| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
|
 Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 7:00 pm Post subject: 75,000 won in charges for a $16 jar of honey from iherb |
 |
|
I thought if you order things that are under 150,000 won then you're fine.
I've ordered a certain kind of American honey I like from iherb before without a problem. This time, they want to charge me 75,000 won roughly for a large jar of honey. Granted, it was 3 lbs, but it is a $16 jar of honey. I am less and less impressed with Korea with such behavior. I make sure I am respecting the customs limit. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
The Cosmic Hum
Joined: 09 May 2003
Location: Sonic Space
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 7:20 pm Post subject: Re: 75,000 won in charges for a $16 jar of honey from iherb |
|
|
| Adventurer wrote: |
I thought if you order things that are under 150,000 won then you're fine.
I've ordered a certain kind of American honey I like from iherb before without a problem. This time, they want to charge me 75,000 won roughly for a large jar of honey. Granted, it was 3 lbs, but it is a $16 jar of honey. I am less and less impressed with Korea with such behavior. I make sure I am respecting the customs limit. |
Why were you charged?
Did you make more than one order in a 24 hour period? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Nester Noodlemon
Joined: 16 Jan 2009
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 7:21 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| gotta keep the incoming honey prices on par with Korean honey prices. some bee farmer in Kwangju is trying to raise a family with the income off of two bee boxes. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 7:32 pm Post subject: Re: 75,000 won in charges for a $16 jar of honey from iherb |
|
|
| The Cosmic Hum wrote: |
| Adventurer wrote: |
I thought if you order things that are under 150,000 won then you're fine.
I've ordered a certain kind of American honey I like from iherb before without a problem. This time, they want to charge me 75,000 won roughly for a large jar of honey. Granted, it was 3 lbs, but it is a $16 jar of honey. I am less and less impressed with Korea with such behavior. I make sure I am respecting the customs limit. |
Why were you charged?
Did you make more than one order in a 24 hour period? |
The total order was roughly $90 including the jar of honey. Thus, it was definitely under the customs limit. And there's nothing on the iherb site that says we cannot buy honey. And as I said previously, I bought the same jar of honey about a year ago without a problem. It seems like they're trying to stop people from importing things. Anyway, the local honey is the worst honey I've ever tasted in my life. At least, the stuff in the stores. They want to charge me the 75 K won for the honey. That's over a 400% tariff. It makes no sense. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Jake_Kim
Joined: 27 Aug 2005
Location: Seoul
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 7:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Something just doesn't sound right. Do you know what exactly you're charged for?
Weight limit for honey still holds at 5kg, which is 11 pounds. Even if it exceeds this limit, the duty on honey should be the greater of 243% or 1864 Won per Kg.
A jar of 3 lbs, $16 honey comes nowhere close.
Dig deeper into whatever bill or invoice you received. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2015 8:05 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Jake_Kim wrote: |
Something just doesn't sound right. Do you know what exactly you're charged for?
Weight limit for honey still holds at 5kg, which is 11 pounds. Even if it exceeds this limit, the duty on honey should be the greater of 243% or 1864 Won per Kg.
A jar of 3 lbs, $16 honey comes nowhere close.
Dig deeper into whatever bill or invoice you received. |
I tried. The guy who works at our university called them, and they said it's because it's honey. I didn't understand the rationale because iherb says nothing about one should not import honey into Korea. I look at the invoice; they are charging me 75,000 won for a jar of honey that they know full-well only costs $16. I printed the invoice and looked at it. I'm speechless. I could even e-mail you a copy of it, if you want. I guess honey's protected in Korea, but I have never heard of that before. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
actionjackson
Joined: 30 Dec 2007
Location: Any place I'm at
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 3:18 am Post subject: |
|
|
| My parents are in the honey business and I can't for the life of me figure out why it's so expensive here. I know their 500g bottle sells for 4 to 6 bucks I believe. When they came to visit me here, I told them they needed to figure out how to sell it here and they could retire in no time. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
The Cosmic Hum
Joined: 09 May 2003
Location: Sonic Space
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 5:45 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Adventurer wrote: |
| Jake_Kim wrote: |
Something just doesn't sound right. Do you know what exactly you're charged for?
Weight limit for honey still holds at 5kg, which is 11 pounds. Even if it exceeds this limit, the duty on honey should be the greater of 243% or 1864 Won per Kg.
A jar of 3 lbs, $16 honey comes nowhere close.
