Hi,

I've been trying to call DHL at 1-888-899-0289 all day yesterday and today since this morning.

I have live plants stuck in customs since the first of this month. This is absolutely unacceptable. They just won't give any updates. I have paid the customs clearance fees too. I've been able to easily reach them over the phone before but now it seems like they closed all their phones or maybe they went out of business in Canada? Everything is possible at this point.

I tried calling yesterday a few times between meetings. I've been on hold for 1h40m but I had to drop the call to jump on a meeting.

I tried french and english, to no avail. I know this is a minor thing but the AI hold message voice in french is atrocious. It's full of grammar mistakes and randomly cuts between prompts. This gives you a sense of how this company care about its image.

I really don't know what to do at this point.

Is there another phone number to try and esacalate my issue?

Thanks.

So I placed an order for clothes from Australia to Canada. Around 360$CAD worth with shipping etc.

I just received a text message to pay import fees and I was expecting the usual, 25-50$

They’re asking for 214.30$.

This has to be a mistake?? What should I do?

EDIT: invoice says 98.86 duty, 18.38 clearance fee, 97.06 taxes Goods description: hoodie (Only wrote the hoodie so why is this bill so high?)

The package contains two pairs of pants, one hoodie, one sweatpant and one tshirt totaling 284usd / 382$CAD

UPDATE : company declared the goods are worth 549$!??

That's 60% of the value!! All information I found on Google amounts to 7$ MAX! There is no way I can arrive at this outrageous number.

How can this be? Am I being ripped or did something go wrong?

(PS: I am "allowed" to pay this online but clearly I do not see any details or breakdowns)

Edit: i went through the process and will summarize the steps taken for anyone who has a similar question.

1. Request paperwork from DHL to do self clearance. They have a form on their website where you put in your email and waybill #. I got my form within 24 hours. They will also have a contact email for you to send the confirmation of payment to them.

2. Print out the forms.

3. Take it to your nearest CBSA office and pay in person. There is no online payment option at the time of writing this. The addressee needs to go, if you are getting someone to go on your behalf call the office in advance to ask what additional paperwork you need, such as a copy of the addressee’s ID, copy of invoice, and a letter of authorization.

4. Once paid, CBSA will give you a receipt. Scan and email this receipt to DHL. I just took a photo using a scan app.

5. DHL will arrange delivery. Unlike some of the other posts I’ve seen on here, i did not need to go pick up the package from a DHL warehouse.

Based on my understanding, not all CBSA office does self clearance for personal packages. Call ahead to confirm if you’re unsure.

Maybe this is a silly question, but I'm honestly a little confused.

I (based in the UK) ordered a Christmas gift online for someone in Canada, which the online store sent through DHL. DHL contacted me about paying the customs/duty charge, and while I tried to pay this myself, after some back-and-forth over the payment not going through, it's clear that my UK bank card won't work, so the Canadian receiver is going to have to pay the charge. After some Googling, as the DHL website says that "DHL Express (Canada) will pay the charges on the receiver’s behalf and collect payment from the receiver prior to or on delivery", I decided to have the reciever pay on delivery. However, the package has been listed as "on hold" since December 18. Prior to that, it was listed as "On hold awaiting for payment of shipment related fees".

So for those of you with experience of dealing with DHL, does this mean that DHL has paid the customs/duty charge, and the package is just idling somewhere waiting to be put on a delivery truck? Or is it waiting for the customs/duty to be paid by the gift reciever, even though the website said that the reciever can pay on delivery? Nowhere does it say a "payment of shipment related fees" has been processed/accepted/whatever. Some threads/websites make it seem like the customs/duty has to be paid BY THE RECIEVER before DHL will deliver the package--that DHL doesn't pay the customs/duty on the reciever's behalf--but this contradicts the website. What is the truth.

If I've ever used DHL, it was so long ago that I don't remember going through all this, and I'm a bit stressed as I don't want this Christmas gift to be returned or destroyed. Any advice/clarification would be appreciated. Thank you! :)