Yeah, I must say I find ruten and shopee a bit crap compared to ebay and amazon. If everything works, it works; but if there’s any problem, you’re in a world of pain. The UI just doesn’t let you do what needs to be done.
The most irritating thing about them is that a lot of the goods advertised are actually coming from China, and it’s often not obvious. So you can sometimes order something expecting to get it in three days and it actually takes 10. You only find this out when the seller contacts you to say so, or when the shipping tracker tells you that the item is now at Shanghai airport.
Looks like the regular airmail option is no longer available on Iherb for customers in Taiwan, only courier services like DHL, SFexpress. I guess so they can track your packages better and charge you when you hit six.
Maybe Amazon/Ebay’s lack of payment options has something to do with it.
I mean c’mon, Taiwan websites you can pick up from convenient store 1-2 for 80NT, convenient store 3 for 60NT, convenient store 4 for free, use x card to get x00 points, use y card to get x000 points and well…you get the idea.
Whereas Amazon, your payment option is…credit card. With Ebay, you have the plus of Paypal.
I’ve made two orders since the new custom fee rule.
a) A bag, a lens and a pair of headphones from B&H. The total was around 4500nt. I was charged for the lens and headphones, but the bag was free of any custom fees.
b) Some stuff from iherb, 2600nt, I was charged for everything
If you don’t mind my asking: how does the charge work with iHerb? Does iHerb bill you, or do you have to pay Taiwan customs? Just how big is the charge, and how much of a hassle is it to pay?
I recently ordered from ProBikeKit and my package was worth 6000NT+.
No customs fees. I’ve been slapped for fees before when ordering from ChainReactionCycle and Rapha. It seems like PBK uses normal courier on their end and on the Taiwan side for their packages, whereas CRC and Rapha use DHL.
Both my orders went through dhl.
The one from B&h was a breeze, they called me to arrange delivery, sent the package to the family mart near home and I paid the import tax right there.
The one from iherb was an absolute pita and required some paperwork, took a few days to arrive and a rude delivery guy complained TO ME that the customs office used the letter F for “floor” instead of the Chinese character so he had a hard time finding this building -_-
I’ve had a few more international parcels over 3K NTD the past month or so, and yes the DHL + UPS ones I had to pay tax (my reception lady paid for me, prearranged), and the ones where the last leg was the local post was fine.
Yeah, BUT, as has been noted before, pretty much everyone on eBay now uses that horseshit Global Shipping deal, where, on top of charging you extra beyond the shipping fees, EVERYTHING is sent via DHL or FedEx, with accompanying mafan.
I don’t use eBay (or Amazon, for that matter) at all anymore unless I have absolutely no choice.
I think that pre-2017 I’ve only paid import duties once, it was for a large parcel I received in Taichung. In Yilan I’ve never used DHL and never had import tax, so I believe you’re right. Even if I wonder…how does it work? I mean, packages have to go through custom, so how come that stuff travelling with DHL gets the import tax but regular mail doesn’t ?_?
This is an excellent question. I have a feeling that, in the interest of smooth operations, especially given their massive volumes of business, the big carriers have basically volunteered to play ball with Customs, and actually surrender the information in advance of Customs actually having to check.
Note that, in the past, all of this horseshit paperwork they’ve tried to get me to provide was well in advance of the shipment actually landing here.
That happened with my package from iherb. My wife handled it because she has the iherb account, and she had paperwork to do before and after the box landed. For my order, 0 paperwork and delivery+payment at the Family Mart 5 minutes from home. Maybe because the guy realized I’m an atoha he thought:“Fuck this, I’m not going through the paperwork with him!”.
But so, what happens to regular mail? When it arrives at the custom office, do they check packages at random, depending on how much free time they have? I don’t often buy expensive stuff abroad, but I’ve made several orders for 3/4/5000nt over the course of the years, and using the regular post office I’ve never been picked for import duties. The large package I received in Taichung was 5 years ago and I can’t remember what kind of shipment I used.
I can’t say for sure, but I’d wager on this being the case. Stuff I get from standalone sellers who basically use USPS seems to sail through every time.
I hate to say it but it does work. I was looking on things on ebay but gave up and had a friend help me buy something similar (musical instrument) off ruten.