Hello all - Apologies been out of action for a while for various reasons beyond my control – what did I miss? Anything fun? After a quick scan seems to have gotten a little more hostile – a bit like the American forum?
Still Huelling and managed to bring several friends and colleagues on board with it in Europe and the US.
Best news for me was that last month delivery to Asia switched from (the deplorable) DHL to Fedex so farewell rip off fees, unwarranted delays, exorbitant/fluctuating/invalid customs duty and hello to truly express delivery (warehouse in Northampton UK to my desk in Malaysia in 43 hours as opposed to 7-9 days with DHL) and zero duty payments (as it’s supposed to be).
yes that was my beef with DHL - in Malaysia, prepacked food items for personal consumption are duty exempt and do not need regulatory clearance.
DHL did not seem to get that. Every delivery they insisted in sending to the government food & pharmaceutical agency for clearance. God knows why. When they did the first time I freaked out with them and they dig their heals in and insisted I apply for clearance for import at the agency.
I went there and spoke to them and they were mystified by the whole thing as this is necessary only when importing bulk component ingredients for food – not packaged retail items. They told the same to DHL however every month, regular as clockwork, they delayed the shipment and sent it to the same agency where it sat on someone’s desk for a few days before they returned it unopened with the same message to stop bothering them.
As for customs duty – as I said it should be zero however DHL regular applied variable amounts to the delivery bill for the exact same order – this varied anywhere from 25% to 200% duty for the same products presumably depending on the mood of the person on the day they calculated it.