[bik1906]

Originally Posted by dreamseller

would appreciate if you could share first hand experience on brick-n-mortar stores that you might have encountered in Singapore or Australia,

I have very limited experience in Singapore and they definitely dont go out of their way for customers. For example I had a friend in Singapore and I wanted the Givi dealer to deliver a tankbag to her to bring it back for me . They point blank refused and said that they only post through Singpost and they were not sure of the delivery timeline. Now if this was India they would have had a delivery boy at my friends hotel by EOD. I guess its just the way business is done there.
Australia was a much more friendly place to shop. The guy at the KTM dealer in Melbourne went out of his way to get me my powerparts seat from the warehouse. And he even went up and got a bubblewrap for me since he knew I was bringing it back to India. As long as you're chilled out and friendly in Oz then they're a decent bunch to do business with.

[REManiac78]

taking cue from you I decided to take the plunge to shop from motoin.de and purchased the Dainese Air Frame Textile Jacket. Item was available less EUR VAT and also got a 15% discount on their MRP. Jacket costed EUR 142.77 + shipment 19.9. Paypal never worked for me as well. So paid by using my credit card. Item arrived exactly 8 days after placing the order. Couldn't be happier. And the best part - no customs duty

Originally Posted by whencut86

Just wanted to share my buying experience. I ordered a Dainese Air Frazer Tex Pelle pant and a Forcefield Action Pro shorts from Motoin.De site. I got a 10 % discount using a coupon in their site and also the tax payable was deducted since it was an International Order. I ended up paying 332 EUR for my order including shipping. Shipping was a bit less compared to RevZilla. Couldn't use PayPal for international order and tried multiple times but the payment page didn't let me use PayPal. Had to use credit card directly and was a bit apprehensive at first but made the payment using it anyway.

Completed the order on Nov 2.
Package was shipped from Germany by MotoIn on Nov 4.
Reached Mumbai Foreign Post Office on Nov 14.
Sent to customs on Nov 14.
Cleared by customs and sent to Chennai Foreign Post Office on Nov 19.
Reached local post office yesterday Nov 20.
Postman called me and informed me and I collected it yesterday.

The best thing was I asked him if I had to pay any customs duty for this and I was pleasantly surprised by his response. Absolutely zero duty to be paid for the package.

18 days from order to delivery is good for an international shipment. Shipping charges were 22.9 EUR which is Rs.1654 approximately which was much less than most international sites. Turned out to be a good experience for me. Will not hesitate to order from MotoIn again.

Good discounts of the gear + 10% discount using a coupon + Less shipping charges + Zero customs on my current order = One very happy customer

[whencut86]

Originally Posted by REManiac78

taking cue from you I decided to take the plunge to shop from motoin.de and purchased the Dainese Air Frame Textile Jacket. Item was available less EUR VAT and also got a 15% discount on their MRP. Jacket costed EUR 142.77 + shipment 19.9. Paypal never worked for me as well. So paid by using my credit card. Item arrived exactly 8 days after placing the order. Couldn't be happier. And the best part - no customs duty

Nice to know your experience. 8 days is like wow! Guess we are lucky to not be levied customs duty. Heard it is randomly levied and ours were the ones to have escaped.

[REManiac78]

Just to share my personal experience while coming back from Europe - I was carrying riding gear worth close to about €450 around October last year. As per rules to claim the vat refund the total invoice value (all items put together) must be greater than €175....which for me was not an issue.

However German airport authorities were super bureaucratic towards stamping my papers (to claim the vat refund) which they didn't.. giving me numerous reasons (for not doing so). They even went to the extent of saying that I can get the stamp from Zurich airport (which you can't by the way since Switzerland is not part of EU). So I finally reached India sulking that I've lost my vat refund amount (I think it was €73 or so).

I then just took a chance by visiting our Indian customs counter and narrated my story to them. I was fortunate enough that they cooperated with me. They inspected my goods, checked the papers and even gave me an acknowledgement. Most importantly not a single penny of bribe asked

I then sent my original papers back to the store from where the goods were purchased (in Germany) and the store owner accepted the same to credit the vat refund to my account. Some stories do have a happy ending

[REManiac78]

This is to confirm my recent experience of importing riding gear from motoin.de. Value of the goods imported by me amounted to EUR 536.97 (with an exchange rate of 78, it totalled to INR 41,884, inclusive of shipment). Items I ordered were:

1. Alpinestars T GP R Air Jacket
2. Dainese 4 stroke long gloves
3. REV'IT Cayenne Pro Gloves
4. Alpinestars Nucleon Chest Protector
5. Alpinestars Nucleon Back Protector
6. Givi WP400 dry bag

Shipment and customs was a nightmare this time - partially due to unavailability of some of the items with motoin guys while ordering (which I was more than OK with) and the rest - thanks to our friends from customs department at the Mumbai Foreign Post Office

Needless to say there is no head or tail of basic understanding of rules at this office (which for Mumbai is located in Ballard Estate). I was slapped a net duty of 40% on the total invoice value!! These dolts even did an error at the first instance when they calculated the entire duty thinking that the consignment is ordered in pounds (GBP) denomination!!! how ridiculous can it get???!!!

