius Glass · Mar 31, 2023

Huss said:
Already have one.

Aw yes, you are a wise one.

mshchem · Mar 31, 2023

Huss said:
I hate dealing with DHL - they tried to collect a tariff off me when I sent Sover Wong an F2 for service! They wanted to charge a 'tax' as if I was buying the camera from him even though:
1/ there is no tax on camera purchases
2/ there was no purchase, it was an item sent for service.

Luckily before all this, I had made sure to fill out all the pro-forma paperwork explaining what was going on. Initially they tried to claim that it was too bad, just because they had missed looking at my paperwork, I would have to pay. I got into it with them, saying I was not going to pay for their admitted errors, and that was when they backed down.

It seems that the way DHL works is to try to add as many 'fees' on top of the already paid for shipping after the fact, and see what they can get away with.

I let Sover know, and he said he wouldn't use DHL any more. Not sure if that is the case or not.

This simply doesn't happen with FedEx. If there's a question they call me. I think a lot of this is on the seller's paperwork. I've had good results buying direct from a couple Hong Kong dealers. Map Camera in Japan is flawless on Ebay, sales tax is collected by Ebay, sent FedEx, explicit description means no tariffs.

Eric Rose · Mar 31, 2023

If a vendor uses DHL I won't buy from them.

wjlapier · Apr 1, 2023

Just recently purchased a camera from Japan. I requested not to use DHL and use FedEx. Camera was here in four days. In the past DHL will transfer the package to USPS to finalize the delivery with no more tracking info. No more DHL for me.

GregY · Apr 1, 2023

I've never had problems w DHL either from Europe & especially from Japan. Deliveries from Japan have always been super fast....& no additional charges.

My buying a Leica M6 from the UK DHL shipping experience

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