So, I bought an electronic toothbrush from Amazon. And there was a “Global Shipping Fee” and “Import Fee Deposit”. I didn’t realize the Import Fee was actually money that would later be returned (yes I do know what a deposit is but wasn’t paying attention). 5 weeks after purchasing I get an email saying that fee will be refunded. Is this something new, that is the deposit? Now, as I look to buy more items I see this Import Fee Deposit. It’s cheaper getting some things shipped from US than buying local. Just want to hear about others opinion n thoughts.
How much was your total order? I just placed an Amazon order tonight, and I deliberately kept it below USD$95 or so, because there was an Import Fee Deposit if I went over that. I believe I’ve only seen that Import Fee Deposit on larger non-book orders, around $100.
Um … how do you get the import fee deposit back? I don’t think I’ve ever received it back, and have always assumed it was just a tax. Mind you, I’ve only paid it once.
Order was exactly $100.12 (with the IFD, $87.52 before it). My order was about 6 weeks ago. And yesterdays email says I get the Import Fee Deposit in 3-5 Business Days to the credit card used.
Guys remember than anything over 2000 ntd value total including shipping WILL be taxes in Taiwan after July 1st.
Depends on how it’s shipped and declared
You mean to different addresses under different names? Honestly that cumulative business is quite a bummer. No wonder companies like Amazon are covering their behinds.
No, I mean the shipping method and the declared value.
Uh oh. Well this should be an interesting test: on June 30 I ordered two packages, one Amazon one iHerb, both under 3000 but over 2000 in value. IHerb was shipped on June 30 (US time) but will of course arrive after July 1. I wonder what kind of hassle I’ll face. Past experiences with customs haven’t been good simply because of inconvenience and lack of English communication.
I just ordered electronic toothbrush heads from Amazon, and I have a related question. When Amazon asks for the ID number, which needs to be one letter and nine numbers. Did you have to enter this? If so, what would you put as a non-Taiwanese citizen? Passport, ARC, and SSN don’t work.
They’ve wanted me to enter this ID number for a while, but I can’t. It wouldn’t accept my APRC, or at least it wouldn’t last time I tried, around a year ago. Now all that happens is I get that prompt every time. It doesn’t seem to affect the ordering process through Amazon, although I fear it may have an impact on the import procedure once it arrives here. Like I said, I’m worriedly curious about what’s going to happen with these two orders.
Hi there.
Don’t put anything, just check non-Taiwan citizen or whatever. You will get an email from the shipping service, i-parcel, the email should be titled (the sender) additionalinfo. Click the link and it will take you to a page where you can attach a scanned photo of your passport. You can take a cell phone pic and attach that.
Once sent it will say your into has been received…at times if you do it on the weekend perhaps it won’t process quickly and you might get the same email the next day, but I think it’s an auto-thing. I asked once and I got a very quick reply saying ignore it, just hasn’t been processed yet.
Should take 2-3 days to process max, then they will release the package into the delivery system.
oh, the first couple times after they made the change it only told me I should update my ID number, i ignored that and delivery went through. But after a couple times they didn’t let me ignore it, that’s when i checked non-taiwanese and started going through the scanned photo thing. So eventually even if it works this time, next time you might have to do that, it’s pretty simple though, just watch for the emails.
This is such a ridiculously hard process to order something. I’m not liking where this is headed. Next we will be using finger prints and eye scans.
It’s not that bad, when you’re doing the passport photo thing, just keep the photo handy, do the order as usual, the email to attach it should come at the same time you get the emails from amazon about your order being entered. It’s literally click on the email, click the link, click upload photo, finished.
Huh. Interesting - I still haven’t had to do anything like that, but maybe I’m about to get an email about the order I placed yesterday.
Wait so amazon ships to taiwan now?
They have for years. Did they ever not ship here? The earliest record I have of an order from them is 2003.
EDIT: Note that quite a few specific products aren’t shipped to Taiwan - often I believe because it’s another company working “through” Amazon. But often ordering from Amazon, and paying for shipping, is still going to be cheaper than buying the product in Taiwan - if the product is even available in Taiwan (it probably isn’t!).
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Obviously you can’t return stuff so thats a big issue, with local vendors you got 7 days for a lot of products .
It’s pretty streamlined, right off the main amazon page, on the left there will usually be a box that says ‘ship to taiwan’ after you’ve gone to a department or searched for something.
Oh cool, I got the email and attached a phone pic of my passport photo. Now I’ll wait and see if the stuff arrives 
I just had the same experience as above: I needed to give somebody a copy of my passport. The sequence was slightly weird. I placed the order Friday evening (Taiwan time). Then early Sunday morning, I got three emails in quick succession: one from Amazon saying the order had shipped; another from i-parcel saying they needed more information; and a third from Amazon saying they needed more information. Completing the information was easy: I clicked through, unticked the box saying that I was a Taiwanese citizen, and then a little box to “Choose file” for a passport scan popped up. Took a picture of my passport with my smartphone, put it on my computer, and then sent it.
I don’t know if Amazon will remember the same information next time, but at least the process seems pretty easy. This is a relatively new step - the last time I had something shipped here from Amazon was September 2016, and I didn’t need to do this.