Customs fees will be the same regardless of carrier only “if” they are charged. Not all packages get nicked via regular post. Some get through without a charge. That was my gamble on this shipment.
When you were nicked by customs through normal post, how did they charge you? Did the postman deliver a paper saying you had to pay? Is it held at the airport or local post office?
1000 usd package… Good luck. Yes, postman. Pay on delivery. Easy.
Yeah I’d be surprised if they missed a $1000 parcel.
Those guys are like eagles, they caught and flagged a phone I sent because it contained a battery. I doubt anything escapes them lol
The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and in this case a straight line between logistics and distribution centers.
It was delivered today.
NO CUSTOMS FEES / TAXES!!!
Woohoo!
The box was a bit mangled, but not too bad. It had been opened and inspected. But everything inside was just fine. A new laptop I ordered from the US and some stuff from family.
Buying the laptop from the US instead of Taiwan saved me $400 USD. Sending it through USPS and passing customs without any fees saved me $300 USD. Grand total savings: $700 USD.
Not bad at all.
Sweet!
So regarding the elapsed time for US->Taiwan USPS Priority Mail Express International, how many days elapsed from placing the order to having the box in your hands?
14 days.
14 days including non business days.
Customs may have opened the first box, seen the insane amount of packaging peanuts my family put inside for protection and thought, “oh hell no!”
The laptop box was still sealed, unopened by custums under all those packaging peanuts. They had put a few trivial gifts on top that were not worth more than 10 USD. Maybe that is why I was able to avoid any customs fees.
I still haven’t had one USPS package charged even with packing slip + invoice inside, so for ‘gift’ shipments like yours I don’t think they’ll ever bother.
Moral of this story…
Avoid FEDEX, DHL and UPS like the plague.
If you can wait out the longer shipping time, send it USPS Priority Mail Express International.
You get the first NT$2,000 gratis of customs/excise tax per year, right?
SuiGeneris, how many packages have you had shipped this year? Was this the first?
I haven’t had a bad USPS experience yet except many stores do not offer the option. Usually wouldn’t care about an extra week or two.
First sent via USPS, yes.
But, I recieved 3 other packages this year from the US. All were mailed through DHL from Amazon.
So, 3 DHL and 1 USPS.
The DHL ones were charged customs fees by Amazon. I was never charged more once they arrived to Taiwan. I did get a bit of a refund from Amazon for them over estimating the customs charges.
Hello
I’m in exact same situation right now. I got new a laptop, headphone, tablet. Its just way too expensive here and there is no sale in TW.
I just dont want to pay custom/ tax fee. Should I tell add packaging peanuts lol. I want to use USPS since i can wait for 2 weeks. Also how much did you put on item value?
PS: Also i was looking for private shipping companies. Here one looks legit http://www.nicentintl.com/ they use DHL/Fedex.
The shipping cost is just $20 cheaper than USPS.
But yeah i think it will be faster. I am still confusing that I should use “Private one” or “USPS”. Can you give me some suggestion ?
Thank you
Sounds like an awesome 3-in-1 device. Where did you get it?
Oh my bad I should ve use comma (,) haha. I got on walmart and amazon tho. Xmas sales was good tho .
The actual value. But I asked my family who mailed it USPS to mark it as a gift.
How about insurance? oh, then it’s better to mark it as a gift. It was a brand new laptop with the original package right?
Also, did you fill “wifi-enabled” device form
It was insured. Forgot how much I paid for that. It wasn’t much.
Yes.
No.
Here’s another long strange delivery route for goods I recently ordered from the US. The seller is in LA, so I thought good this will arrive relatively promptly, right? No! The package—sent using USPS—meandered around California before being handed over to DHL (!). It then sat for a couple of weeks with no movement, before heading over (yes, you guessed it) to Germany. I hope it moves along to its destination in Taiwan soon. 
Guy
