Shiiping scam after order placed

Hello,

I have ordered 2 Argon kits. I paid all fee and shipping also. Now I am getting the message from DHL that I need to pay more 25Cad. What is it. Is it a scam. Is it legal? I gave my address to particle website to ship the order and it calculated the shipment fee, right.

This is a scam to trick customers to pay more after dispatch? Is it legal? Now DHl is extorting me by holding my delivery. I can’t believe it. Is it your error or trick. Please help me here.

Now why should i pay more? I already paid you whatever Particle asked.

Hi,
Welcome to the community :facepunch:t2:
Did you read section FAQ ?

IMHO it’s normal as custom fees apply, you are absolutely right that is not fair :triumph:
but there’s not a Particle fault neither your. I’ll blame the Government’s and Politicians as they are in charge here !
How the two so close partners Country like US and CA can have a custom fee ??? :thinking:

I partly agree, but feel inclined to add that DHL also overcharges on their “service” to do the paper work and advance the customs fees.
I live in Austria and have had customs and taxes of about USD 20.-- but was charged USD 35.-- ontop of that for DHL’s “service” - and that seems scammy/scummy to me.

2 Likes

Hi and welcome to the community!
I'm sad that your first post is about a customs fee. But worse, it's also DHL that will charge you on top, a processing fee.
It could be that the customs charge is $3, then fed + provincial taxes are $8, then the rest is their fee.
Anyhow, there is no way around it, unless you buy in Canada next time. Sad but countries, borders work like that.

Best of luck, and hoping you get your Argons soon.
Gustavo.

I agree! same here

2 Likes

See, My issue is If your order via Amazon even from the states. They calculate the fee everything including customs etc and charge a person that’s it after that no more charges. So when i already told particle that this will be shipped to Canada then why haven’t they showed me the right amount?

So, if they cannot calculate it even after giving the address, then why even show on there website in cart?

It’s really hard to calculate all custom fees as taxes vary from province to province and Particle provide to you all needed information which I show you in FAQ section above. It’s up to you to read all required information before you decide to click proceed to checkout :wink:
Also is a bad idea to compare Particle store to Amazon, Amazon is huge and has a lot of agreements with shipping companies that’s why IMHO they can some how hide/include custom fees inside shipping price

I did order in Canada. That is the question if Particle does not know how much is the fee, then why say OK pay 26 USD for shipping.

Particle ship via UPS and DHL these are just two partners. Can not they ask DHL or UPS to give them updated list of shipping charges for every city and just store i database etc and calculate after that. Until then they should not even say this much will the shipping cost.

Hi,

(I'm speculating here) I'm pretty sure that if the earnings Particle-Amazon were similar, they would waive you the fee.

But there's hope:

Do it yourself

Sinclair learned there is a way for customers to avoid the courier company's "standard processing fee" — they can refuse to pay DHL and go directly to the local CBSA office to clear the parcel themselves.

source: Calgary mom accuses courier giant DHL of charging 'hidden fees' | CBC News

and it's not Particle per se:

Anyhow, you are not alone, and there is frustration in receiving a bill for something unexpected (IT TOTALLY SUCKS).
I had it in the past, and I expect it to happen in the future...

Cheers,
Gustavo.

1 Like

Thanks for the article. yes, It sucks. My order is of only 70$ and Shipping is 50$ from USA to Canada.

Moreover, as of today, when you place order via when any one places an order on Particle it never says do you agree with terms or any other declaration, which would suggest that Particle is not responsible for shipping charges. It just takes your money and that’s all.

When you contact their support they take forever to reply.

yeah, one way out is to buy local.
National or Local shops would have already paid for customs, hence the prices will be different, but at least no surprises, just plain shipping.

So what are you gonna build with those Argons :question:

We have to build a prototype to project approval. I am sure you know about Project Connected Home over IP, it will be out this year, so in our project want to achieve similar goal to use Google assistance, Alexa and Siri to control our agriculture tools and stuff.

I was thinking about using ESP32, even Argon uses the same. But Particle has its own API and system RTOS on top of ESP32 and its easy and fast to build prototypes with Argon.

1 Like

I did not know about it, it looks pretty interesting - thank you!
Looks like a dream come true for every maker out there wanting to integrate their stuff into other devices/ecosystems.