# Customs inspection Charge?



## damien699 (May 25, 2013)

Hi all, 

moved here about a month ago. We shipped some items in a container and used a uk company for the shipping. Paid a figure for door to door service.

Anyway the problem is i've been informed that there is an additional charge of 1200AED! Apparently a customs inspection charge, as they now inspect all containers with household goods.

Has anyone else had this happen, and does this sound normal?

Any feedback would be appreciated.


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## whatsupdubai (Apr 10, 2013)

1200 dihram is a bit excessive if anything they may charge 150 from my experience 

Ask them for proof or a payment receipt from customs otherwise dont pay it 

Maybe they under quoted you and are trying to recoup some dollars


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## vantage (May 10, 2012)

If its a door to door lump sum payment, and customs inspection is not explicitly excluded, have a crack at the UK company.


The local agent tried to get a few hundred extra out of me for some spurious thing or other.
I copied in the UK company explaining I would not be paying it, and it all went away.

Good luck!


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## damien699 (May 25, 2013)

All done and dusted now. I had already gave the cash to my wife to pay the company when they arrived. 

I enquired about the customs charges to the UK company, apparently customs charges are paid, however if an inspection is required this will be extra.

I've queried this amount as it seemed excessive and asked the movers 'Leader relocations' to prove they made a payment of xxx aed. To which they provided an invoice to that amount from they're agent.

Thanks for the feedback, still feel bitter paying 1200 dirhams for a customs inspection!!


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## mehranR (Jul 27, 2013)

That sucks. 

I have a question for you. I had contacted a moving company abut a move from US to dubai and they said that they would want to repack all the boxes because they will need to have an exact inventory of what is being shipped.
Is that what you had to do?


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## damien699 (May 25, 2013)

mehranR said:


> That sucks.
> 
> I have a question for you. I had contacted a moving company abut a move from US to dubai and they said that they would want to repack all the boxes because they will need to have an exact inventory of what is being shipped.
> Is that what you had to do?


The way it worked for me coming from the UK was:-

had an idea of total space that was needed. 360cu ft
Paid all fees
Collection day, team arrived and packaged all items into labelled boxes
As they boxed they created an inventory.
At the end my wife had to sign they're paperwork stating she was happy with what was being shipped.

Arrival in Dubai, movers came to villa. 
Unloaded all items outside house.
As each box was brought into house it was check off inventory.
Then again at the end they got a signature to say we had received all items.

Hope this helps.

and by the way, i dont know what customs inspected but it didnt look like anything had been touched!!


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## Jumeirah Jim (Jan 24, 2011)

Sorry to hear that Damien

I've been here years but still had a few things back home. When there in June I packed it up and got Pickfords to ship it. Wasn't the cheapest option and I knew that but in the UK I was told that was the all in price, shipping, customs, local delivery and local unpacking (latter I didn't need). 

It arrived 3 weeks ago and just before I got a long warning email from UAE "Pickfords" which said most stuff is customs checked and this incurs extra cost. A couple of days before deliver thy emailed to say I had to pay AED 150 cash on delivery for "customs charges". 

I needed the stuff so didn't argue for AED 150 but it is something I plan to take up with Pickfords UK when I get a minute. I don't expect I'll get anywhere as they'll be somehing in their tiny print Ts & Cs I'm sure.


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## damien699 (May 25, 2013)

Jumeirah Jim said:


> Sorry to hear that Damien
> 
> I've been here years but still had a few things back home. When there in June I packed it up and got Pickfords to ship it. Wasn't the cheapest option and I knew that but in the UK I was told that was the all in price, shipping, customs, local delivery and local unpacking (latter I didn't need).
> 
> ...


I re-read the T&C's and it does state that cost is door to door including customs charges, however does not include inspection charges.

So i know the UK wont help much.


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## w_man (Apr 16, 2010)

Sounds like an expat tax. Customs will simply state they are doing an 'inspection' and charge whatever they feel like charging. 

Not directly related but I bought a kitchen knife and a knife block from the US and when it got delivered, the post office 'officer' asked what was inside. Told him what it was so he told me to go pay 5% duty. I took the invoice from the package and went to pay and the lady just said to pay 90 aed which works out to be about 10% of the price of the product. When I pointed this out, she just said "It's done! Go get your package". I demanded a receipt which took her a good 5 minutes to produce as she had to use the calculator a few times to fudge the numbers. At the end, she had increased the price of my product on her invoice and then added a 30aed FEES on top of the duty to make it 90 aed.

