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I may have allowed the UPS driver to scam me out of 500$
 

I had a package from China shipped to me in Germany via UPS. The UPS website gave the usual notification that duties are due on the package and should be paid either online (PayPal, credit card...etc) or by handing cash to the driver (COD Payment).


I've always paid duties online, but this time I had the 500$ sitting around and decided to pay in cash. The guy rang the bell, I went down to get the package, gave him the 500$ and signed for the delivery.


Today I got a letter from UPS demanding I pay the 500$ and saying they've not received any payment from me.


I googled a bit about this and it seems UPS won't deliver international shipments inside Germany unless duties are paid in advance and the driver is actually not authorized to hand the shipment unless duties are fully paid. However, I read about a similar case where a judge ordered the customer to pay again due to lack of evidence that a payment was really done. I foolishly didn't ask the driver for a receipt of the 500$ thinking by receiving the package it's all "sorted out" :pop2:


Anyway, the invoicing department is closed today and will open again on Monday. I just wanted to share this story with you to see if someone had a similar encounter.

Re: I may have allowed the UPS driver to scam me out of 500$
 

Ouch.

I know someone that sent in a £1000 phone for warranty repair but it vanished and never made it back to the factory. Luckily the company booked UPS themselves and sent the driver to collect it so he was covered. The phone was packaged for transit at the door step when they came to collect so the driver saw the contents of the parcel.

Re: I may have allowed the UPS driver to scam me out of 500$
 

I wouldn't even be in business if there were such ridiculous taxes here. $500 extortion payment just to receive your shipment is asinine.

Re: I may have allowed the UPS driver to scam me out of 500$
 

Always get a receipt OP :( sadly giving cash is virtually "untrackable"

Re: I may have allowed the UPS driver to scam me out of 500$
 

I have to pay 20% import tariff on all shipments coming from outside the EU :pop2:

Re: I may have allowed the UPS driver to scam me out of 500$
 

That's my defense plan. I read that such logic won't serve as evidence in court though :violin:


To be honest, if they deny the payment the only option for me would be to pay it again as hiring a lawyer is not worth it.

Re: I may have allowed the UPS driver to scam me out of 500$
 

They really hammered your country after WW2. With tax rates like that, there's no wonder nothing significant has happened there in recent history. Your post makes it fairly apparent why the last major thing that happened in Germany started with economic reform.

I guess it's something that would be factored into the pricing of all German sellers.. but still, when you're competing against the rest of the world, that's freaking brutal. :shocked:

Re: I may have allowed the UPS driver to scam me out of 500$
 

They would send it to a debt-collector and that will eventually escalate to the court, so yeah :mad:

Re: I may have allowed the UPS driver to scam me out of 500$
 

You wanna hear something crazy about Germany? Public health insurance is mandatory and would cost me 860€ (That's almost 1000$) if my monthly income is above 5000$, there is no workaround for this madness except opting for a private insurance (which is far worse in my opinion), and once you go private it's almost impossible to go public again.


The socialist government of Germany now wants to make retirement insurance mandatory and steal 19% of my yearly income :doh:


Germany is a wonderful country with a lot of opportunity, but Marxism/Socialism/Communism is ruining the country and forcing the high earners out :hail:

Re: I may have allowed the UPS driver to scam me out of 500$
 

Hope you know that some countries dont have checks.