Seeking Advice for Sending Phone Back to China

BadBargain on 23/03/2021 - 17:41
Last edited 24/03/2021 - 00:32 by 1 other user

So I bought a phone on Aliexpress for about $400 and used it for about a month but noticed for some reason the battery works well from 100% to 60% but then drop to 0% rapidly and turn itself off even when I'm not using.

I've contact the seller about the issue and they said to send it back to Shenzhen to check and so I did. So today the seller contacted me saying that the parcel will be charged $40 even though they say for me to declare it as $45.

Have anyone have experience with this? Anyone know what's the duty threshold in China and who should pay for it?

• 

  87percent on 23/03/2021 - 18:07

  Ask if they have a local address to ship to

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  Quantumcat on 23/03/2021 - 18:14

  +1

  Would probably be easier surely to just replace the battery yourself or get someone local to do it - if you send it back I am betting it will be six months at least before you lay eyes on that phone again or if ever. That's the risk you take buying stuff from China.

  • 

    BadBargain on 23/03/2021 - 18:18

    I've asked to send the battery to try and do my own repair but they said their courier don't allow to send battery.

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  87percent on 23/03/2021 - 18:15

  Actually, just re-read your post and saw that it’s already been sent!

  • 

    Quantumcat on 23/03/2021 - 19:08

    Oh I missed that

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  BadBargain on 23/03/2021 - 18:17

  Phone is already in China in customs and seller want to charge me duty which I'm not sure if that's normal and can't seem to find the duty threshold for China.

  • 

    ChipsChicky on 23/03/2021 - 18:35

    +2

    Ask seller to provide customs clearance receipt of $45 .. so you can process the payment ..

  • 

    salin on 23/03/2021 - 18:41

    +4

    provide them with a copy of ur purchase.
    if its return or repair that should be duty free.

    • 

      Kangal on 23/03/2021 - 20:20

      +2

      The seller may not be lying.
      Customs may actually have picked it up, and thought it was an import, and charged a duty fee to the recipient. What is awkward is that usually, the seller would agree to the cost because they are a big business, so it is a "business expense". And in worse case scenario, it is upto them to argue that this is a return post of an export for warranty/repair, hence it should be exempt. So it seems like perhaps the purchase was from an individual instead of a business.

      The OP has no way to remedy any of this from this end. The seller should be the one liable for the duty costs, and to simply exempt that from their taxable income. Even if nobody can claim the money back, logically, it is still the seller's fee to eat up. After all, postage from AUS to CHN is much more expensive, so its unfair to ask the buyer to shell out even more. And if the buyer didn't pay for postage, the courier service the seller used should have covered the fee.

      TL;DR - OP should not pay. Seller should pay. Seller should replace/fix phone, then send back. Seller then should chase up the duty fee by themselves.

      • 

        ty99234 on 24/03/2021 - 20:16

        +1

        Well, I was charged by DHL directly for a Chinese custom fee of about $10. The shipment was a SIM card which worths less than the fee itself.
        The seller is not lying about the customs fees, but they shouldn't let OP to pay.

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  brendanm on 23/03/2021 - 18:28

  +7

  Buying a phone off AliExpress is sure working out to be a bargain. At least your username checks out.

  • 

    pharkurnell on 23/03/2021 - 18:55

    +3

    it will never see AU shores again… will be sold as new in USA lol

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  trustnoone on 23/03/2021 - 19:11

  +3

  I know aliexpress put in paypal recently, wouldn't happen to have used it, and maybe be able to take advantage of this:
  https://www.paypal.com/au/webapps/mpp/returns

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  omguleh on 24/03/2021 - 00:22

  Few years ago the limit was 1000RMB before duties are charged at 13-17%. If thats still the case now then what the seller says could be true, just like in Aus, customs open packages and if found the declared value to be too low they will change it.