Expat tax ... someone's gotta pay for the Expo 2020


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## chris146 (Mar 10, 2013)

Hi Damien,

Would you mind sharing how much it cost you for the shipping?


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## damien699 (May 25, 2013)

chris146 said:


> Hi Damien,
> 
> Would you mind sharing how much it cost you for the shipping?


Hi chris, quote for door to door was around 1760gbp for 375cu ft may of been 390cu ft. I did not take insurance out.

Also this price included them making me a crate for my tv to be shipped. (40gbp)

Hope this helps


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## chris146 (Mar 10, 2013)

Thanks. Still trying to decide whether its worth shipping all of our stuff over or not.


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## Matthew Winter (Nov 10, 2013)

Not sure about the rest of the world but almost all UK removal companies will include customs CLEARANCE charges in their price, but not customs INSPECTION charges. The logic being that clearance is always required and so part of the moving cost, whereas inspections are random and therefore an extra. However, unlike many countries, in the UAE customs will always inspect at least some portion of containers coming into the country. 

Your moving company should tell you in advance what the inspection fee is likely to be, and the local agent who handle customs should provide you with a receipt showing the actual charge. 

For a full 20 foot container the inspection charge should be around USD 200.


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## Moving2dubai (Feb 9, 2015)

Hi our shipment has arrived at Dubai and the agent at this end is asking for AED 700 as customs inspection charges. Does this sound right? In addition we have to pay storage costs becos they cannot arrange delivery until the next 5 days!!! No fault of ours. Can anyone please advise what to do. What if I just refuse to pay.


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## Racing_Goats (Sep 5, 2015)

Moving2dubai said:


> Hi our shipment has arrived at Dubai and the agent at this end is asking for AED 700 as customs inspection charges. Does this sound right? In addition we have to pay storage costs becos they cannot arrange delivery until the next 5 days!!! No fault of ours. Can anyone please advise what to do. What if I just refuse to pay.


Likely no choice re inspection charges (but check your agreement with the company you booked with/paid) - for extra storage here I'd contact your company and get them to cover that or get the local receiving company to waive it or deliver sooner.. not your fault as you say and assume service is door to door with a range of time for delivery. Ours was 3-5 weeks or something like that.


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## Malbec (Jan 2, 2014)

Moving2dubai said:


> Hi our shipment has arrived at Dubai and the agent at this end is asking for AED 700 as customs inspection charges. Does this sound right? In addition we have to pay storage costs becos they cannot arrange delivery until the next 5 days!!! No fault of ours. Can anyone please advise what to do. What if I just refuse to pay.


That is pretty normal and I paid it too. Just checked and my inspection fee was $196. I was informed however by the shipping company at origin that this fee depends on whether your shipment is going to be examined on the request of customs or not, but I guess they all charge it regardless if it was examined or not.

I also had to pay storage charges, port to warehouse delivery and home re-delivery charges but it was because I was unable to accept the shipment when it arrived.


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## LesFroggitts (Dec 30, 2013)

Moving2dubai said:


> Hi our shipment has arrived at Dubai and the agent at this end is asking for AED 700 as customs inspection charges. Does this sound right? In addition we have to pay storage costs becos they cannot arrange delivery until the next 5 days!!! No fault of ours. Can anyone please advise what to do. What if I just refuse to pay.


Yep Customs Inspection charges are payable locally by the receiver.

As for the storage charge, they're trying it on - if you are sure that they are the reason for incurring the charge due to their failure in being able to do the operation then they are fully responsible for these costs.

Tell them you're not liable as it's through their failure - also COPY your rejection in WRITING to the agent you used at origin, they will be on your side and it wll place pressure on the UAE agent to cancel this charge.


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## Moving2dubai (Feb 9, 2015)

Thank you all. Guess I will have to pay inspection charges. Will try to get the storage waived off. Have already emailed the agent in London and will involve them in future correspondence as really do not see why I have to pay those charges.


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## twowheelsgood (Feb 21, 2013)

They tried it with me for a package of brochures from one of our offices - it was a'rush job' and I think they knew it. They tried 5,000AED and I told them where to get off and refused to give them the company code they needed to book it against. The waybill outgoing valued them ay 400AED.

Two weeks later they rang back and apologised as something had clearly gone wrong as they still had them in their warehouse so could they have the code and they would be round in an hour. This time they wanted 500AED and denied every asking for 5,000 AED last time.

I told them where to get off and said they could return to sender as the exhibition had been and gone and that we had them reprinted locally for 400AED - I never heard back from them and they never turned up at the originating office.


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