- Inappropriate Hefty Customs duty charged for sending document copies through DHL ^Open

Rohinthh Srinivasan filed this complaint against DHL on Apr 06, 2023

I have sent * copies of PoA and Indian Passport (Both notarized by legal in the UK) through DHL expecting speeder and safe delivery to India. I had purchased "Worldwide Air - ServicePoint to Door" service online and chose drop off point for DHL to collect my parcel. The enclosed documents in the envelope weighed less than *** gms after packaging and had insured this service for better safety tracking(paying extra fee). The "ITEM" (contents inside courier) was mentioned clearly as "DOCUMENTS" while booking online. Again the value of the contents inside courier was a mandatory column to be filled in while booking online, and i had mentioned this as *** GBP(as the documentation costed me *** GBP - This is the notary public charges incurred for certifying the copies of original documents in the UK).

Problem with my case is DHL has classified my shipment under COMMERCIAL invoice and has calculated customs import duty of *****.** INR while it landed in India. DHL demanded me to pay this amount without which my shipment cannot be delivered.
This is completely a false claim and when tried explaining the same to DHL customer care, they refused to understand the practical scenario of mine and refused to revoke the duty charges. Considering my personal emergency with the documents in the shipment i had to pay the hefty charges and release the shipment for delivery.
I still could not accept this hefty customs duty paid for sending few copies of paper documents over courier due to faulty classification by DHL, which classifies a shipment just by value, irrespective of contents inside it. Need refund of the customs duty charges paid unnecessarily.

DHL Order No - DHL********
Shipment Number: **************
DHL India Waybill - **********

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