If it doesn't involve nudity and gore, they wouldn't care less, but i think, you're just lucky.

you will receive a letter from PosLaju that says ur item kena tahan...so to appoint them as agent..u need to fill up the form, send/fax to them. they will handle the process for u....but u still need to go to their office to collect ur item. (and pay $)

Aiyah, order games or movies for personal use also need to pay taxes, go McDonalds to buy a burger, also need to pay service and government taxes. Isn't there something free of tax, ar?

I order my car performance stuff from Japan, also wanna tax just because the packaging stated in bold words, Made In Japan ...... gosh ....... the customs so poor meh, wanna korek money from us. Buy a few dvds also need to go through so much trouble, no wonder Speedy Videos charged me around $139.90 last time for a specially ordered region 1 title, Daredevil Director's Cut, I ordered through them as I didn't have other titles I wanna order from the net. I usually order my dvds from DVDEmpire and LasersEdge. Pretty reliable, they under declare for me too. Co-operation mah. Hahaha.

yeah, u can ask/request to ur online retailer to state the minimum value or slightly lower it down...

Just wanna ask, is it right for customs to calculate the taxes including the shipping charges. My shipment was RM600 and DHL was about RM80 but the customs calculate the 30% taxes based on the total amount, RM680, I thought by right, shipping charges are not counted into their calculations, I tried arguing with them but the 'proud' and very unfriendly officer told me if I don't pay up, he'll rampas my shipment. See ...... clearly abusing his power and being rude to me for nothing, I wasn't shouting at him, I asked him nicely. Too much lar .....

The customs department should be privatised for good, too much nonsense there.

actually can tax for the actual value of the item only(not including shipping charges)..but since u said they clearly abusing power (wanna earn $$)....u will have to live with it (i hate to say this, cant beat them join them )

That's the problem with them, for example, shipment A was taxed based on the value of the items, shipment B was taxed based on the value of the items plus shipping costs and when I asked why and even wanted to show the officer the previous customs form that DHL has cleared for me as evidence. You know what was his answer? Itu officer lain, I tak kisah, kalau you tak mau bayar cukai, aku rampas semua barang awak. What the heck ....... this is too much. I just knew his name is Azhar but dunno whether that's his real name or not because that's the person DHL asked me to speak to. I just ordered car performance parts, not that I dun wanna pay the taxes, I got the right to ask him why he included the shipping costs this time. It's not consistent at all and because of this bloke, he affected my profit margin for all the stuff I have imported into Malaysia.

The key is the know the law. They like to bully us because we are not familiar with the law.

We can find all the law books of different acts in bookstores.

The one we need is Custom Duty Act and Sales Tax Act.

If it is in the law book we can throw it back to their face.

They are times where people try to bully me because they think I am ignorant. The moment I throw the act in their face, they will shut up.

I think you dun wanna do that, my partner did that like what you have pointed out and the same customs officer will purpose tear open the packaging, damage it and throw it back inside the box macam like puas hati because my partner made an official complaint to the customs director. In the end, my partner ended up stocks with damaged packaging, so he lost quite an amount of money as customers were not happy with the damaged packaging.

Another story, my friend owns a videogame shop in Penang, he ordered a number of PS2 hardwares and accessories, he jumped in joy when he was told by UPS that the shipment wasn't taxed at all, it cleared directly but to his horror, do you know what happened? 2 original PS2 memory cards were missing from his order and his counterparts in Hong Kong confirmed sending them to him, then exporter lodged a police report there, then UPS investigated based on the complaint received. Apparently, it was almost Hari Raya, probably the stupid officer took those two original PS2 memory cards for his children in return no taxes for the whole shipment. Then a few weeks later, someone from the customs contacted my friend, he probably obtained his info from the UPS airwaybill form. He told him usahlah cari pasal, awak senang, kita pun senang, faham? He was clearly hinting my friend to drop the case. I'm not sure whether he went to report this incident with ACA or not but even if he did, I'm doubtful ACA will act on it as two PS2 memory cards only cost $170 in the market, it's a small amount, they'll probably take it lightly.

So, who's fault? The rakyat's fault for not paying taxes? It's clearly these customs officers are giving us a hard time for their own personal gains. They always say anti-rasuah but check their family's bank account and properties owned, you'll be shocked. Years back, the Penang's customs director was investigated by ACA for corruption but I believe nothing happened after that, there was no news about him later on, probably a cover up to protect the image of the custom's department.

Sorry for the big outburst, just felt angry when we're victims when we import something from overseas, be it original dvds or other stuff that we ordered online. I guess I feel better after sharing this with you all.

Do not let them frighten you. Trust me on this, when you know the law as well as them, you will not be afraid of them. If we keep on letting them bully us, we will only have ourselves to blame for not making a stand. They are not above the law.

Also, today, we don't go to the police first. We go to the media. Malaysiakini, The Sun, the chinese press, we have lots of channel to voice out. The most powerful weapon today is the media.

With enough attention, someone will bound to have to take the fall. Today is not like last time where they can just buried something di, today the public expect actions.

Reading about these corrupted customs officers really makes my blood boil.I also thought that including shipping charges for the calculation is unfair,but the customs insist that it is right.The law should be made available to the public in the internet for free

I agree that they should include it in the net but we can still find the laws in book store. We must learn up and not let them bully us.

Back to the topic at hand, Amazon is having a sale on a few Season 1 titles.

- Stargate SG-1 (thinpak)
- Stargate: Atlantis
- The Outer Limits
- Dead Like Me
- Jeremiah

Price: $15.98 each.

Link -- - Season 1 TV Shows on Sale

That's a pretty good price offered by Amazon and lately, I can see more latest movies sold at all Speedy Videos outlets at a very cheap price even though they're region 3 ones, but the special features are identical to the region 1 titles. That's the good news and of course, not censored.

Yeah, sometimes I wish to do what you have suggested but just worried my future shipments will get stucked because just worried that those at the customs will probably take revenge if I smear their reputation especially if I highlighted this nonsense to the press, NGOs, etc. Imagine that. Of course, inside my heart, I'm not happy and satisfied at all.

What to do with their 3rd world mentality, sunauto

I also dunno lah, just sick and tired of the customs people. Say no to rasuah? Ya, right. Buy original dvds from USA make a big fuss, want to screen this and that when it is clearly stated, for personal use mah and the movies are all cinema movies but their answer, I dun care. Buy pirated ones, they wanna sapu people selling them. What does our government want actually? If they ask us to support originals, then loosen up a little lah, why make us having to go through all the the trouble. If they want us to pay a few dollars for the stupid KPDN Tulen sticker and the lame Finas 'B' cert, just say lah, I'll throw 5 bucks at their face.

You don't pay under-table money so they torture you like that loh...

thats why....i rather go for DHL or other courier services than local Pos Laju..

The under table crap started from the customs people, I don't mind going through proper channels if everything is taxed according to the taxation table from the customs department. The funny thing, everytime I import something from overseas, the amount of duties are always different, some with shipping costs included, some without and some calculated based on the USD1 = RM3.80 rate ..... helloooo????? When is our currency pegged to USD? Bank negara already issued a statement already mah, how on earth they can use USD1 = RM3.80 when the actual rate is around RM3.63. What a rip off.

This post has been edited by sunauto: Nov 23 2006, 07:19 PM