Problems with Angel Of Dream

I think that is a bit unreasonable..
If you buy an article than the customs are your responsibility no matter what you buy and how expensive it is.. and customs are something you always want to add to the price of your doll. After the doll leaves the warehouse and shipping has been paid for it, all the costs after that will be your responsibility.
So they can't be blamed for everything.. Yes you should get an apolagy and perhaps some money back but canceling the whole purchase seems to push it too far. You will be better of discussing it with customs and AoD in a reasonable way and I am sure some form of agreement can be made.

There are in no way obligated to actually give you a full refund. After all, they did deliver the goods. It than can snatched by customs which happens too so many dolls... That is sad, but they did nothing wrong. Many companies these days refuse to mark it as a gift or sample becasue of these reasons.. Customs will fine them..

Tbh expecting them not only to pay the bills of the doll being send back but also probably an additional fine from customs is something that is very unfair for AoD.

 

Customs might be her responsibility, but if they are going to break it and write on it with marker that will ruin the doll; because they thought they would be "nice" and mark the form as a free sample is not her responsiblity.

I get sick of companies marking dolls as gifts. It seems like for every doll that comes through customs just fine, we get more of these stories. Customs are starting to catch on, and if people want to buy a doll, they should deal with paying the taxes on a doll that's been properly marked.

 

Not asking the company to lie on the customs form would have avoided this entire dilemma. AoD probably had no idea that free samples would be written on with marker -- I would imagine that to them "gift" and "free sample" mean pretty much the same thing. I bet they thought they were abiding by the buyer's wishes.

No good deed goes unpunished, I suppose. I doubt after this that they will honor such requests in the future, and that's probably for the best.

 

She say me:

And....

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AoD has been lying to her from the beginning. Because they said that the package was declared with a value of $20 @_@

 

Does that mean it's not declared as a free sample, then? So she'll be able to pay the taxes and get it intact?

 

No, it mean AoD lied to her about what it was marked as.

I cant believe some people are in the favor of the company. The "customer service" they have shown this person is just plain horrible.

*Jen

 

I think this a case of I mean I am sorry this happened to you but you did take a risk here. Trying to get around your own country's laws just to avoid paying taxes and you got caught. There's a reason for those laws and yes we could all get along without paying all those taxes but your taxes are there to help support things like army, social services, etc, etc...

In my country we do get hit by taxes with our dolls and it comes with the territory. Yes, it saddens me that I have to pay taxes but you know what that's the law. How much would you have been hit with taxes if the doll had been declared as it was supposed to? probably much less.

The problem now is that now you have risen a flag for that company and they might be even more suspicious when somoene in your country buys a doll.

It's sad and it could have been avoided but you DID ask the company to lie. Maybe in china if you write FREE SAMPLE you don't get hit by taxes but gift might be. I know in Canada even if it's written gift, if it's over 20$ and from a company you'll get hit by taxes! if a friend send you a gift and it's over 60$ you get hit by taxes. (or it might not happen it depends how anal the Custom officer is) Samples do not (or maybe that changed recently) Knowing that maybe since they knew it was in the Americain continent and you wanted to avoid paying taxes that is what they wrote.

I never ask the companies to mark down my packages... because if I did that and the package is caught, it will give them and me trouble.

I know it doesn't give you your doll and it's really sad but really how is it the company's fault if they did what you asked (in this case lie) to accomodate you? I hope you both find a way to solve this problem. And I think from my POV that you have your share of responsability in this. Yes AOD didn't do things exactly like you wanted, but they probably did it like that to save you money, just like you asked.

I'd say you both have a share of responsability in this but don't put all the blame on the company. Because they cannot know the laws regarding taxes and customs in your country.

That being said... I think it's completly stupid for your customs to write on the doll with marker and break it. But maybe, just maybe, they are forced to do so because too many people try to cheat the system.

 

Issues such as lack of communication and any shipping snafoos are worth bringing up with the company. However, a mishap due to someone trying to get out of paying customs (which is how this whole thing started) has nothing to do with their customer service. They are not obligated to break the law on her behalf. The only way she could have gauranteed that there would be no mishap, would be to have money saved back for customs--especially since there have been other customs related horror stories lately. Marking it as a free sample may have been the way they thought she could get her doll customs free.

Mexicos whacky laws aren't AODs problems, and I doubt they're going to know the ins and outs of customs in every country they ship to (especially since it's the buyers responsibility to pay up). I feel bad that her doll is stuck in customs--it's awfull that that happened, but it's not AODs responsibility to fix. I don't stand up for companies no matter what, and there are times that issues need to be brought to their attention. However, it does bother me when people get highly accusatory over things that don't fall under the comany's responsibilities.

By the way, if AOD declared the package as $20.00 it wouldn't also be a free sample, so which is it? (In case I misunderstood something). Aren't the customs people throwing a fit because it's marked as a free sample?

 

Ehehe! Sorry, I couldn't help but laugh at that part. No, I'm not laughing at you or your comment, please don't take it personally.

