Wrong value declared to customs

[Meet The Pyro]

Hi, 

 

I know that it's the holidays so slower replies are expected, but on the 18th I contacted support because they seem to have put a way higher value on my package than what I paid for it, causing a lot of extra fees. 

 

I ordered stuff valued under 150 euro, but in the photo customs sent me it's marked as 220 dollars, and once you go over 150 euro there is a heap of extra costs and they are asking me to pay over 100 euro in costs. 

 

I only have a couple days left to pay before it's automatically returned, but this doesn't seem right at all? 

 

Has anyone had this happen before? 

 

[Kilrah]

9 minutes ago, Meet The Pyro said:

I ordered stuff valued under 150 euro

Including shipping costs? Customs count shipping costs in the value.

[Meet The Pyro]

4 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Including shipping costs? Customs count shipping costs in the value.

Yes, I've attached images, hopefully edited out all I was supposed to x)

[Robchil]

why does it say CN after the value and USD in the bottom just added together?. 

could it be it just added it together and called it USD? .. so it would be off  altho 221CN = 167 USD... 

 

[Meet The Pyro]

Cn is the country of origin aka where it was sent from or manufactured, the column is just spilling over

 

Ltt store also fully works in usd so it'd be weird to declare in other currencies? 

 

Either way the value would still not be correct, as 139 USD is well under the limits, it even already included our VAT

[Kid.Lazer]

21% tax?! Good gravy...

[zaprqn]

CN is China tho, isn't it?  These prices look like ones that customs would just estimate if theres no invoice or announced value of the items in the package.

[dizmo]

Looks like they invoiced it for the regular price and not the price you paid. The only real way around this is for them to reimburse you the difference, or pay all the extra shipping costs to get it back to them.

 

You need to quote or tag people if you're replying to them, otherwise they won't see what you've written.

 

10 minutes ago, Robchil said:

why does it say CN after the value and USD in the bottom just added together?. 

could it be it just added it together and called it USD? .. so it would be off  altho 221CN = 167 USD...

Country of origin, currency of transaction.

Just now, zaprqn said:

CN is China tho, isn't it?  These prices look like ones that customs would just estimate if theres no invoice or announced value of the items in the package.

Pretty sure that's where they make their garments.

[Meet The Pyro]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

Looks like they invoiced it for the regular price and not the price you paid. The only real way around this is for them to reimburse you the difference, or pay all the extra shipping costs to get it back to them.

This is also what I was thinking, so it's very hard to be under a time limit (I only have a couple more days to decide to pay) while support is probably drowning and thus can't get back to me in time... 

 

At least I sure hope it's not standard practice to put in the original value instead of the actual paid value... 

[zaprqn]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

Pretty sure that's where they make their garments.

Yes but they are supposedly sending them from Canada, hence the steep delivery fees, or are they dropshipping stuff now?

[Meet The Pyro]

Just now, zaprqn said:

Yes but they are supposedly sending them from Canada, hence the steep delivery fees, or are they dropshipping stuff now?

I think country of origin is where it was manufactured, and not where it's sent from. Doesn't matter if it eventually comes to me from China, Canada or the US for country of origin. At least that's how I understand it. 

[dizmo]

6 minutes ago, Meet The Pyro said:

This is also what I was thinking, so it's very hard to be under a time limit (I only have a couple more days to decide to pay) while support is probably drowning and thus can't get back to me in time... 

 

At least I sure hope it's not standard practice to put in the original value instead of the actual paid value... 

What's the price difference between the two?
If it's not that much and you want the items, then just accept the shipment and hope that the CS team will do you right. You got them cheap (compared to original).

 

If you're uneasy with that, just have the package sent back. Not sure if they'd honor the price and reship it to you though.

5 minutes ago, zaprqn said:

Yes but they are supposedly sending them from Canada, hence the steep delivery fees, or are they dropshipping stuff now?

Country of origin is the country it's manufactured in.

[Meet The Pyro]

10 minutes ago, dizmo said:

What's the price difference between the two?

I'm being charged 101 euro. So that's basically the price of the items doubled. 

 

 

10 minutes ago, dizmo said:

hope that the CS team will do you right.

I hope we can trust them bro... 

 

But yes I bought stuff cheap, exactly because shipping is very expensive and taxes aren't included like they normally are here. 

 

If this were about 20 euro I'd pay and hope they do the right thing but this is 100 euro on a 140 usd purchase (and that's already including tax... So more like 115 usd incl expensive shipping) 

 

a big part of the costs is also just the fact that they have to handle customs, which should've been included in my sub 150 euro order because all the taxes were prepaid.

 

 

The declared value I see from customs doesn't even seem to include shipping costs, just each item. So that should've been closer to 80 or 90 bucks

[Tcrv]

 

i had the same problem. customer support did help me and they returned me money i had to pay for the customs.

i don't remember if it was full amount or close, but i was ok with it.

 

you just need to decide if you want to receive goods and pay what the customs is asking you, and deal with customer support after 

or you don't want to pay the price and return the package. but then you want get your goods.  

you did order some good stuff and i think you'll be happy with it.

 

 

 

[dizmo]

3 hours ago, Meet The Pyro said:

I'm being charged 101 euro. So that's basically the price of the items doubled. 

 

 

I hope we can trust them bro... 

