Read before buying tablets from china (for Indian customers)

[Gurung]

This is my learning from buying $300+ tablet from Chinese ecommerce site, nothing wrong with site, it is to do with Indian custom, which I would like to share so that other Indian people knows beforehand what they are going to experience.

Also, first Thanks a lot to Chris for giving us such a wonder website to know the Chinese tablets and platform to share our experience as well.

I ordered Cube i7 stylus from one of ecommerce site at $327 + $11 EMS shipping cost. Everything was fine until the item entered into India and landed into the hands of Indian Custom. For almost 1 week, nothing happened as I was continuously tracking the item. Then I tried to reach out to Mumbai custom (where item was landed) and after good amount of efforts, was able to speak with them. They asked me to send the purchase proof and payment proof, which I did immediately. Next thing came the surprise to me, which might be due to my first experience with such high cost item import. They sent me a bill of around $243, which was huge import duty cost. For a $327 item, an import duty cost of $243 which is around 75% of item cost. The breakup of cost was: 41% import duty + $100 fine for importing item without having import license + some additional charges. I was not aware of it, but learned now and want other users to also be aware before buying online. This we cannot avoid here. Only item below $20 is without any import duty. This is also to discourage people not to import items from outside country and consume only internal products. We may ask for forged bill from retailer, but now custom people are also asking for payment proof, which is difficult to be forged.

But, looking into such a good website, and after looking into review, we may get tempted to buy it, which I don’t think is bad, but we should know beforehand what we are going to commit and hence, this post.

Once again, Thanks a lot Chris for such a wonderful website.

Thanks

[ocizer]

Yes Gurung what you say is really true

I have ordered a Cube i9 for 399$ at gearbest
It took me close to 2 months to get it .There was no problem with gearbest they have shipped it with in a week
but it was stuck at customs for so long
I didnt try to contact them as i have learned from the internet that contacting them will only make matters worse

I have waited for quite a bit of time and they have processed it without asking for payment proof or any other documents
It was with MUMBAI customs

I received the item from them today after 2 months they have charged me 8324 INR ~ 124 USD in the name of duty
there was no breakup or anything else mentioned

the package was completely messed up though the tablet is safe
so the total cost has come to 399$ + 124$ = 423$ USD
which is not worth it

P.S : Gearbest has devalued the invoice to only 20 USD
I think customs stopped caring about invoices long back

[Author]

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