Recently I acquired a pair of boxed new-old-stock Yamaha YST-M100 speakers. I dreamed about it back in '90s, but couldn't afford them; now they appeared on UK ebay with 53£ starting price. I asked the seller for shipping and they offered a 80£ shipping (to Moscow). This is very high for a 10kg parcel, but anyways.

However, I couldn't bid since auction properties wouldn't let bidding outside of UK. The seller said they have another pair and that they will modify the next auction accordingly. So, that pair went for just 54£ with two bids only.

Okay, here goes the next pair which I win for 108£ in 9 bids. Ok, this is not very suspicious because I mostly fought one who lost the previous auction. There, I pay 188£ and rub my hands in a greedy anticipation. But wait, then the seller says that no carrier agrees to deliver a parcel to a private person in Russia, and I should provide an address of company I work for or arrange shipping on my own risk.

This is really weird, thought me, because I haven't heard anything alike before. But ok, since I work for no company, I asked a friend to assist with this and provided his company's address.

Long story short, after having surprise sex with DHL and filling lots of customs paper and paying additional 100£ for customs duty, DHL's customs brokerage, parcel storage at DHL's place, and customs taxes, I received the speakers at last. They are really NOS and working, however the left one had its polyethylene wrapping torn and black marks on its white surface in that place.

photo

It was a big surprise for me that I should pay anything after paying Ebay seller, since private persons in Russia do not pay customs duty for goods which value is not exceeding 1000€/month. However, legal entities do pay the duty, which I know... now.

I contacted the seller, however they said that they can't affect customs duties etc.

Any suggestions on what feedback should I leave for the speakers? I am not very happy since they cost me whopping 288£ (equivalent of 460$). Of course, it's me who was dumb to blindly agree on seller's shipping terms and not thinking of it could result in paying customs duty. But the seller insisted on shipping to legal entity address (which DHL representative confirmed to me to being DHL's company politics) without knowing what consequences it could lead to (in fact it could lead to 160£ additional payment, it's the duty itself that was 60£ lower than it could be potentially). And one of the speakers has cosmetic damage to it, as seen on the photo.