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by catherd 496 days ago
DHL B2C shipments to the EU are generally held in customs until the duty is paid, which makes it slow but ensures DHL isn't left holding the bag when people decide they don't want to pay unexpected import duties.

That's (historically) not the case for US B2B shipments. For those, DHL pays the duty as the shipment goes through customs and then sends an invoice after the parcel is delivered.
2 comments
account42 495 days ago
> DHL B2C shipments to the EU are generally held in customs until the duty is paid

That used to be the case here in Germany until recently when they started paying the duty for you and then demand it at pickup along with a "small" markup (up to 1000% when the duty was low) for a service you never asked for.

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yladiz 495 days ago
I agree, if the information is available electronically they should just automatically process it with no fee (I assume this is how it’s handled most of the time anyway). At least you can opt out of the process, but then you’re responsible for filling out all the forms, which suck since ATLAS is not a nice system to work with. Maybe in the future they’ll get rid of this admin fee.
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throwaway290 496 days ago
DHL doesn't accept packages anymore (or temporarily, hopefully) either https://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking-news/section/4/22675...
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nottorp 496 days ago
Understandable, they have to reevaluate the effort and probably adjust pricing. Upwards.

> DHL B2C shipments to the EU are generally held in customs until the duty is paid, which makes it slow but ensures DHL isn't left holding the bag when people decide they don't want to pay unexpected import duties.

Nothing is unexpected with DHL considering the amount of paperwork they want you to fill each time :) Even if you check "retain my data for next time and don't send me this form again".

They indeed send me a payment link and i pay for customs online before the package starts moving.

I don't do Asia->EU shipments but I get prototypes maybe 2-3 times per year from the US. We gave up on DHL and are using UPS now... they want 800% less forms, cost much less and take about the same time to deliver.

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m4rtink 496 days ago
Yeah, DHL has been usually a pain with customs paperwork - needed far too much hand-holding compared to other options (eq. a regular local European carrier doing the same thing).

Unfortunately, with DHL this can even end up costing a lot of extra as they might even start to accumulate a storage fee as they hold the package while they make sense of the documents you sent them. :P

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