sales tax and customs duty on google gift!

rip-off by dhl germany?

[moTi]

few days ago, i received an account for border taxes from dhl germany, the mail delivery service for the google christmas gift.
they want me to pay 19 euro import sales tax and 3 euro customs duty. that is 22 euro for the delivery!

dhl has paid the duties to the chief custums office and now they want the money back from me. i contacted dhl and they said, it was googles fault since they (in this case the "national mailing service", san jose, ca) had not marked the package as "duties paid by sender" and i should contact google on this issue.
i have immediately objected to the payment request in a written form and i will not pay one cent for the receipt of the google gift. i have never made a clearance request, i would never have accepted the package if i had known i was to pay for the delivery and apart from that my neighbour has accepted the good from the dhl-postman.

obviously dhl wants to earn some extra bucks from clueless receivers? or is their claim legitimate?
do all receivers outside u.s. have to pay customs duty for the google gift? if there are some other victims, please speak out! it must be hundreds in germany. have you paid already to dhl?

(excuse my english, but i have no clue about these technical customs terms - i hope you understand the facts)

[Zygoot]

After I received the gift I received some sort of shipping invoice. I didn't know what I was supposed to do with it, I think it asked me to pay a couple of euros. It was like 4 to 7 euros.

Anyway, I haven't paid it.

[OptiRex]

had not marked the package as "duties paid by sender"

I'm in the UK.

Mine definitely had this marked on the package. It was the first thing I checked since I hadn't a clue who it was from since I don't usually receive packages from the USA.

[moTi]

unfortunately i have not kept the plastic wrapping, so i can't remember if it was marked.
but why should the postal service mark some packages as "duty paid" and some not.
i mean, 22 euro is not a fortune, but i won't pay for a gift. i guess that dhl is sending out bills and most receivers pay anyhow. and in this case with hundreds of receivers, this is a nice business for them.
at least i've read in some forums that fake bills from postal delivery services are pretty common. what a mess.