Hi folks,
A salutary lesson for those intending to ship stuff internationally using UPS.
I have a bookseller friend who is also selling CDROMs for me, and today I
called in to see how things are going. And I mentioned that KEH prefer to
use UPS.
Ho told me that he bought some china crockery in the UK. Had his daughter-
in-law send it to him, and against his wishes and strong request, she used
UPS.
The value of the crockery was $150NZ, so it was not liable for any duty or tax
on entry to New Zealand. Didn't hit the $400 threshold. Daughter-in-law paid
$150NZ to send the package from the UK. In arrived in Auckland, and UPS
told bookseller that they had to do bookwork on the arrival, that customs
duty was payable, and also GST (Goods and Services Tax - 12.5%) (that's
another baseless swindle from UPS). He had to pay $300NZ to get it to clear
Customs and be transported from Auckland to Christchurch. He offered to
have it cleared through customs in Christchurch (which with his experience
he would know about), but they wouldn't wear that one.
To translate roughly to US dollars, the purchase cost was $75, as was the
initial UPS charge. They added another $150 on the arrival end through
baseless and illegal / un-necessary charges.
I'm tempted to ask IRS (IRD in NZ) if UPS actually pass on the GST charged
on their non-service (they are supposed to pass the GST to the IRD). I'll bet
they didn't declare it and pocketed it instead.
Brian
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