Shock from DHL for my order

[sunilkm]

I have ordered "Planet Earth Collection" Blu ray from Amazon.co.uk as the planet earth-1 and planet earth-2 blurays were available in one collection. This is my first order from amazon UK. Before ordering I have gone through various threads here about ordering from amazon UK and understood that customs charges may be around 36% or so.
This is the order details from Amazon.co.uk
(Paid INR. 1611 including the shipping )

Item(s) Subtotal:
GBP 14.03
Postage & Packing:
GBP 3.58

Total Before VAT:
GBP 17.61
VAT:
GBP 0.00

Total:

Grand Total:
GBP 17.61
Payment Grand Total:
INR 1,611.10

DHL delivered the package today and has collected Rs.1841 as customs and charges.
I was not home and Mrs collected it by paying the cash. The delivery guy was not at all nice and was not in position to clarify the details of charges.

This is the bill provided by delivery guy:
Customs duty(Reimbursement of cost): 154. 09
IGST (Reimbursement of cost): 475.89
ED CESS( Reimbursement of cost): 3.08
SHE CESS (Reimbursement of cost): 1.54
BONDED CHARGES : 500.00
HANDLING FEE : 500.00
CGST : 90
SGST : 90

Total : 1814.60

This was a shock to me as the charges are more than 100% of the order value.
I can understand the custom and tax charges. But what is this bonded and handling charges.?
Any of you have such experience with DHL or amazon orders?
Will contacting amazon UK help in this case?

 

[panditji]

Handling fee is the charge DHL charges for customs clearance... It is a standard fee whether the invoice value is Rs. 100 or Rs. 10,000 or Rs. 100,000..
Bonded charges are basically warehouse charges or Demurrage charges which are levied after 3 days of the item reaching customs.. So I am assuming that your package had a delay in clearing from customs and the charges were levied for the days after the 3rd day of it reaching India...

 

[sunilkm]

I have uploaded the KYC document to DHL portal after I got the SMS. So I can't understand why should the customer pay for any delay in customs. I think if it was send my postal it may not be that expensive.

 

[Naturelover]

Alarming experience. Earlier Amazon UK used to send by regular mail. I've ordered a few CDs/DVDs/BDs. Only once did I need to pay duty of 42%.
Usually small orders pass through without hassles. Really, it's your luck on the day.

 

[Dr.Lakshay]

Have had almost a similar experience. Ordered a set of earphones once worth 1800inr including shipping from Sweden and ended up paying 1500 rs as customs and handling. These so called premium services are a rip off and not worth it.
Also AFAIK amazon collects all the customs and handling fees while ordering and nothing has to be paid during delivery. I have an order on the way from Amazon.com and that's how it is.

 

[lnxreddy]

Yes I have noticed similar charges on items that come from other states(specific to vendors like DHL) most other small time companies aren't so expensive(its a hit or miss with timeline or customs).

The better option to deal with this was to directly take from amazon global services(if available) which happen to include end to end costs. They in-fact promptly return custom changes if it was less then expected. I received money back from mattress topper order that was shipped from US to India as customs did not charge as expected.

 

[sunilkm]

Update:
Contacted Amazon UK customer service and provded all the details. They will be refunding the charges. It was really a great support by Amazon UK.
By the way the Planet Earth -2 Bluray is awesome and it is region free. The package had totally 7 Blurays ( 4 Planet Earth + 1 extra feature+ 2 Planet Earth-2 )

 

[mshifi]

It is better to by from Amazon global