Mistake on your side- I am not liable

I reside in USA & as usual- If the product value is less than $200- I don’t have to worry about import duties and I never get summoned by customs even if the package gets delivered by Express Couriers like DHL & FedEx, however I usually prefer America Direct Line for cheap shipping cost and also the package gets delivered finally via postal service which is regulated under federal law. Well, that’s not the problem- the issue is recently I had to send a E-Ink display & Raspberry Pi Pico to my colleague to Bangladesh. Before placing the order - I specifically inquired him about import duties there and he assured me that if the product value is less than $50; ships inside envelope & gets delivered via government postal network-then customs don’t bother with taxes & duties but if the same contents comes with express courier through DHL/FedEx then as every consignment goes through inspection- duties & taxes becomes mandatory. So, considering that I ordered E-Ink display & pico & selected 4PX as delivery method because at first it’s cheaper and it’s going to hand-over the package to local government postal service for final delivery. As 4PX is economic carrier it usually don’t go through inspection there. So, as usual the package shipped with 4px- first sorted inside China with tracking number : RG000584593CN from 24.04.2022 to 06.05.2022 & then transferred to another carrier with tracking number : YT2216512639965 from 06.05.2022 after 2 days it showed delivered & signed by customer. Well, as it was still inside China then I couldn’t understand how recipient from Bangladesh signed for it so I contacted customer service and requested explanation. Kelvin said he’ll fix this and provide a new tracking number. Next day ,Dana stepped-in. By the way, best to mention that before this -because of technical issue two orders got misbelieved and I was in loop for resolution. So Dana stepped-in- apologized for late replies which is seeedstudio’s traditional problem and I believe that it’s not going be solved soon and offered options for resolution. She also added that one of my shipment is still in transit which she upgraded to Dhl-Well, I had no idea which one she upgraded as one shipment to USA & another to Bangladesh was still in transit. Also tracking number in order page didn’t update and I didn’t care so I didn’t even ask. So, unfortunately she upgraded the one to Bangladesh as she found that one is stuck in China mainland. Later the shipment arrived in Bangladesh with DHL and they informed buyer to pay duties in advance for customs clearance and the recipient informed me about that.

As it’s clear- Neither I authorized nor permitted changing shipping method & carrier- nobody even cared to double check that with me. So I am not liable for paying duties because instead of upgrading to DHL- If she had chosen any different economic carrier or resolved the issue with 4PX - there wouldn’t be any duties because government postal service would’ve delivered that.

I contacted support regarding this and after letting me know that customer pays duties- there’s no further reply when I ask why there have been unauthorized carrier changes without permission. Seeedstudio customer service is very professional in ignoring and then apologizing when customers involve PayPal to resolve such issues.

Well, I am expecting someone will coordinate with DHL to bill the duties to shipper account otherwise this consignment will be returned & return shipping fee will probably be higher than expected duties- customs not going to charge much as the declared value is $5.00. But if nobody comes forward to resolve this -it’ll be returned with higher return shipment and then I am gonna ask for a refund-and if they continue to ignore-PayPal’s going to be involved to ask what went wrong.

Order ID : 4000115653

We are sorry to have caused you a bad experience, at the moment we can only deal with order problems via the order email order@seeed.cc, we may need to ask you to contact us, thank you for your understanding.

@Citric Are you saying that I need to contact by emailing to order@seeed.cc? I have already done that and got response from fusion@seeed.cc and that agent isn’t ready to take responsibility

Sorry, at the moment customer service only has an interface with this email address, subject to their response.