Your lies cost me time and money

[bunburya]

And regarding "understating the value is commong practice"... Well, why have a never experienced a problem with an order from china before, then? It usually takes two weeks at most and I can pay customs via bank transfer in advance.

I don't know, maybe more established sellers talk to their Chinese suppliers to ensure that this kind of thing does not happen.  My comment above was based largely on my experience of buying a piece of machinery from China (worth a few thousand euro), where they basically asked me what price I wanted them to include on the customs declaration (and I had to make it very clear that I wanted them to include the *actual* price).  A few of the other comments here seem to support the idea that it is a common practice.

[litfoy]

Sounds bad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zollverein

[Foxchild]

And regarding "understating the value is commong practice"... Well, why have a never experienced a problem with an order from china before, then? It usually takes two weeks at most and I can pay customs via bank transfer in advance.

I don't know, maybe more established sellers talk to their Chinese suppliers to ensure that this kind of thing does not happen.  My comment above was based largely on my experience of buying a piece of machinery from China (worth a few thousand euro), where they basically asked me what price I wanted them to include on the customs declaration (and I had to make it very clear that I wanted them to include the *actual* price).  A few of the other comments here seem to support the idea that it is a common practice.

I know, I know...

Every two weeks I need to blow off some steam. I'm just really excited about the pinephone but this shipping... it's incredibly annoying.

[Kareema]

They need the correct customs declaration by Asendia or they'll have it sent back to Hongkong. 

Who is paying the shipping costs when they send it back?

In my case, customs clearly said that the original sender has to pay the shipping costs (not me). I didn't even had a choice - seems to be "common practice" ;-)

[aaspectre]

While I'm in Europe, my orders from China ALWAYS get stopped and a hefty VAT added, in America this is never the case. Pine64 should probably just declare real value on Europe-bound packages.

[someGermanGuy]

While I'm in Europe, my orders from China ALWAYS get stopped and a hefty VAT added, in America this is never the case. Pine64 should probably just declare real value on Europe-bound packages.

A "hefty" VAT? Its the normal VAT. Its nothing "special" about that VAT. It depends from country to country and is about ~20%.
Then there is the customs duty. That is something very very different from the VAT - which can become very high if the sender declared the package wrong.
And then there is the courier fee. Again, something very different.

[aaspectre]

"hefty" isn't necessarily a differentiating term so much as an adjective and intensifier to express the emotion behind the post