sandbags

Hi

I saw Crown a few weeks ago and they told me that I could prepay AQIS fees as part of the shipping fee. This seemed like a big plus to me and having skimmed the forums about this, a lot of people recommend prepaying AQIS if you can.

HOWEVER, I spoke to a rep from Doree Bonner last week and was told that it isn't possible to prepay AQIS because custom charges are done based on time and it isn't possible to estimate how much it will cost for the AQIS charges. So, you are likely to be stung with "extra" AQIS fees when your shipment gets to oz even though you've "prepaid" them with Crown.

Has anyone else heard of this?

cheers.

Red_V_Roger

We didn't pre-pay as such, but the price we had from David Turner included all fees, including AQIS. So it is possible...guess they just take an average or estimate.

But be careful with your paperwork. The local agent in Sydney still tried to charge us the AQIS fee too!

iolande

From what we understood there are two lots of AQIS fees -

Inspection fee - usually included in your shipping cost
Fines and charges - for destroying or irradiating stuff so you can bring it into the country.

I'd double check what they mean by AQIS fees.

myrtle1

This happened with us too. We had four companies around and it isn't just crown that says you can prepay the fee! DB were insistent it cannot be paid before arrival in Australia.

Red_V_Roger

Yeah, obviously fines and cleaning charges are not included as that's up to the individual to ensure compliance. However, the AQIS fee for general incoming inspection can be estimated by the shipping company and included in their quote.

Pollyana

When AQIS get the shipment they decide how many and which boxes/items to inspect. From that they decide how many items need to be fumigated or destroyed - the charge is then made per item. So until they actually get the goods no-one can tell you how much it will be.
If a shipper guarantees that they include all AQIS fees I'd be very wary as no-one can predict how much AQIS will charge and the shippers could find themselves very out of pocket.

Red_V_Roger

Or very 'in pocket' if the stuff is clean

Why should the OP be worried about the shippers profit or loss? If they want to compare an inclusive price with a price thats not inclusive then they can.

Pollyana

Exactly - they could also charge a large fee in anticipation of inspection, and then AQIS find nothing they need to charge for - which is why personally I'd be going for the option of paying after the inspection, then I'd be paying actuals instead of an estimation - which is in fact what I did when I emigrated.
Can't quote current figures cos I don't know them but in my day it was $69 per item destruction, £89 per item fumigation.

Comes down to personal choice though, its up to the OP to make the decision now they know hiow AQIS charges work

Tubbs2Oz

We had the choice of paying $375 to destroy kayaks, equipment and wetsuits etc. or $625 to cold treat them. I think they had 10 days cold storage and some gamma treatment or something like that.

The amount you pay depends on the item needing treatment/destruction.

They were very clean and well disinfected, but I guess they needed to be extra sure. All of this was on top of the standard inspection fee.

Red_V_Roger

Yeah, I think my original point is being missed. You can get a quote with the AQIS inspection fee included.

If they find items that need treatment/destruction then this will be in addition to the pre-paid fee.

Tubbs2Oz

I understood your point perfectly. Sorry I didn't bother quoting, but I was actually replying in response to Pollyana saying about the fees a while back as I had fairly recent experience of some costs.