Hello, I despatched a parcel to Germany via DHL through Parcelbroker. The customer contacted me roughly 3 weeks after despatch to say the parcel had not turned up. I contacted DHL who took about another 10 days to try to trace the parcel and confirmed it was missing. I then put in a claim to Parcelbroker who have rejected the claim because it was after 12 days from collection. I insured the parcel for sale price. This seems quite unfair that they can do this as it takes time to deliver abroad and even longer to try and trace it. Is there anything I can do about this?

God Morning Last year I bought a pack of five cardboard boxes as I would send a few things abroad. The size was 61x45.7x45.7 cms. I packed the bag and logged into my SendMy Bag site and filled in the box size plus a little extra to be sure to be charged correctly, 62x48x48cms. It was then picked up by DHL and delivered within estimated time. So far so good... A couple of weeks later I received an email claiming the box exceeded the measurements I had stated. They claimed the size was 74x57x48cm. It looked like the box had grown quite a bit during transport! Looking at the new measurements it seems it had been squashed before scanning and they want me to pay for the privilege. My cousin has the box,still unopened, and she will take photos with a measuring tape. Have to add, on my SendMyBag account I put up a photo of it but they claim it's deleted upon delivery. What can I do?

I have received a couple of letters from DHL, requesting a payment of £11 for Duty and VAT following the delivery of my order from China. "In the event that we do not hear back from you within the next seven days, this matter will be passed to a debt collection agency working on behalf of DHL for further action, resulting in an administration charge being added to the account, If you have already paid this sum please accept our apologies for this communication." Are we entitled to be provided with proof of payment to HMRC by DHL ? Upon further investigation, i can confirm that the Chinese retailer displays the following message on the product page of the purchased item: "VAT Included! We have made arrangements with shipping courier to pay all VAT and import fees on behalf of you. The price at the checkout is FINAL."

Got myself an Android smartphone from China a few weeks ago at 1/4 the price of its branded equivalent in the UK (absolutely fab, btw, would definitely recommend it if you want the good stuff and are not brand-obsessed!). Today, got an invoice from DHL for the Duty and VAT they were required to pay customs on my behalf to enable clearance of delivery of the goods, adding import taxes are the responsibility of the receiver. VAT is £9.46, which is fair enough, and then add an admin fee of £5. Let me say straight away that it's not the amount that's the problem as such, it's the principle, also my innate curiosity on things like these. *I* don't have a contract with DHL, *I* sure as hell didn't ask then to pay anything on my behalf, where do they get off invoicing me? They paid VAT on my behalf unasked, well I'm sure that's very nice of them, but can they actually invoice me when we don't have a contract or agreed any T&Cs? As for their admin fee, what the hell? Cheek! Anyone? I did a quick google which wasn't helpful, with lots of people confusing the issue of paying VAT (which no-one is arguing needs paying) and the admin fee levied by DHL. I found a few people raising the same query as I am about the legality of the courier invoicing for an admin fee to someone who hasn't got a contract with them, and getting drowned by people with a "moral" opinion instead of a legal one, so I'll say it again, my question is purely about the *legal* aspect: Can a courier charge an admin fee to someone with whom they do not have a contract? For that matter, can they actually reclaim the VAT they paid "on behalf" of the recipient if the recipient didn't ask them to in the first place?

The problem I have is that, although I have paid the VAT portion of my bill, for goods received from outside the UK, I am refusing, on principle to pay the admin fee and, as a result DHL are holding my package , refusing to release it until this is paid. I sthere anything I can do?

Hi I want to buy from china 1000 plastic phone cases the cost is 170 USD in GBP is about 111 the seller is offering me free delivery by DHL, can I know of anyone on this situation before could let me know how much tax do I have to pay, do i have to pay DHL services and Vat and Duty, there is only 1 charge, even that the seller is offering me free delivery with DHL is DHL going to charge me anything extra for delivery and also vat + duty, can anyone please let me know is the first time I buy from china and I know nothing about this, thanks a lot

Hello there, I have a serious issue regarding my parcel shipment from UK to Nepal. I had sent 2 ounces of gold along with other 21 pages of documents via Dhl to Nepal on 4th June 2014. I was not sure if they ship gold. I went to the DHL service point and asked if they deliver gold. The agent said that the value has to be less than £5000. Since my gold was worth £1850 I was happy to proceed. Gold along with my 21 pages of other documents were packed and shipped for £51.95 in 1kg box. Declaration on the parcel cover was clearly made 1) Documents 21 copies 2) Gold Bar 2 pcs and the total value of the item was mentioned £1850. After few days the receiver of the Parcel in Nepal got a message from the DHL Nepal saying the parcel was with the custom department and some legal formalities to be done by the receiver. When they went to Customs, they were told that we were not allowed to ship gold on a parcel. Further, they said that DHL was not allowed to ship gold in that manner. They should have stopped us in Uk. They said us to speak to DHL instead. But when they went to DHL there, they said to speak to customs department. This went on for few months. Then I called customer services DHL UK. They took a month and half to find out what was happening and finally said that my Parcel was destroyed by the Customs in Nepal. I opened a claim file in DHL UK and after few arguments DHL sent a letter yesterday offering £51.95 for the full and final settlement of my claim. I have no idea at all what I should do next. I would be very thankful for any ideas and ways to come to a conclusion. Its really hard to give up since it is a big amount of money for me. Many Thanks, Devi

