I live in Thailand, received my PPM on 23 January. Thai customs charged me THB4380.08 (approx EUR125) in addition to 439EUR I paid through Indiegogo.
Unfortunately, the device was faulty, had constant thermal shutdowns, Philips recognized it as defective and launched the replacement process. Finally, the faulty PPM was picked up by FedEx and delivered to Hong Kong this week. I was offered a replacement device to be shipped to Thailand in the near future.
Yesterday I requested Philips to absorb customs duties for a replacement device to avoid being charged twice for one device.
My request was rejected with the following justification: “As explained in the Indiegogo campaign rules, customs duties will be at your charge. Thanks for your understanding”
Usually you shouldn’t pay taxes if the item shipped is marked as replacement. Already sent something back for replacement and haven’t payed anything, while in the first shipment I had to pay taxes…
I agree. It seems unreasonable to pay the duties twice to buy one device. Could this perhaps be a misunderstanding at the Thai customs? I have absolutely no experience of how this works in Thailand, but where I live replacements are not subject to customs duties.
Have you actually been charged the second time around?
Perhaps you’re being a little too preemptive here and everything will sort itself out without needing their agreement on your proposal?
I’d say wait until it’s really become an issue, you could maybe argue your case with Thai customs so they’ll waive the fee after you produce the proper proof (if even necessary at all)
All valid points here. But why Philips put me in position to argue this case with Thai authorities and produce the proper proof? Philips didn’t provide me any proof, do you think they really care? You read their answer to my request.
The replacement device hasn’t been shipped yet. I believe I should warn Philips in advance to prepare the proof and to be ready to negotiate the case with customs, and if they fail (which happens in this country), to absorb the fees. What did I do wrong?
No one has accused you of doing anything wrong, you asked if it was fair enough for you to ask this or for them to deny you, and before giving an answer to that, I wanted to get some things clarified first.
I think that if they sent you something that was faulty, and then have to send another one, you shouldn’t have to pay for it again. Even though if your country’s customs are difficult it’s not their fault, you should not have to pay for it again. I don’t know why they rejected your preemptive claim, could be just on the grounds that it’s preemptive and premature, but all I can suggest to you is to prepare yourself to be able to dispute the import fees on your own.
Thank @IvoGrijt for your dedication to this forum and support, really appreciate it. If Philips doesn’t assure me that they will take care of customs duties if any, the overall cost of my purchase could be EUR 439+125+125= EUR689 (not mentioning 8 month waiting time). I would never agree to pay that amount for PPM, would you?. In this case I’d better request a refund before Philips ship the thing. In current complete lockdown here in Thailand any negotiation with customs is not possible. And it is just not fair to put me in this situation. @Philips_Support_P , @Philips_Support_2, would you be able to comment on that?
I think @ema84 is right :
When you have paid taxes once, your country shouldn’t ask for the same tax for a replacement unit.
But @Sergey you’re right : Philips should specify that it’s a replacement unit in the box.
Ask Philips / Screeneo to mark the goods as replacement for a faulty product on the customs declaration (if they don’t already do exactly that). Keep all of the communication including your invoice and if your customs agency request another payment, kindly explain to them that is is a replacement for a faulty product that was already declared.
At least that how it works for every customs agency in the EU, yours shouldn’t be too different.
Hi Sergey,
I am having exactly the same situation. I also live in Thailand, paid the same duty tax, and I also had a faulty unit with constant thermal shutdowns, unless I run it on saving energy mode.
I agree with you, it is totally not fair having to pay 2 times the duty tax when we are not responsible of the faulty equipment at the first place. I am still in the process of requesting for a replacement, so you seem a bit ahead of me in the process. I will complain to them. This is not right
Franck
Just to make it clear, I agree with you completely. If you have to pay the customs twice it’s not fair. But have any of you actually had to pay the customs duties two times already? If not, how do you know that you will have to do that? Usually, replacements are not subject to customs duties. Has the Thai customs confirmed with you that you will have to pay? Or has Philips explicitly told you that they won’t mark the shipments as replacements?
You are right. I am still in the process of initiating the exchange. I have no idea if I will have to pay the tax a second time. I have to admit that I did not read all the comments before sending my reply to the initial post from Sergey. You all made valid point and we shall see before concluding anything.
Though, even before Sergey post, I was concerned about this very point as I expected that I would have to pay tax for a second round. So when I saw Sergey post, I got a bit excited !
However, from my experience in Thailand, I would not be surprised that we have to pay a second time anyway… the rules may be somewhat flexible over here sometimes…
But definitely, let’s wait and see.
Thanks, Franck
Hi @FC8BK, my experience with Thai customs wasn’t very positive, this is why I requested Philips to provide guarantees that I won’t be charged twice. And last time when the faulty projector came I was contacted by DHL agent and I paid customs duties through DHL. For the second time, I doubt DHL would be the right contact to negotiate for tax-exempt. Also, Philips didn’t tell me they would support me in any way, like mark it as a replacement item or send some proof. In communication, two times Philips just rejected my request to take care of this issue. Long story short. I asked for refund.
DHL sent me a message to paid tax again for a replacement. Probably sreeneo didn’t mark it as a replacement for customs
How hard can it be to do that?
Votre commande arrivant par DHL #******** a des frais de dedouanement de $75.96. Visitez mypayment.dhl.ca pour payer a l’avance et accelerer la livraison
I am in the same position. Figuring out what could happen; i copied the documents from the first shipment and replacement shipping. And i asked philips to include these in the box together with the replacement unit. So that i can prove at the customs office that i am not paying tax twice.
But guess what happens.
Philips simply ignored my numerous messages about adding return documents. They just said ‘don’t worry it’s going to be ok’
Propably i will be asked another 40% tax, all on Philips faulty product and resistance to cooperate.
Same situation for me in Canada. Honestly, how hard is it for Philips to mark the replacement unit as a replacement unit? It makes ZERO sense that I have to pay for duty and taxes twice. I’ve had other companies ship me replacement units and they’ve always marked the package accordingly.
The worst part is I emailed them 2 weeks ago when the projector hasn’t been shipped yet to raise them about this issue. Nobody got back to me even till now. I only know the package is on the way because DHL just sent me a text message asking to pay duties and taxes.
For Philips Projection it isn’t hard at all. In fact, all our replacement shipments that we request from our forwarder are clearly marked as replacement units in the excel sheets we send them with the shipping details.
The problem is that they then don’t mark them as such when actually shipping, which leads to the tax being levied again. We’ve been telling them to do this correctly since the first replacements went out to backers, and they still don’t get it right.
Have any of you tried to contest the charges with your local customs department, by providing the proof of returning the previous item?
