Shipment EU -> India massive custom fees
 

I just received a nice quote from DHL to ship TWO bikes from Austria to Delhi for just € 470, nice.

Now they told me I would have to pay € 900.- for each bike for customs and clearance.
They can't be serious! :funmeterno:

Can I just go to the harber in Delhi and manage customs on my own?
Are there any other options available.
Everything is nicely set-up now this set-back, I am really frustrated.

Cheers,
Wauschi

TWO bikes from Austria to Delhi for just € 470, that´s € 235 each, and probably ain´t gonna happen. Sorry for being pessimistic, but it´s just too cheap to be true. Costs at the receiving end can surprise, too, especially when you ship to a place like India. I´ve shipped out of Chennai, wouldn´t want to try, how sending into Delhi turns out to be like!

And you have a carnet for both bikes as well?

Yes, Carnets are available for both bikes.

DHL ships tons of goods all over the world for our company, they are serious, and I would get nice company rates. But they would only do the shipment CFR Delhi. To get the bikes out of customs the Indian office of DHL charges premium.

The questions is how would I get the boxes clear once they are at the harbour.
Has anybody done this before?

Wauschi

get quotes
 

You have to use a customs broker, that's what I was told, and then I was subsequently ripped off. My advice is to get a couple of written quotes.
Cheers,
Mark

My experience, fly on the same plane with the bike, had a different starting point (Tehran) as the ending one (Mumbay).
At that time (2007) i only has need a "local agent help" to clear the bike from the Cargo area. it tooks me a day and something about 100€ fees.
The "local agent" has act in a very nasty way: he grabbed paperworks from my hands sayng: "you must need i do the job for you, 'cause it could take not less than 5/6 days", despite i wasn't looking for his help.
At the end of the process he take me apart in a corner, asking for his, unrequested, commission.
His request was 100€ but, as i never gave him any comittments about it, i refuse to pay such extorsive amount, offering him a 10€ bribe...
After such a long time i still do not understand why he was unhappy...

Can you ship the bike to Kathmandu and then head into India? Possibly much cheaper?

I don´t know about money, but plenty of bikes do get flown to Kathmandu from Bangkok, for example, and generally the reports seem quite good. As opposed to shipping to/from India, which really seems to get on the nerves of just about everybody.......... :rofl:

(I sent my bike by air from Chennai to Bangkok in 2008, and that was like a week of full time work in Chennai, to arrange everything, EVEN though I had a shipping agent, AND a customs agent!!)

Yep.. Same old story with India... I paid 2/3 total price for the shipping and 1/3 miscellaneous 'fees'.. For shipping from Kolkata to NZ