Only when I requested for a re-assessment of duty calculation and after a personal visit to the Mumbai Foreign Post Office, Customs department I had to start with basics by showing them difference between GBP and EUR by actually sitting with the Customs Assessing Officer and showing her the images on Google of GBP and Euro can you even believe it?

Their circular has a clear list of items which states the duty that needs to be levied on items received through foreign post. Since I got to see the circular I can share my interpretation of the same - for items imported for personal use the duty to be levied is 14.92%. However, rest assure they will not consider this. For electronic items imported (through foreign post) is the CIF value of the consignment exceeds INR 2000 then the duty calculation is 41.792%. These dolts use this logic for everything that is imported (irrespective of whether its electronic items or anything else). This is obviously done to maximize the revenue of the customs department. I tried to contest this at the customs office, but needless to say my arguments fell into deaf ears. Fortunately these guys update their exchange rates for the corresponding currency every 15 days. Post all arguments with them these guys levied a duty of Rs. 16585, which is roughly 40% on the invoice value.

Doing so completely defeated the purpose of importing these items which I did from Motoin.de, wherein the end user gets the benefit of a good discount, genuine original products and above all import the items from Europe net of VAT benefit. It really can't get better than this - that too at affordable shipping price. In my previous purchase (done through Motoin.de itself) I was lucky enough wherein there was 0 duty (consignment value was EUR 143). The only mental satisfaction which I can derive off is that even at this total price (Rs. 41884 + Rs. 16585 = Rs. 58469) and compare this against the prices for the items available on Revzilla or any US based website, the saving is approx. INR 8000 - thanks to the USD touching almost at the levels of 70 (vs INR currently).

Lesson learnt the hard way - I'll prefer to either bring in my riding gear on my own whenever I travel abroad next or go back to relying on my good friends who can bring my stuff to India without bothering about the duty hassles.

[Red Liner]

Guys, is it painless to get stuff from amazon. Com shipped to india with them deducting and paying customs? Anything i should be wary of?

[bik1906]

You're partially right. I have never had a problem with amazon in terms of delivery. However they will charge you a bomb in terms of shipping and the customs estimation is also high. For example I was looking at a sleeping bag from amazon and then finally decided to go with ebay. The Ebay shipment was delivered without any customs at all while amazon claimed it would be subject to customs.
Additionally amazon does not give you any form of receipt for customs paid (I believe the customs is dealt with by the courier company on their behalf - usually aramex) so you will never know whether the customs was actually paid or not. I have never had a customs refund from them the few times I have shipped with them internationally. So while I dont discount the fact that its an easy process, I would only go with them for items where customs is not involved and the shipping they are quoting is reasonable.

[Dr.Ameya]

Hey guys. Noob here. I wanted to buy an helmet. Planing to go with either motoin or burnoutitaly.com. I do have few questions.
1) motoin has offered to ship out the helmet via DHL. Will this package also come via the customs check here in india? The reason i am asking this is that usually when i buy stuff from any Chinese web sites i choose free shipping like china post or hongkong post. These articles are small and they dont usually attract any custom fees. However i feel like since it is shipped by DHL the customs clearance is taken care by them. Am i right in assuming that?
2) burnoutitaly.com has offered to ship it either via international priority or via EMS. Any body having any experience about EMS shipping. Cause the cost that they have put is almost twice as much as of DHL on motoin for the same product.
3) Has it ever happened that any helmet/bike product was confiscated or sent back ?
4)What could be the estimated duty on a helmet which cost around 15K with shipping ?
Sorry for the long post. Thanks in advance.

[theredliner]

Originally Posted by Dr.Ameya

1) motoin has offered to ship out the helmet via DHL. Will this package also come via the customs check here in india?
2) burnoutitaly.com has offered to ship it either via international priority or via EMS. Any body having any experience about EMS shipping. Cause the cost that they have put is almost twice as much as of DHL on motoin for the same product.

The package will attract duties irrespective of the company it is shipped with.
Most Chinese sellers underrate the price of the item. This is not possible with reputed sites from Europe/USA.

3) Has it ever happened that any helmet/bike product was confiscated or sent back ?

I have ordered a decent amount of gear and has never happened with me.

4)What could be the estimated duty on a helmet which cost around 15K with shipping ?

I'd say 40-50%. Even though there are specific HS codes for many items, the arrogant and ignorant custom babus charge flat 40-50% on all items. I have tried many ways of raising complaints against them including PG Portal, but all have turned out to be useless.

Considering all these, I'd say, set aside 50% and you won't be disappointed once you get the duty notice

PS: Consider Product + Shipping + 50% landing cost and see if buying locally from any of the importers turns out to be much more expensive. If the importer's prices are within 1-2k range of the above cost, buy locally. Exchanging in case of wrong size will be far easier. In case of international purchase, you'll have to pay duty on the replacement item as well

[ashwin1224]

Ive recently ordered a helmet from Motardinn.com. I got a phenomenal deal on an AGV helmet there, while scouring the net for reviews, which were mostly positive, I came to the conclusion that it can be trusted. But while this research was going on, that particular helmet got sold out. However, I quickly found an even better helmet for an even cheaper price and pulled the trigger instantly.

