DHL "disbur*****t fee" *******.

After paying $40 to ship items worth less than $100 from the US my items arrived in Joburg. The customs duty is R270 and DHL add on a "disbur*****t fee" of R150 to pay the duty. I called the call centre to ask what the fee is for and I'm told that it's a standard fee and I either can choose to pay it or they will hand the goods to customs for seizure.

No doubt they will tell you that it's in the terms and conditions of their fine print but a) when I ordered the goods from a large US retailer and selected expedited shipping I was not given the terms and conditions of DHL's fine print (at the very least DHL should insist that retailers are clear with their customers beforehand that the price they charge is not all inclusive and there may be extra shipping charges) and b) no other companies ask for arbitrary additional fees from the customers and hold their goods to ransom and c) for an already premium cost of $40 in shipping should paying the duty on a customers behalf not be included as part of the service? After all, how much does it really cost them since they are there anyway?

I get goods from overseas via different couriers weekly and this is the first time I've experienced such an unfounded rip-off and blatantly arrogant attitude. Additionally as director of a company that ships documents via courier often I've directed staff that they may not use DHL under any circumstances. Their little R150 charge has already cost them a FAR more than that in lost revenue - not that they will care of course but it's important to rather support those companies that value customers.