It's because... it's Mexican laws and taxes you're talking about. All that money goes Gawd knows where, to the pockets of a president, governor, deputees, federal workers, etc etc etc, but never to any of those services you mention. That is if the customs officers/postal workers (they sometimes are the ones who take the money from customs fees) didn't keep the money themselves!

But anyway, that's not the point.

The point is, she was getting her first doll, and yes, she asked them to mark it down and as a gift like tons of other people do, maybe because she heard that was a good thing to do from the other people that have done it.

But the company (or the company they used to ship it) didn't send it through the mail carrier they have told her, DHL, instead it went UPS and everything went wrong.

Now if they did mark it as $2660 something dollars, it may have been a conversion mistake, who knows. But the fact is she didn't know that til just now, before that she thought it was marked as $20. And since she was unable to pay the insane amount of fees they were charging her, the doll ended up being sent back.

If she can get a refund, because obviously she has no doll now, at least she could get another doll. Or maybe AoD can send the doll again and this time make sure it won't go through UPS ^^;;
I don't know! I hope they can work something out!

ok, sorry if I'm ranting too much, I just hope everything turns out fine, cause it's sad to see this kind of situations happening ;_;

 

tho in reading over at the AoD thread, ecchigirl has said even if she paid the customs, what she'll receive is a broken doll marked with SAMPLE on.

Even if the company didn't mean to and it was a mistake, that is a bit of a shock for anyone, even more so for their first doll. Off putting.

Corruption... lovely in every country tho this sounds more serious than anything. Not having to pay customs is one thing. But paying a sum of money for a product, paying the taxes and then receiving it broken is bound to upset anyone.

If the doll is sent back or broken, i reckon they should refund the doll or replace it. The tax paid shouldn't be refunded but the initial price of the doll should.

 

The part about it being worth some 20000blah blah dollars was a mistake. I read she got THAT part straightened out, because it's 350% of 20 dollars, just like it was marked. They didn't lie about anything. And 'Free' and 'Gift' mean the same thing in many languages. They checked a box and thought they were doing what the customer asked.

Refuse the package and it'll be sent back to sender. Then they can refund the cost of the doll. I do not see how they are liable for anything else.

 

If the doll arrives broken or damaged because of actions taken by the company, she's entitled to a paypal refund. As for the permanent marker - get out your sanding paper - joys of BJDs - it may come off.

Sue

 

TheSaint, UPS told her today that the package was registered with a marked value of $2600 and something. She didn't figure it out, they told her. But they didn't tell her that from the start, but until now. She thought all the time that it was marked as $20.

And well, yeah, I agree, they may have confused the meanings of Free sample and Gift. Like someone else said, the customs laws for these could be different in China or they just confused the meanings.

But anyway, the doll was sent back as she couldn't afford the fees they were charging her, and of course she wouldn't take a broken and stained doll for $20! So now she's waiting for AoD to get back to her, to see if she'll get a refund or what's going to happen.

ETA:

Hobbysue, we all wish that was the case! They would mark all over her with a Sharpie and then break her. Yeah, break the doll, as completely destroying it, not unassembling it, and rendering it useless beyond repair.

So cruel ;_;

 

But it will also come BROKEN! How will she fix that if she pays the customs? ANd it's PERMANENT Marker. you never saw the head on here that was "painted" with those type markers. It NEVER came off!

 

This was posted in the other thread.

If the value was really marked as $26,957 and they want 350% that's $94,349.50...not $140. They are charging her for a package worth $20. It is my understanding that this was a mistake on the part of the shipping company. They got that part worked out, but the regulations say a 'free sample' cannot be in good working condition, for whatever reason. Most likely to stop people from doing exactly what she tried to do...breaking the import laws.

 

Did she actually ask AOD to mark the doll down? Every doll I've gotten from a company has had it's value marked down and marked as "gift". My Flexi-body was marked at $10 for crying out loud! I live in the US, so I'm not asking these people to mark down anything, they're doing it themselves, so I'm wondering if she was the one that asked or if they did it on their own. (I'll have a better idea in a day or two, my AOD is in NY right now)

So I'm not sure we should be jumping on the opener, I'm just annoyed that these companies are taking it upon themselves to do this. It's one thing if you, as a purchaser, ask them to do something like this, then it's sort of your own bed when you get caught, but what I'm getting sick of is the companies doing this without asking.

 

oh I see! Thanks for the correction ^^

And I'd better stop replying here, I seem to understand nothing lol ^^;;

Best of luck in this anyway, ecchigirl!! I hope both you and AoD can agree to something.

 

She said in her first post in this thread that she asked AOD to mark it as a gift.

I still suspect that to AOD, "gift" and "free sample" mean pretty much the same thing.

 

Sorry, that's what I get for reading a thread over a couple days. That makes me less annoyed at the company though.

Someone with a clue about Mexican customs, what would the taxes have been on it if it had been declared at full value?

 

It's usually 15%.