I ordered something from China that was delivered by DHL. Two weeks later, I got the duty and admin fee request. The amount I was charged was much too much, so I queried it with DHL by phone. The reason for the overcharge is a mixup on the suppliers paperwork. It's another matter to sort that out. The problem is that I thought that their answer was wrong, so I put it aside to sort out another time, then forgot abut it. They have now passed on the debt to Control Account plc, who have added on an additional £40 for lare payment. I have noe paid DHL, but I've got a feeling Control Account won't be going away Can Control Account charge me for late payment, when I never had a direct contract with DHL? Their contract AFAIK is with the Chinese shipping company that has a contract with the supplier. Is there anything I can do to make them go away, other than pay.

DHL attempted to deliver a package to me on 10 December 2013. I have refused this package because of late delivery. It will be of no longer use to me after 8 December (I have made it clear to the seller that I needed this item to arrive before 8 December however, he shipped it late). I knew the problem was from the seller and not DHL. I have opened a dispute for this Transaction with my bank and it has been successful and my monies returned after Aliexpress were very slow in settling the case. I have been sent a text message from DHL telling me the invoice amount i need to pay for VAT and Duty. I phoned them and told them I don't need the item and no point of paying. After 2 months I receive an invoice from DHL (£10.93) to my home address asking that I pay the amount due. I ignored it because I didn't have the item and I didn't want to accept it. Today I received a letter from control accounts with an extra charge of £10 asking me to pay the debt I have. DHL informed me couple of months ago by email that the seller doesn't want the item back and that they can abandon the goods. They emailed me this infromation after I told them I didn't need the package and that they send it back to the sender. Ofcourse the sender wasn't interested of paying the return fees because he wanted me to accept the package and then return it at my cost. But I have refused. I don't know what action to take now? Should I pay the VAT & Duty invoice even though I don't need the package to be delivered to me? Will it ruin my credit file if I don't pay?

I recieve packages twice monthly from USA via DHL and have done so for some 5 years. When I recieve a duty/VAT invoice I pay it at once either by phone or online. However several times they have failed to send me an invoice. Or I check up under my account no on their online payments system and it indicates nothing owing. So I have no means of knowing that I owe them money. Recently because of this I recieved a letter stating I owed £85. I immediately phoned, paid by debit card, and was assured my account was now "clear". However the invoices for which I had paid were still showing on their e-payments system as owing over a week later. A second phone call assured me that my account was clear and the system would "update". It never did. This week I recieved 2 VAT/duty invoices but was unable to pay them online as the system said the numbers were invalid. I phoned the appropriate dept and they said "we cant deal with this you must phone this other dept." Thus I was given the distinct impression I was dealing with another "department" of DHL called Control Accounts. I phoned this "dept" and paid the invoices using their automated system. I was disconcerted to be charges £1 for using a debit card and this raised my suspicions that all was not as it should be. I then googled DHL Control Account and found it to be a collection agency. The two invoices were dated 30th May and today is the 12th June, so it appeared that these had been passed directly to a collections agency without ever giving me a chance to pay them first. Is this legal? When I made the error of ringing Control Accounts to attempt to sort out the matter I got an abusive "lady" who told me I should have paid the invoices "immediately" and they were "12 days overdue". She was uninterested in the fact that I had only that morning recieved them. I then made a formal complaint to DHL by sending an email to the CEO (info available on their site if you search for complaints) and within 1 hour of opening business I was called by a lady from the CEOs executive team to assure me that they were sorting the matter out. She gave me her email address and direct phone number and urged me to get back to her if matters were not settled to my satisfaction within a few days. I also got a call from the lady at the debt collection agency to inform me that a senior manager had called her and recalled the account to DHL. I told her I was not happy about the way she had spoken to me andshe apologised. It is my belief that by inferring that I was being passed to "another dept" who were dealing with my account DHL are in breach of CPUTR 2006. The staff used misleading tactics to conceal the fact that the account had been passed to a collection agency and not to some other branch of DHL who happened to be dealing with the matter.