FedEx courier service or highway robbers:
I had recently purchased couple of products from the website Bodybuilding.com, which is a website that I am also a member of. But this time I decided to opt for FedEx as a carrier. The courier charges were charged by the website upfront, which was around $24. My actual cost of package was $35.74, which in terms of INR if you consider the exchange rate to be Rs. 45/- which is still on the higher side, comes to about INR 1,608.30.
Once the package arrived at Mumbai, I got a call from FedEx stating that there would be a customs duty of INR 1050.00, and additional octroi charges as applicable. Which was kind of surprising to me, cause I was never charged this in the past? I even checked with some people that I know in Mumbai Customs, and they said the maximum chargeable duty on Food supplements was about 30%, which comes to about INR 579.00.
I called up FedEx and told them that I wanted to see the actual Custom Invoice, but what they sent with the package, was an Invoice printed by FedEx on their letter head. For them 30% duty amounted to INR 602 (not sure how), and they also charged me INR 300, under the heading other charges (not sure what that means, unless they bribed any officer on duty), and to top it all they charged an additional service tax on an amount that was already taxed.
Then came the turn of the Octroi charges, which is 4% of the package amount, which ideally amounts to INR 64.75, but what I got charged was INR 125.00, and the delivery boy took an additional INR 5.00, not sure for what. The octroi invoice did not have any details of the package or my name as the receiver, instead it had the name of the delivery boy and his vehicle number.
When I called up FedEx, they really could not come up with a very convincing answer, and kept beating around the bush. I would suggest that Bodybuilding.com, should reconsider keeping FedEx as one of their carriers and should also escalate this matter to FedEx, in the USA, so that they could know what shady business their overseas counterparts are involved in.
Best regards,
Anup Kumar