Duty levied on inexpensive Christmas gifts outrageous
IT looks like a can of worms has been opened regarding customs charges on overseas parcels.
Before Christmas I had an e-mail from my daughter in the US saying she had posted a parcel to my address with small soft gifts for her family. She listed the items that she was sending and so we looked forward to the parcel arriving.
The enjoyment of receiving the gift was short-lived as when I received the notification from the post office to collect my parcel I was horrified to see that I would have to pay R880 to receive it.
My daughter paid her postage of $30 for her insured parcel so that she would have a guarantee of her money back should the parcel not arrive, which has happened on other occasions.
The parcel has consequently been sent back to customs for re-evaluation.
A sum of R880 is a ludicrous amount to pay when postage has already been paid and also when the parcel is not worth that much in the first place.
On inquiring about the whereabouts of my package some weeks later I was told that the customs office was closed for two weeks, no doubt taking their time to check through the hundreds of parcels that are probably going back for reassessment. Do they have a right to open them anyway?
My daughter is deeply hurt and says “send the parcel back”, but I do not want to hurt her feelings and how would we ever know if it would actually get to its rightful destination?
I think we are being totally ripped off by this so-called system. I have stayed with my daughter many times and I personally have seen the delivery man bringing parcels to the door with a smile on his face and not a cent to be paid.
Our Summerstrand post office has been very understanding, but I think this charging on overseas parcels needs to be looked into.
Sad to say it just means that we cannot receive gifts from our overseas families anymore.
Michele Owen Summerstrand, PE
Customs officials must answer questions about costs
YET again there was a letter in Friday‘s Herald from somebody being charged to receive an incoming parcel of gifts from overseas family (“Why are we penalised for receiving parcels from overseas?”). There have been a spate of letters recently from readers being charged exorbitant amounts to receive parcels.
Isn‘t it about time the post office or customs office actually answered some of these questions as to why we are the only country where we are being ripped off to receive parcels?
Jan Hopkins, Sherwood, Port Elizabeth
DH HERMAN of Summerstrand, writing about her experience with the customs and excise duty on her daughter‘s parcel from Australia, has obviously not been following the letters about just this problem that have appeared in the past couple of months in this paper. The thing to do in this case is to go to the postmaster and request a form to send the parcel back to customs and excise for “re-evaluation”.
You then go home and write to Andreas Koutoulogenis at akoutoulogenis@sars.gov.za and request him to look into the matter. This will probably require a couple of reminder e-mails, but you will after a month or two get your parcel back re-assessed.
Our little parcel from our daughter in Australia arrived on January 25 with a fee of R269, was sent back to customs and I wrote to Koutoulogenis (he does reply). After my couple of reminders we finally got it back on March 27 and “only” had to pay R25!
May I suggest to every person out there who ever receives a parcel from overseas that they write down the details of the customs and excise contact and file it carefully for future use? Maybe if they are inundated with these requests they will stop this ridiculous practice.
The address: Andreas Koutoulogenis, ORTIA - JIMC, Customs &0x0026; Excise, tel 011-3901962, e-mail: akoutoulogenis@sars.gov.za
Good luck.
Lyn Dickason, Theescombe, Port Elizabeth