 

But yes I bought stuff cheap, exactly because shipping is very expensive and taxes aren't included like they normally are here. 

 

If this were about 20 euro I'd pay and hope they do the right thing but this is 100 euro on a 140 usd purchase (and that's already including tax... So more like 115 usd incl expensive shipping) 

 

a big part of the costs is also just the fact that they have to handle customs, which should've been included in my sub 150 euro order because all the taxes were prepaid.

 

 

The declared value I see from customs doesn't even seem to include shipping costs, just each item. So that should've been closer to 80 or 90 bucks

Ooof, that's quite a bit. I mean, ultimately it's still about what you'd have paid for the items without the discount, but still.

A lot of customs fees aren't taxes. They're brokerage and duty. Different things.

 

Up to you, but if you're uncomfortable waiting to see if they'll help you, just return the package. Only real option you have.

[Meet The Pyro]

24 minutes ago, dizmo said:

A lot of customs fees aren't taxes. They're brokerage and duty. Different things.

Yes, there's Import duties, 'customs formalities' (basically what our postal service charges for handling customs stuff), and VAT, but if a package up to 150 euro is properly declared and had VAT paid for in the store it does not incur any of those costs. 

 

I mean I guess I'll wait as long as possible and see what support says but I doubt that I'll get a meaningful answer in time. 

 

If I deny the package, does ltt even accept that as a valid return? 

[Levent]

I got a hoodie during sale, price on the sticker included regular price + shipping. That resulted in paying more on taxes at the post office than what I paid for at the lttstore. I knew I was going to get bent over but getting taxed for an amount I didnt pay was extremely ridiculous.

[dizmo]

1 hour ago, Meet The Pyro said:

Yes, there's Import duties, 'customs formalities' (basically what our postal service charges for handling customs stuff), and VAT, but if a package up to 150 euro is properly declared and had VAT paid for in the store it does not incur any of those costs. 

 

I mean I guess I'll wait as long as possible and see what support says but I doubt that I'll get a meaningful answer in time. 

 

If I deny the package, does ltt even accept that as a valid return? 

It should still include duties, which I imagine is most of the cost.

 

No idea, I imagine they would, or if you paid with a credit card, VISA would.

[LogicalDrm]

15 hours ago, Kid.Lazer said:

21% tax?! Good gravy...

In Europe, VAT is 18-24%. So that's not the problem. Imo LMG trying pay for the import fees at the checkout is causing more problems than helping end user.

[Meet The Pyro]

31 minutes ago, LogicalDrm said:

Imo LMG trying pay for the import fees at the checkout is causing more problems than helping end user.

I haven't had any issues with previous purchases, and if they didn't do that it'd have added on a lot of extra costs like in this case... 

 

So personally I think it's great they do that, but I guess occasionally things go wrong... However declaring wrong values would give issues for the end user whether they prepay tax or not... 

 

Also it's only for vat not import fees (and those shouldn't happen under 150 if the store charges vat) 

[Kid.Lazer]

4 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

In Europe, VAT is 18-24%. So that's not the problem. Imo LMG trying pay for the import fees at the checkout is causing more problems than helping end user.

I know that wasn't the issue, but it still struck me as being a very high tax rate.

[xlbob]

Please let us know how they'll handle it, this is very likely going to happen to me also because I ordered just under the magical 150€ limit

[LogicalDrm]

8 hours ago, Meet The Pyro said:

I haven't had any issues with previous purchases, and if they didn't do that it'd have added on a lot of extra costs like in this case... 

 

So personally I think it's great they do that, but I guess occasionally things go wrong... However declaring wrong values would give issues for the end user whether they prepay tax or not... 

 

Also it's only for vat not import fees (and those shouldn't happen under 150 if the store charges vat) 

But its not extra fees in either case. Its what you owe to your government regardless. The difference is, whether store pays it for you or you pay it on arrival. It becomes problem when they make mistake and you pay it both on checkout and on arrival. And it seems to be happening quite a lot considering all the threads here.

[Meet The Pyro]

13 minutes ago, LogicalDrm said:

But its not extra fees in either case. Its what you owe to your government regardless. The difference is, whether store pays it for you or you pay it on arrival. It becomes problem when they make mistake and you pay it both on checkout and on arrival. And it seems to be happening quite a lot considering all the threads here.

They are extra fees. If the store prepays taxes there are way less fees, that's how it works. If taxes are prepaid and the value is under 150 euro, then you do not pay duties nor customs formalities, and thus only pay VAT to the store on purchase. 

 

If you don't prepay taxes then under 150 you pay VAT and formalities, and over 150 you pay VAT, formalities, and duties. 

 

Either way you're definitely getting ripped off if they report a higher value to customs than the purchase price... 

[LogicalDrm]

16 minutes ago, Meet The Pyro said:

They are extra fees. If the store prepays taxes there are way less fees, that's how it works. If taxes are prepaid and the value is under 150 euro, then you do not pay duties nor customs formalities, and thus only pay VAT to the store on purchase. 

 

If you don't prepay taxes then under 150 you pay VAT and formalities, and over 150 you pay VAT, formalities, and duties. 

 

Either way you're definitely getting ripped off if they report a higher value to customs than the purchase price... 

You are saying same as I. No extra fees. Just who is the one paying changes. And ofc that 150e limit. But still, its same thing.