On Wed, 30 Aug 2000 HarvoC@aol.com wrote:
>
> DHL is acting as the customs broker. They have contracted with Rimmer to
> handle customs on this side of the Atlantic.
So far, so good. But as you stated above, they contracted with Rimmer
and not with me. If there was to be a fee for their services, they
should have charged it to the person they contracted with who in turn
could choose to pass it on in their bill as either a hidden or a listed
charge. But I haven't contracted with DHL for anythng and therefore
do not owe them anything. Seems like simple contract law to me. You
can't bil someone out of the blue for services they didn't ask you to
perform.
> Customs brokers generally
> charge a small fee to the package recipient after they recieve the goods from
> airport or dock, and clear the goods through customs, and pay the duty.
This may be so, but they didn't contract with me to be that broker. This is
not my first Rimmer order. The others came UPS and UPS has never tried
anything as shady as this.
> If
> not for customs brokers rendering this service, we would all have to meet the
> plane or boat, fill out gov paperwork, pay duty and be on our way.
I'm not saying they don't perform a service, what I'm saying is that I never
asked them to nor agreed to their performing any service for me. I am not
liable for the contracts of other parties.
> Even though I receive European goods by ship in my business and freight is
> prepaid door to door in Europe, I still pay our customs brokers duty,
> messenger services, document turn over, and harbor fees, all of which they
> cover for me.
Your Customs Broker?? you mean you have a contractual arangement with
someone to do all this for you?? That's fine, but I have no such contractual
arangement with DHL. And, as I have said above, no other foreign company
I have ever done business with has tried this kind of backdoor extortion.
> If DHL is charging a small fee for all of this paperwork, it's
> probably worth it.
Not to me. No one else ever found it necessary, why should I assume that
in DHL's case it somehow is??
I certainly hope that the guys from Rimmer are reading this as well, and
that they give DHL a wide berth in the future. I can assure everyone that
they will never be my shipper of choice. I will use the USPS before I
would use them.
bill
--
Bill Gunshannon | de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n. Three wolves
bill@cs.scranton.edu | and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton |
Scranton, Pennsylvania | #include <std.disclaimer.h>
|