Customs/import fees?

[AquaAnalogue]

Hey guys, I searched the forums and found no information on US import fees for the Pandora.


Are customs going to call me up and say, "Hey, you owe us 500 USD for your package before we'll release it, best be paying or we'll be playing"?


I'm surprised I haven't seen a thread of this sort. Perhaps I'm just forum-search-retarded.


My sudden stroke of paranoia is due to the still-shaky but promising suggestion I got from my parents that I'd be rewarded for my most recent, very good quarter at the Institute, and that said reward would be an amount of money toward "getting that Pandora's Box thing faster so you'll stop ranting about it." I would never be able to bring myself to upgrade on my own (my income just doesn't allow it; I shouldn't have even ordered the Pandora), but I'll definitely take it as a gift.


I'm pretty sure it's going to happen, and I'm getting damn excited. But... am I going to have to pay more?

 

[Prometheus]

This has come up before, although I can't seem to put my hands on a past thread about it right now.


All that can be said is that it's possible, and that it might or might not occur. To the best of my knowledge, in all countries, importing is always done at the buyer's risk, although some countries are more generous with the value they'll allow for personal use than others are (£18 including postage costs, indeed... :rolleyes: ). This would be something to look up, I would guess.


Further compounding this is that it's generally completely random, which makes it impossible to guess whether or not any one individual will see a customs charge. That said, I haven't heard of this happening with a Pandora yet, but that's not really any guarantee of anything.

 

[Nintendo]

Usually when the delivery man/woman comes to your door that's when you have to pay him/her.

 

[AquaAnalogue]

Usually when the delivery man/woman comes to your door that's when you have to pay him/her.

Erm, what do you mean? So, I pay import taxes when they come to the door, before I can receive the device?


Also, I appreciate the help Prometheus and Sony, but both of you folks are from outside the U.S.A... Hopefully some people on my side of the pond can elaborate upon their experiences? Like, has anyone who has received their Pandora in the States gotten a nice little surprise upon shipment? :/

 

[Nintendo]

For example, I purchased over $1000 worth of games (if a product(s) is $1000 or over then we in Australia have to pay import tax) and when the delivery person came to my door, he asked for import tax money from me. At first, I said, "WTF", but then I knew he wouldn't give me my games without me paying up.

 

[Nintendo]

Yeah, Brazil is one of the worse in the world when it comes to GST/tax.

 

[LuciferRising]

I live in Delaware. No other payment was required when I received mine. I actually rma'd my first one and there were no extra fees on the second one either. It was just like getting a package from within US, just signed for it and the deal was done.

 

[AquaAnalogue]

(if a product(s) is $1000 or over then we in Australia have to pay import tax).

I was searching for such a hard limit in the US, but came up with nothing aside from a citation-less Yahoo Answer suggesting 800 USD (which would include the Pandora).

in Brasil we pay 60% ON TOP OF face value+shipping.

That's ridiculous, dude.... Damn. Ever thought of moving?

I live in Delaware. No other payment was required when I received mine. I actually rma'd my first one and there were no extra fees on the second one either. It was just like getting a package from within US, just signed for it and the deal was done.

This is just what I was looking for, honestly... I wasn't sure if this was something everyone has to pay and I was just left in the dark... but it seems that I will most likely be fine.


Honestly, I've imported things before-- from DealExtreme in China-- one being an Acekard 2i for my DS and another being a bundle of semi-useful junk such as a wiretap and a USB soundcard. The difference is, this is something big, and it's not going to be marked as a gift (because that would be fraud, and unlike the Chinese, the British actually have to answer for that I think).

 

[Link]

I thought somewhere along the line people determined this was a computer and there is no tax on them or something of that sort, can't remember exactly.

 

[I8NY]

i got my pandora in the U.S. and there was no fees on it. this was through UPS 48 shipping.

 

[Nintendo]

@ Americans


It the product was over US$1000 would you be hit with import tax or fees?