I was treated to an unpleasant surprise today: DHL sent me an invoice for Customs Import / Export Duties for my most recent order.
This was my third or forth shipment from Zortrax. Each time I ordered online from the Zortrax International Store and the order was shipped to my house in the US. Every time before this, I wasn't charged any Import/Export duties.
Have other people getting shipments from the Zortrax international store to the US been charged duties?
Does anyone know what might have changed, causing duties to be charged this time when they weren't in the past?
I heard that other people were charged before as well.. I think Kyle was too? I don't know why they do that though. They should get enough money from Zortrax to cover the shipping.
You won't always pay it, but you should expect to. For the lower value shipments, they often slip though the net, so you can be lucky, but that's all it is, luck. Some shipments are not liable for duty and as long as the commercial invoice states the correct commodity code, and that commodity code identifies it as being a duty free item, no duty will be applied. However every country will have a different commodity code for a given item. Its quite likely filament will not be duty free. The printer itself probably is though, well it is in the UK. It would be the responsibility of the importer to identify the correct commodity code then inform Zortrax that this code appears in a prominent position on the invoice so it can't be missed by customs when reading it.
Your shipment may be duty free depending on country regulations, but if it does come through customs watchful eye it will ALWAYS have VAT applied. Which you can reclaim if you're VAT registered.
The moral of this story is, if you're ordering a printer, order a shed load of filament too which you can probably get away with one commodity code for the whole lot. Disclaimer, your mileage may differ ;-)
I got one a year ago for the original purchase of the printer.. Now I'm waiting for the second letter... :lol: :D How much they want? I think mine was $27.. Might be a late charge now..
I've found Octave to be cheaper and quicker (unless you want cool gray ABS); what's the advantage of ordering from Zortrax?
In the past I ordered directly from Zortrax because they didn't have US Resellers. This time, I did it because none of the US Resellers had all the filaments I wanted (HIPS & Glass)
I got one a year ago for the original purchase of the printer.. Now I'm waiting for the second letter... :lol: :D How much they want? I think mine was $27.. Might be a late charge now..
They want a total of $30.77. $7 for "Payment Deferment" and the balance is duties. The order this time was for about 7 rolls of filament.
You won't always pay it, but you should expect to. For the lower value shipments, they often slip though the net, so you can be lucky, but that's all it is, luck. Some shipments are not liable for duty and as long as the commercial invoice states the correct commodity code, and that commodity code identifies it as being a duty free item, no duty will be applied. However every country will have a different commodity code for a given item. Its quite likely filament will not be duty free. The printer itself probably is though, well it is in the UK. It would be the responsibility of the importer to identify the correct commodity code then inform Zortrax that this code appears in a prominent position on the invoice so it can't be missed by customs when reading it.
Your shipment may be duty free depending on country regulations, but if it does come through customs watchful eye it will ALWAYS have VAT applied. Which you can reclaim if you're VAT registered.
The moral of this story is, if you're ordering a printer, order a shed load of filament too which you can probably get away with one commodity code for the whole lot. Disclaimer, your mileage may differ ;-)
Hopefully the sales team at Zortrax is listening to this conversation and are going to (continue) doing all they can to avoid us getting hit with these duties... ;)
I just got a shipment of filament-3 or five rolls, can't remember about a month ago from Zortrax and all I received was notification of delivery schedule.
I remember seeing a slip like you are referring to when I got my Printer but I never paid anything and it was delivered, but then that was from DHL and not customs themselves.
Hopefully it doesn't become a trend. That would suck. But with new international trade laws and taxes being implemented all the time I wouldn't be surprised.
Amerika gotta get their cut. We are taxed in manufacturing for supplies, taxed for shipping, tax for sales and then customers pay taxes. A whole lt. taxes going on.
Americans… All the planet pays much more taxes than you. And receive less in reward.
But in this case I see that are not tax but greedy DHL.
Blame it. Fight it.
Just for comparison. DHL acts exactly the same here, but the government puts two taxes over. Results in the imported goods costing around 100% more. The double!
And for the Europeans are also not easy. I don’t know the numbers but probably is much more than in USA.