Customs Tax Hold

[Lu..]

Didn't get an email, but just tracked my package and DHL says "shipment on hold" due to "your shipment may have import duty/tax assessed, requiring payment".

I called the 1-800 number, but they said it is closed on weekends. Anybody know if you can pay this online?

My C65 was schedule to be delivered tomorrow, but I guess this will delay it.

[Robotaz]

I’ve had a couple watches come DHL from Asia and they showed up in 2 days. My CW experience with DHL was the most bizarre and frustrating shipping experience I’ve ever had.

I had to talk to multiple people on the phone, and then multiple people via email, all trying to do things that had already been requested or performed. It felt like I was dealing with a company of 5 people flying a broken Cessna from the UK. Very unprofessional and very inefficient.

My only advice is to hold on tight and take deep breaths.

[Dynamite_Kid19]

Didn't get an email, but just tracked my package and DHL says "shipment on hold" due to "your shipment may have import duty/tax assessed, requiring payment".

I called the 1-800 number, but they said it is closed on weekends. Anybody know if you can pay this online?

My C65 was schedule to be delivered tomorrow, but I guess this will delay it.

They had to calculate it then they emailed me a link to pay it.

Sent from my HD1905 using Tapatalk

[Lu..]

sent an email to CW, I'll call DHL first thing tomorrow morning.

[Robotaz]

sent an email to CW, I'll call DHL first thing tomorrow morning.

Call CW.

[Lu..]

sent an email to CW, I'll call DHL first thing tomorrow morning.

Call CW.

will do.

Read this entire thread...still unclear if CW will work on waiving the import tax, collect the import tax, or expedite clearing this up using their influence with DHL?

[jkbarnes]

The import duty is not something that can be waived, so CW would have no influence on that at all. The US charges a customs duty on anything over $800. It’s really not that different from declaring purchases when returning to the US from a trip overseas. Unfortunately, CW does not collect nor pay the import duty on behalf of the customer. That falls to DHL working with the customer.

[Lu..]

The import duty is not something that can be waived, so CW would have no influence on that at all. The US charges a customs duty on anything over $800. It’s really not that different from declaring purchases when returning to the US from a trip overseas. Unfortunately, CW does not collect nor pay the import duty on behalf of the customer. That falls to DHL working with the customer.

Thanks, so basically CW can make sure the shipment does not get delayed/hung up in red tape after I call DHL and pay the import duty, right?

[jkbarnes]

The import duty is not something that can be waived, so CW would have no influence on that at all. The US charges a customs duty on anything over $800. It’s really not that different from declaring purchases when returning to the US from a trip overseas. Unfortunately, CW does not collect nor pay the import duty on behalf of the customer. That falls to DHL working with the customer.

Thanks, so basically CW can make sure the shipment does not get delayed/hung up in red tape after I call DHL and pay the import duty, right?

I can’t speak from experience on this, as both my CWs fell under the threshold for the duty. If you search the forum, you’ll find a number of threads that deal with this. It is my understanding that CW provides a waybill (or some sort of paperwork) to DHL that is then used for calculating the duty. I’ve read stories of CW’s paperwork being incomplete and other stories of DHL simply handling the paperwork and the process poorly. Again, I have no personal experience, so I can’t speak with any authority. I suppose CW would need to get involved only if DHL did not have the necessary paperwork to complete the process. I would think DHL would be your starting point to sort things out.

No as regards DHL in general, I’m not a fan, and have had plenty of frustrating experiences with them - non related to import duties though.

[Lu..]

I can’t speak from experience on this, as both my CWs fell under the threshold for the duty. If you search the forum, you’ll find a number of threads that deal with this. It is my understanding that CW provides a waybill (or some sort of paperwork) to DHL that is then used for calculating the duty. I’ve read stories of CW’s paperwork being incomplete and other stories of DHL simply handling the paperwork and the process poorly. Again, I have no personal experience, so I can’t speak with any authority. I suppose CW would need to get involved only if DHL did not have the necessary paperwork to complete the process. I would think DHL would be your starting point to sort things out.

No as regards DHL in general, I’m not a fan, and have had plenty of frustrating experiences with them - non related to import duties though.

Gotcha. Excellent explanation. Thanks.

Will call DHL first; if they have incomplete documentation, I'll call CW to email it to DHL.

This will definitely be the first thing I do tomorrow morning. Thanks again.

[rkovars]

My advice would be to call CW first and only work with them. DHL will try to get you to fill out the customs worksheet and you shouldn't have to and theoretically, you would be on the hook if there was an error. I think the problem is that CW has a method worked out with DHL to transmit all of the worksheets together daily. The people at DHL in the US often don't A. Know about it or B. Don't know where to look. I have had a couple of CWs in the last year over the $800 customs limit. One sailed through with no issues. I tracked it to the US and got the email to pay duty the same day. The other one was hung up and took sorting out. My wife had purchased it as a gift. She got CW to clear it up.

[jkbarnes]

My advice would be to call CW first and only work with them. DHL will try to get you to fill out the customs worksheet and you shouldn't have to and theoretically, you would be on the hook if there was an error. I think the problem is that CW has a method worked out with DHL to transmit all of the worksheets together daily. The people at DHL in the US often don't A. Know about it or B. Don't know where to look. I have had a couple of CWs in the last year over the $800 customs limit. One sailed through with no issues. I tracked it to the US and got the email to pay duty the same day. The other one was hung up and took sorting out. My wife had purchased it as a gift. She got CW to clear it up.

I’ll defer to rkovar’s actual experience over my anecdotal summary of what I’ve read on various threads here!

[Lu..]

My advice would be to call CW first and only work with them. DHL will try to get you to fill out the customs worksheet and you shouldn't have to and theoretically, you would be on the hook if there was an error. I think the problem is that CW has a method worked out with DHL to transmit all of the worksheets together daily. The people at DHL in the US often don't A. Know about it or B. Don't know where to look. I have had a couple of CWs in the last year over the $800 customs limit. One sailed through with no issues. I tracked it to the US and got the email to pay duty the same day. The other one was hung up and took sorting out. My wife had purchased it as a gift. She got CW to clear it up.

OK, I'll call CW first then.

[Kip]

Thought this was worth reposting..

It's not entirely clear to me where the failure occurs. I assume it is with DHL/US customs. CW Customer service can sort it out very quickly once they are alerted to the problem. I have seen a post somewhere on here where CW were going to refund the bonded storage fees but I have no idea what the outcome was.
As an aside, I bought a C60 BLUE LE and bracelet at the end of last year. The total was about $1200. The DHL fee and excise duty was in the region of $80. ABout half of that was the DHL fee.

The problem is definitely with DHL. When CW ships watches to the USA they send DHL a spreadsheet with all the information including the Waybill number for items picked up on any given day. Much depends on the agent viewing the package to simply look up the email by manufacturer and then find the Waybill number. In most cases they do and get all the required information. If they can't find it for any reason, they are supposed to contact CW for it. CW informs me that when they resend the email they usually spot it then.

Hopefully CW will be able to get the website setup for worldwide customs/import/duties fee collection and there will be no more issues. This was originally supposed to get rolled out last September. Apparently Brexit and tech glitches have held this up.

[Lu..]

Called CW, they said go to DHL and pay the import Duty.

I paid, and DHL tracking updated the status to "Payment is received and recorded for shipment related fees".

Looks like I'll be receiving my C65 by the end of today...it is suppose to snow 5-6 inches today....let's see what happens...