Dig deeper into whatever bill or invoice you received. |
I tried. The guy who works at our university called them, and they said it's because it's honey. I didn't understand the rationale because iherb says nothing about one should not import honey into Korea. I look at the invoice; they are charging me 75,000 won for a jar of honey that they know full-well only costs $16. I printed the invoice and looked at it. I'm speechless. I could even e-mail you a copy of it, if you want. I guess honey's protected in Korea, but I have never heard of that before. |
This is a bit disturbing.
I just ordered honey as well...but no extra charge.
I didn't even know that there was a surcharge on honey over 5kg.
I will have to keep an eye on that from now on.
I order it quite regularly, too.
My last order just arrived two weeks ago.
I hope this isn't something new.
Best of luck getting this figured out.
Let us know when you do. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Who's Your Daddy?
Joined: 30 May 2010
Location: Victoria, Canada.
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 1:38 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Is it that much cheaper than just buying it locally? Seems like too much work. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Captain Corea
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Location: Seoul
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 4:04 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Is there a special tariff on honey here? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 5:18 pm Post subject: Re: 75,000 won in charges for a $16 jar of honey from iherb |
|
|
| Adventurer wrote: |
| It seems like they're trying to stop people from importing things. |
They are trying to stop people from importing things. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 5:51 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Who's Your Daddy? wrote: |
| Is it that much cheaper than just buying it locally? Seems like too much work. |
I would be more than happy to only buy local honey sold in stores if the Korean jars labeled honey actually contained a high quality product. It seems adulterated, mixed with somethings I don't want. At least, the ones sold in stores. I am sure there must be some farmers who make good stuff. I never heard of honey being protected.
It makes no mention of that on the iherb website. I ordered the same brand of American raw honey. It seems like a strange trade practice to charge a 400% tariff for honey. Again, I ordered the same type of honey before without a problem. I second a copy of the invoice to on fellow on this site. He'd be able to back-up what I said after seeing the PDF. I complained to iherb. They said they would contact iherb Korea about it and contact me within 24-48 hours. It has been about 24 hours. I am not expecting that iherb can do much. I just want others warned. In the end, it doesn't seem fair. I may end up paying it because there are other items with the order that I want. I just won't order honey ever again. Gmarket does sell honey. I doubt you would get charged. I don't think Korean customs likes iherb.com. It's not simply about the money. It's about fairness. If you want to charge me a tax, it should be reasonable. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Cave Dweller
Joined: 17 Aug 2014
Location: Seoul
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 6:04 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Maybe the kovernment needs to go after tge bigger honey operations that offers better value and quality. They should be forced to close on odd Sundays.
| Nester Noodlemon wrote: |
| gotta keep the incoming honey prices on par with Korean honey prices. some bee farmer in Kwangju is trying to raise a family with the income off of two bee boxes. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 8:01 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Cave Dweller wrote: |
Maybe the kovernment needs to go after tge bigger honey operations that offers better value and quality. They should be forced to close on odd Sundays.
| Nester Noodlemon wrote: |
| gotta keep the incoming honey prices on par with Korean honey prices. some bee farmer in Kwangju is trying to raise a family with the income off of two bee boxes. |
|
They should have them blue laws for iherb, so people won't be able to order on Sundays. LOL I seriously bought honey like 3 times before without an incident. I'm still puzzled. How's this 400%+ tariff on an American good so acceptable? I guess their rationale is that a 3 pound jar of honey in the stores is very expensive, but so are their vitamins that we get off iherb. It's not our fault they're price gauging the locals.
I paid what they asked, but only because there were several other items and iherb gave me credit before because the items were "lost" for a month.
Last edited by Adventurer on Wed Mar 11, 2015 12:46 am; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Cave Dweller
Joined: 17 Aug 2014
Location: Seoul
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2015 8:55 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Stop being reasonable. That doesn't translate well here.
| Adventurer wrote: |
| Cave Dweller wrote: |
Maybe the kovernment needs to go after tge bigger honey operations that offers better value and quality. They should be forced to close on odd Sundays.
| Nester Noodlemon wrote: |
| gotta keep the incoming honey prices on par with Korean honey prices. some bee farmer in Kwangju is trying to raise a family with the income off of two bee boxes. |
|
They should have them blue laws for iherb, so people won't be able to order on Sundays. LOL I seriously bought honey like 3 times before without an incident. I'm still puzzled. How's this 400%+ tariff on an American good so acceptable? I guess their rationale is that a 3 pound jar of honey in the stores is very expensive, but so are their vitamins that we get off iherb. It's not our fault they're price gauging the locals. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
