chosen2k wroteI've been to customs at the airport multiple times, there are no books or anything. I've seen it this random pricing happening on my items with my own eyes. These items were purchased form the states with correct invoices & not aliexpress fake invoices. The guy did not look at anything and all the calculations he did were inside his head. He overestimated the price of the item to get higher customs even though there is a clear invoice and any search on the internet would have validated the invoice. When asked about it he said yea this thing would sell for a lot more in Lebanon which is the ultimate unprofessional excuse I've ever heard.
ALSO I've noticed that customs have an attraction to big packages thinking it will get them higher ROI. Ive had small packages worth over 400$ get to me with 0 customs whereas BIG packages in size EXAMPLE: A body for an 1/8 RC car which weighs nothing but comes in a big package get slapped a 50.000 L.L customs fees on a 30$ item. So yes, it is BS.
I was there last Saturday. They were actually very professional.
Opened my package, got the invoice and sent me to an office to know how much to pay.
The lady there opened a book, checked how much I had to pay and told me she'll list all the items as a single category because my package contained items with a higher tax/custom percentage and that way I'll have to pay less.
You're right about the small and big packages.
I never paid on small packages, even on one that was worth around 600$.
But when it's in a cartoon box, I'm paying 99% of the time.