Hi Guys, I am in the shipping industry and have plenty of experience in dealing with customs, the problems you are talking about comes from using the postal service to bring in your goods. I build plastic model kits as a hobby, and I have purchased a lot on either ebay or other overseas sites and have had them posted to me. In the majority of cases the go through as low value items, and their is invariably no invoice attached as I am buying from private sellers, but when you start buying from online stores then they will always attach an invoice to the outside of the package, and the customs officials in the post office will always rate it at the highest duty tariff they can. Your chances of getting them to change the amount due are the same as you building a snowman in hell, no chance. My advise, if the value of the goods are of high value and are packed into a small package, then have the goods sent via a courier company, If the goods are bulkier, then have them sent by either airfreight or ocean freight. If you choose air or ocean freight, get a couple of quotes from a clearing agent, but remember that they can only provide an estimate as duties & VAT are calculated on the SARS rate of exchange, which changes everyday. If the above still works out to expensive for you, then buy your goods locally, it could work out cheaper in the long run, and you have your goods straight away, and not weeks or in the case of the post office, months. By the way, I ordered a model 45 days ago from Taiwan, and it still has not arrived, so I know the pain you guys are going through.