Ive paid 13.7k for the helmet, Im considering the customs duty to come around 4k using the online shipping calculator. I opted for DHL's express delivery and it promised to deliver before 19th April. I wanted to know if express delivery means delivery to my home by 19th? Or will it get stuck in customs even after 19th? Also, how reliable is motardinn?

Ive read some stories about items not getting delivered, but I feel that might be issue with the shipping service on a local level, haven't heard any fake product review.

[Happysmiles]

Originally Posted by Dr.Ameya

Hey guys. Noob here. I wanted to buy an helmet. Planing to go with either motoin or burnoutitaly.com. I do have few questions.

1) motoin has offered to ship out the helmet via DHL. Will this package also come via the customs check here in india?........

I had ordered sena 20 dual pack and dianese knee pads. Motoin.de prices were good, with DHL shipping. After about 8 days, (during demonitization period) my local postman left a note in the post box for me to collect the package from the local post office after paying customs. I got a post office receipt after paying almost 50 % customs( paid in old notes).

Funny thing is that the package though shipped by DHL it was delivered by Indian Post. Anybody had a similar experience?

Costing for the product was almost the same if I had bought locally.

[ashwin1224]

An update regarding my motardinn order for future reference of other members: Its 16th and only after 3 emails was my helmet finally shipped yesterday. However, the tracking link is yet to go live even still. Im sceptical if the helmet will reach here on the promised date of 19th april. Fingers crossed. I hope the duties dont add up to more than the helmets worth locally.

[ashwin1224]

Mods: Please merge it with my above post if necessary.

EDIT 21-04-2017: Received the Helmet. An original AGV K5 You helmet, for a selling price of INR 9k

However, add to that 4k in shipping and a whopping 47% duty, the whole deal came to exactly 20k. Still 20k for an AGV K5 helmet is not a bad deal at all IMO.

The shipment was delayed presumably due to easter weekend, and instead of it arriving on 19th as promised, it came on 21st.

I had been using an Airoh Speed Fire since the past 3 years and the AGV feels much MUCH more premium than the entry level airoh. While not a bad helmet, the airoh lacked many things such as an ISV and pockets for bluetooth intercoms. The K5 has both these and much more.

The best feature about the K5 I feel is the pockets for slotting your glasses. You can leave the glasses in the helmet, fixed in the slot while you are wearing it or taking it off. It is a huge boon for people like me who get cranky without clear vision. The helmet is DOT and ECE rated, and its shell is made up of Carbon composites. The helmet weighs about 1400gms, which is not very light, but still considering the features and safety its got, isnt much of a bother(I only say its not light coz Im coming from 1300gms Airoh). Other helmets like like Bell and HJC weigh over the 1500gms mark AFAIK.

All in all, extremely happy with the purchase. I just hope the govt wouldnt have slapped such a high duty on individual private imports while giving nothing much in return.

Just two pics from the trial run, will post detail pics later if anyone requires.

[joybird]

[quote=REManiac78;4054321]Just to share my personal experience while coming back from Europe - I was carrying riding gear worth close to about €450 around October last year. As per rules to claim the vat refund the total invoice value (all items put together) must be greater than €175....which for me was not an issue.

However German airport authorities were super bureaucratic towards stamping my papers (to claim the vat refund) which they didn't.. giving me numerous reasons (for not doing so). They even went to the extent of saying that I can get the stamp from Zurich airport (which you can't by the way since Switzerland is not part of EU). So I finally reached India sulking that I've lost my vat refund amount (I think it was €73 or so).

Hi REManiac
I shop motorcycle gear often in Hamburg as my company's office is in Hamburg. Whenever Iam bound for home I visit local stores like Louis and checkout the gear.
Last year in summer I took a BMW 1200GS for a weekend trip to the mountains so purchased the BMW Rallye riding jacket, gloves and knee pads.
At the time of purchase the salesman told me to get the invoice stamped at the airport. This was done by customs in Hamburg airport after viewing my boarding pass and passport and once home in India I scanned it and sent it to BMW Motorrad who refunded the VAT. Approx 120 Euros. Took a month for the process.
Coming back to the various online stores, living in Chandigarh and hearing mix feedback about customs duty and delays in getting items I've stayed clear of all this.
Purchased whatever I've wanted myself and got it back in luggage with me. Many Indian stores offer international products some at reasonable costs and others too expensive. Costs aside I sometimes wonder if the gear is authentic and will the warranty hold. Again I think here it will differ from seller to seller

Thanks

[BowMan]

Anyone has an experience of importing a motorcycle seat/saddle knows how much customs is levied on the item?

The DGFT notification Exim code 8714 10 10 says duty free but I doubt. And to import something worth a good 700 USD and then to be stuck with a big import duty bill scares me a bit.

http://dgft.gov.in/Exim/2000/NOT/itc(hs)/ch87.pdf