The Energon Pub

[Sabrblade]

Need some help here from those who have purchased from RobotKingdom before.

I just made my first purchase from there, but received this email:

Dear customer,

Thank you for your purchase on Robotkingdom.

In your order 100001587, please confirm the declare value of your parcel.

Robotkingdom highly recommend to declare a full value on the parcel in order to provide higher protection.
Lowering the declare value will also lower the insurance covered by the post office.
In this case, Robotkingdom will not be responsible for any lost beyond the declare value.

The declare value does not include shipping and handling cost.
Your order amount is usd 399

If we do not receive any response within 7 days, your order will be shipped by declaring full value.

Please give us an exact value that you would like to put on your parcel.

Please kindly leave a message in remarks for future order.
REMARKS: DECLARE AMOUNT VALUE

Never had to do this with BBTS, Amazon, or eBay.

What does this mean and how do I do it?

Thanks.

[Arctorro]

Hmmm...

The one time I ordered from them I didn't receive an email like that.

At a guess I'd say it is to give you the opportunity to display a lower value on the parcel for any customs fees. In Australia any personal imports of $1000 dollars or more incur fees, so the option to lower the parcel value would allow someone to avoid that.

[LOST Cybertronian]

It's been a while since I have ordered from RK but never received that email so it must be a new thing they are doing. I think Arctorro is right but since you live in the U.S. there is no customs charges or fees to import so might as well let them declare the full value. I would think you would just have to reply to the email and tell them to declare the full valure.

[El Duque]

Hmmmm...........I've ordered from RK many times and never received an email like that. What type of shipping did you select? I'll shoot Ryan an email and see if he can offer any insight.

[Seibertron]

Hmmm...

The one time I ordered from them I didn't receive an email like that.

At a guess I'd say it is to give you the opportunity to display a lower value on the parcel for any customs fees. In Australia any personal imports of $1000 dollars or more incur fees, so the option to lower the parcel value would allow someone to avoid that.

Sabrblade, just email them to tell them that they can mark it as the full amount of what you paid.

Just so all of you know ... it is illegal in all of our countries to deceive the postal system. If something you purchased is valued at $300, you can't ask the seller to mark the value of the package as a gift or ask that the value of the item be marked lower than the actual amount you paid. In the U.S., this is more of an issue with sellers shipping internationally because we are rarely, if ever, charged tax on imported items that are shipped to us. I've been buying internationally for about 15 years and have never had customs charge a tax on something I've purchased. However, many of my customers who live internationally have been charged taxes by their customs office.

Here is the verbiage from listings in Seibertron.com's eBay store regarding this matter:

International Buyers - Please Note: Import duties, taxes, and charges are not included in the item price or shipping cost. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding or buying. Customs fees are normally charged by the shipping company or collected when you pick the item up. These fees are not additional shipping charges. More information can be found at http://ocs.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ContactCS. In addition, we won't under-value merchandise or mark the item as a gift on customs forms. Doing that is against U.S. and international laws. More information about this can be found at http://pages.ebay.com/help/pay/internat ... rules.html.

And from eBay at the link above:

Note: It's illegal to falsify customs declarations or mark an item as a "gift" in order to avoid customs fees. If a buyer asks you to commit customs fraud, report it to us.

[Mkall]

Being in Canada, I can confirm that we're taxed on the value of the packages in accordance with our province's tax laws. For example if I purchased a TF valued at $20, I would actually have to pay $20 + 5% for our Government sales tax, then an additional % for our provincial sales tax (varies by province)

If I were to receive an item internationally, then I have to pay the same GST and PST as if I had bought it from Canada. Honestly though it's sometimes a tossup if you get charged this or not. Usually they don't charge me this if the item is under $100, but once I got off paying extra on a $700.

As Ryan says, it is illegal to purposely misrepresent the value of a package. I've heard stories of people being fined for Tax Evasion in Canada for doing such a thing (usually on high-priced items like cars or yachts though). But Robotkingdom isn't based in the US so they can pretty do whatever the heck they want.

Thankfully in the US, there is no such thing.

[Arctorro]

Just so all of you know ... it is illegal in all of our countries to deceive the postal system.

Yeah, I probably should've mentioned that

[fenrir72]

Hmmm...

The one time I ordered from them I didn't receive an email like that.

At a guess I'd say it is to give you the opportunity to display a lower value on the parcel for any customs fees. In Australia any personal imports of $1000 dollars or more incur fees, so the option to lower the parcel value would allow someone to avoid that.

Sabrblade, just email them to tell them that they can mark it as the full amount of what you paid.

Just so all of you know ... it is illegal in all of our countries to deceive the postal system. If something you purchased is valued at $300, you can't ask the seller to mark the value of the package as a gift or ask that the value of the item be marked lower than the actual amount you paid. In the U.S., this is more of an issue with sellers shipping internationally because we are rarely, if ever, charged tax on imported items that are shipped to us. I've been buying internationally for about 15 years and have never had customs charge a tax on something I've purchased. However, many of my customers who live internationally have been charged taxes by their customs office.

Here is the verbiage from listings in Seibertron.com's eBay store regarding this matter:

International Buyers - Please Note: Import duties, taxes, and charges are not included in the item price or shipping cost. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding or buying. Customs fees are normally charged by the shipping company or collected when you pick the item up. These fees are not additional shipping charges. More information can be found at http://ocs.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ContactCS. In addition, we won't under-value merchandise or mark the item as a gift on customs forms. Doing that is against U.S. and international laws. More information about this can be found at http://pages.ebay.com/help/pay/internat ... rules.html.

And from eBay at the link above:

Note: It's illegal to falsify customs declarations or mark an item as a "gift" in order to avoid customs fees. If a buyer asks you to commit customs fraud, report it to us.

@ Ryan

What about those cost charges at ebay?

Before, all I do is bid then add the postage/shipping fee. Now, there's like custom charges computation.

[Seibertron]

As Ryan says, it is illegal to purposely misrepresent the value of a package. I've heard stories of people being fined for Tax Evasion in Canada for doing such a thing (usually on high-priced items like cars or yachts though). But Robotkingdom isn't based in the US so they can pretty do whatever the heck they want.

Thanks for the backup. Just wanted to comment on this paragraph real quick ... just because RobotKingdom is out of the US does not meant that they can do what they want. I'm sure this is illegal in their country as well. They're just not aware of it unfortunately. However, they should be made aware of it because it's not fair that they're asking their customers this question and putting them in a position to do something fraudulent.

[Mkall]

As Ryan says, it is illegal to purposely misrepresent the value of a package. I've heard stories of people being fined for Tax Evasion in Canada for doing such a thing (usually on high-priced items like cars or yachts though). But Robotkingdom isn't based in the US so they can pretty do whatever the heck they want.

Thanks for the backup. Just wanted to comment on this paragraph real quick ... just because RobotKingdom is out of the US does not meant that they can do what they want. I'm sure this is illegal in their country as well. They're just not aware of it unfortunately. However, they should be made aware of it because it's not fair that they're asking their customers this question and putting them in a position to do something fraudulent.

Sorry, it was a half-finished thought. I had meant that because they aren't in the US, they are protected from the US actually enforcing anything upon them for doing this. However this doesn't protect local buyers from a keen-eyed customs agent from saying "wait a minute, Fortress Maximus isn't worth $40, something's fishy here." It's unlikely to happen, but the risk is always there.

Whether or not it's illegal in China, I have no idea.

[Sabrblade]

Wow, this thread kinda evolved into its own beast during my absence.

Thanks for the help guys.