A little warning to EU buyers who decide not to use prepaid tax option

[rockerplates.de]

A little update (or lack of it)...

Aliexpress does not respond to my mails about there being a difference between tax and a fine for fraud. ...

The seller is playing with me. Saying they will pay back part of the costs, but I know this game and expect they are not planning to do that and are just keeping me busy until I give up... Every day there is some vague answers to my (or besides my...) questions and they always have to "ask the boss" so they can waste another day of my time without giving me an answer.

And I'm still waiting for my frame...

Well, emergency brake action would be, if you have payed via paypal:  just do not pick up the bike......customs (in Germany) can not force you to pick up the shipment, and if the customs are not payed, the product is not imported....regarding paypal, it should have the status "Not delivered" therefore, the money can be easily refunded...just make a claim....usually this works

[rockerplates.de]

I'm planning also on ordering a frame on Aliexpress and therefore asked German customs via E-mail about the current regulations.
It seems that you need to have luck and find a seller that cares about EU regulations. For Germany the seller/courier need to put a certain code on the packaging to prevent taxes. There is a rule for private customers that excludes them from all the high taxes. You just need to pay VAT and a small customs fee.
I wrote to two sellers regarding this topic but haven't received an answer yet. Until this is not clear I won't by on AliExpress.
I keep my fingers crossed that maybe AliExpress can support you. I would definitely write an E-mail to them. I had a similar issue on Alibaba in 2023 and Alibaba supported me quiet well and the seller refunded me. They declared completely wrong and I had to pay way to high taxes and fees.

Well, that is all theoretical...at the end, the guy at the customs decides which tarif code he uses! we have been paying anti dumping tax many times and had to claim an official protest at the national customs office...we always got our refunds but it is just a pita. once again, the declaration is importers duty...all sellers who buy with all duty payed services may run into problems at local customs.....as a private person, you can always protest against your tax statement, but payments have to be made in advance..refunds are quite common if you know what your are doing..

[TidyDinosaur]

Well, emergency brake action would be, if you have payed via paypal:  just do not pick up the bike......customs (in Germany) can not force you to pick up the shipment, and if the customs are not payed, the product is not imported....regarding paypal, it should have the status "Not delivered" therefore, the money can be easily refunded...just make a claim....usually this works

It was clearly stated in the letter that I got from customs that not accepting the frame was not an option since this is a fraud case. A big part of the extra costs I have to pay are fines (250€), so not taxes or fees. And there is no way you can avoid paying a fine by not accepting delivery...

So I have paid everything (640€ in total for a 200€ frame) to avoid prosecution. After doing some research the 250€ fine is the smallest fine you can get, so I don't want to escalate the situation with customs...

I have not paid by Paypal but with my Revolut Visa card, so no way I'll get money back that way.

The last thing I can think of is starting a dispute with Ali and try to get my 200€ back I paid for the frame, but since it will be delivered I also don't expect much that way...

[jonathanf2]

I'm pretty sure we ordered our gravel frames around the same time. Sucks you had to pay extra and you still haven't received it! 

[TidyDinosaur]

And some good news!

I started a dispute with Aliexpress in the hopes to get the 250€ back. The seller refused the solution, but I supplied more proof and I've just gotten the news that they will pay me back the price of the frame. So I will get back about 200€ of the 440 I had to pay extra.

After starting the dispute the seller become very active in the chat, asking me to change the reason of the dispute or cancel the dispute so we could settle this on our own. Since I had been trying to do just that for more than a week it was clear he was lying and trying to get me to cancel the dispute and ghost me afterwards. Shows how most of the sellers turn in to lying pieces of sh*t once you need something from them instead of the other way around.

[TidyDinosaur]

And I've now gotten the money back on my card. 192€ recuperated.

So the moral of this story: do not order from QIANQIN BIKE Store

[00Garza]

Glad you were able to salvage something.