So I am an avid online shopper and my favorite artist is from the United States, so I ordered a few hoodies and t shirts from their website, Eminem Shop. The hoodies were $60 each and $25 for t shirts. I was okay with the prices but the shipping was too much, around $20. But I still ordered it. This was around January. As it was a pre order, the order shipped in March. Then it took around 2 more months to reach India. The package was coming from Detroit, United States via Chicago.
One thing that I learned during my order was that the international package arrives to us from India Post. So after two months and clearance from Indian Customs in Delhi and Mumbai, the package arrived to my home in Madhya Pradesh after 3.5 months of order. I was very eager. My whole order was $250 around 20,000 Rs. and I already paid for it.
After so long, the product arrived and then, Indian Post office guy called me and they said, I needed to 8700 Rs as customs fees to receive my order. It is completely ridiculous. Almost 50% charge on the order for customs. I didn’t have that much additionally money to pay for customs so I had to return the product. I don’t know why Indian Government charges so much custom charge. I then contacted the Eminem store and asked them to refund the amount, thankfully I got the money back.
Alternative solution I tried: I then again ordered the product but on my friend’s address who lives in Dubai, the product arrived in just 1 month and I only had to pay 1200 rupees as customs charge. I saved more than 7000 Rs, which is quite surprising. My friend brought it for me in India, and finally almost after 6 months I got my order.
I would also suggest you guys to not order anything expensive via foreign if you are not willing to pay custom fees because it is very high. And if any of you guys know how to save customs fees, please share your opinion. And can you guys also suggest some good apparels websites that take care of custom charge themselves.
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You can refer my reply article on the same lines regarding the import duties while ordering online. There is a charge in india, and it’s not included in your budgetary purchase. This charge, as custom duty, will be over and above the charges you have paid. And sometimes, you may end up paying exactly the same price, meaning 100% as customs charges, depending on products.
Wow, almost 100% custom charge. That’s so greedy by the government. Is there any way to calculate custom charges on different products that I buy from foreign? If there is, please let me know. I want to buy some more t shirts and Nike Shoes that are not available in India from abroad. May be I will be able to get an idea on how to get customs clearance. I was talking to a friend he said that by ordering from eBay, I can ask seller to list the price of the product in the bill and that way I can get low custom tax, is that true? Please guide.