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Ordering from Japan, "fun" with customs


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#1 iwabo

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Posted 17 August 2014 - 11:11 AM

It's a problem probably all foreign idol fans share: Customs. Not only is it a huge bother to always have a huge amount of cash at home when you order something, it also makes ordering a lot less satisfying and actually a huge pain in the ass. The last time I ordered a big amount of idol stuff I had to pay almost 200 bucks customs fee alone. And when I ordered just one Bluray I also had to pay quite a lot extra fee.

 

So, are there any common ways people like us can use to avoid such stuff? Some time ago YesAsia was able to somehow avoid taxing for us but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. And everytime I ordered from cdjapan I was definitely taxed. There are many new releases coming as well as some older stuff I want to order so knowing a way to avoid stupid customs would be great. I could probably live with having to pay customs if it would at least make sense in a way but it's really just money grab for no actual reason.


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#2 Moondoggie

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Posted 17 August 2014 - 11:54 AM

The most common way to avoid customs is to have the company mark it as a "gift" on the declaration since there is a higher allowance on how expensive it should be but some companies will even mark the price as lower than it is to avoid customs charges. Many companies including cdjapan offer this though it doesn't always work especially if you order from them a lot because customs figure it out. For YAJ and Ebay packages though it works perfectly.

Other thing is to avoid courier services EMS and FedEX in theory is much faster but it's pretty much a guarantee that you'll get a customs tax charge and these companies will usually charge large amounts as a handling fee each time.

 

Customs taxes are a pain if it were just the tax it'd be fine but every mail company slaps on annoying huge extortion fees too so it gets really expensive and they justify it with flimsy logic like "oh yeah well we had to fill in forms and stuff and send a notification of the charge which is extra work. But they are on the clock anyway so all work while they are on duty should be expected and not charged extra for >.<. When i go to work and something happens where i need to sort some paperwork i don't get to charge a fee for each paperwork i fill in.


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#3 iwabo

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Posted 17 August 2014 - 08:39 PM

All the packages they sent me were always marked as gifts. ^^; When I ordered just a single Bluray, in the form the customs attached to it they even wrote down that they checked the actual price of the item. That might however just be the disadvantage of living in Germany. If we are famous for one thing (besides historical stuff) then it's stuff like that. Probably by now the sender address of cdjapan and the like is in some kind of database and automatically gets checked for that very reason.

 

Those "handling fees" and whatever terms they tend to make up are really ridiculous. The sender pays a ridiculous amount for shipping (which is obviously understandable to some amount even in these globalized times) and the recipent has to pay for something that should already have been included in shipping. Getting taxed for items that aren't available in my country is just plain ridiculous. And those forms...well just send the package right away without taxing and you don't have to fill the forms, idiots. XD

 

So...there seems to be no real way to avoid such stuff right? I thought maybe someone who permanently order many things could give some advise. Maybe there are some tricks using P.O. boxes or something, I have no clue about any of that to be honest.


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#4 Moondoggie

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Posted 17 August 2014 - 10:37 PM

There is no sure way no except trying to make the package look like some low price package from a pen friend or something but this only works when buying form a proxy seller or somebody on Ebay since they send really normal looking packaging. It seems ridiculously random depending on what sort of mail you use regular Airmail or SAL seems hit and miss you they catch out the commercial stuff iike my cdjapan orders all the time no matter what i do. They checked the price of the item like went in the package and looked at what it was? That one never happened to me they just seem to know some addresses and tax me on it regardless of what's in it.

Got 3 packages in the mail currently and expecting to be taxed on at least 2 of those and 1 more order i'm waiting on to be dispatched which is a really big order that will definitely be taxed because they can charge a large fee.


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#5 oroboras

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Posted 17 August 2014 - 10:56 PM

If you mark it as 'gift' and get it from a company address (like CD Japan - which is 'Neowing Corporation') then it isn't eligible for gift status anyway - as the rules state it must be 'from a private individual', so if it's marked as gift, and has a company name, you are guaranteed to get customs charges, as it shows you tried to avoid them, so it really isn't worth doing that option if you are buying from CD Japan, or other such companies.

If you buy CDs or DVDs from Amazon, then you can do the 'pay customs up front' option, and they reimburse you if they don't get stopped for customs. It doesn't stop them being charged, but it does remove the handling fee from the other carrier, AND speeds up the entire process, plus you get a nice bonus if your items aren't stopped.


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#6 Guest_StellaFleure_*

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Posted 18 August 2014 - 08:03 PM

In 2012 I always had trouble with YesAsia. They marked each parcel as a gift and even though I always stayed under 22€ (everything above definitely lands at the customs service) as order value the parcels always ended at the customs service. I never ever had that problem with CD Japan or other sellers so I eventually stopped buying from YesAsia.



#7 Crazed Lurker

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Posted 27 August 2014 - 10:50 AM

^ Funny, for me it's exactly the other way around: I never had to pay customs duties when ordering from YesAsia but I always had to pay them when ordering from CD Japan. Nowadays I only buy from the latter if I cannot get a particular item from YesAsia or other sellers.






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