TOPIC:

Exactly. The import duties “are required” and I believe MiniDSP makes that clear. Now some people may get lucky and not have to pay it, or may pay less. But it “is” unpredictable, and you cannot expect MiniDSP to state what will be within certainty

The reason companies set up local distributors in various countries is to bring that predictability to the pricing and return process.

You can take your chances and import something, or go with a local distributor and pay the local price.

Deleted duplicate post

A predictable return process is a very important point. When my first SHD arrived it had a minor display problem. I looked into returning it to HK and there was no official way of avoiding a second import duty when it was returned as fixed. There was a way for companies to avoid second import duty but my country just didn't expect individuals to import equipment. In the end I took the lid off and reseated the FPC cable to the display. If you think paying 100 import duty is bad, you really wouldn't want to pay it twice

Unfortunately there weren't many importers in Europe back then and their markup was more like 50%.

34thstreet wrote:

Yes, seriously. $105 in duty is a surprise. A visit to do my "homework" with an online duty calculator gave me $1.74 in duty for an $850 electronics item shipped from Hong Kong to USA.

Maybe you should be complaining to either the people responsible for that duty calculator, or whichever US customs department was responsible to working out what to charge you. This has nothing to do with miniDSP.

Frankly $1.74 sounds improbably low to me but I don't live in the US to know.

Ultrasonic wrote:

34thstreet wrote:

Yes, seriously. $105 in duty is a surprise. A visit to do my "homework" with an online duty calculator gave me $1.74 in duty for an $850 electronics item shipped from Hong Kong to USA.

Maybe you should be complaining to either the people responsible for that duty calculator, or whichever US customs department was responsible to working out what to charge you. This has nothing to do with miniDSP.

Frankly $1.74 sounds improbably low to me but I don't live in the US to know.

Look, I understand that miniDSP is not responsible for the existence of import duty. I am not complaining about that. However, I think it was fair for me to assume the disclaimer didn't apply to imports into the US because of the long history of the special trading relationship between Hong Kong and the US along along with my past experience receiving many duty-free electronics/audio shipments from Hong Kong. Since that has recently changed, I'm just suggesting that miniDSP consider either making that disclaimer more prominent or just incorporate the duty calculation API that DHL offers into the ordering process (developer.dhl.com/api-reference/duty-and...erview%using-the-api). That would provide everyone an estimate for duty just like you get a shipping cost. I think either of those things would appreciated by customers who don't regularly buy goods from Hong Kong, or who have become accustomed to a duty-free transactions, that's all.

I just got an cdsp 8x12 imported to USA. Had to pay $77  in import duties. I ordered a joying head unit around the same time and got no import duty so not sure what the difference is there. I was last a little peeved having to pay extra but I am really looking forward to the unit.

Rudrasarrow wrote:

I just got an cdsp 8x12 imported to USA. Had to pay $77  in import duties. I ordered a joying head unit around the same time and got no import duty so not sure what the difference is there. I was last a little peeved having to pay extra but I am really looking forward to the unit.
 

It's not the biggest tax I've heard of. Hope you enjoy the unit!