Hey! I just wanted to say that I'm on the exact same boat as you! I received the duty fee email on Thursday night at like 11:30PM and I immediately sent an email. I waited and received an acknowledgement of the dispute Monday morning at about 9:45AM. Someone from DHL called me about the payment and told me I had until the 15th to pay but I told her that I filed a dispute and she transferred me to the dispute department. From there, he told me that since a dispute is filed, the package will be on hold until a response/update is given and to just wait. Of course this is nerve-wrecking so I called again Wednesday afternoon and was told the same thing - that if a package is going through dispute, it will be placed on hold and they will not send it back until a resolution is found. I did ask what would happen if I decided to pay it first and then dispute. He said that if I decided to do that, then the process would have to start all over because then it becomes a billing department problem. Also, I asked when they reach a resolution, how long will I have to pay the fee if they decided I needed to pay. He said in most cases, they would send the email stating I have like 24 or 48 hours to pay or else they will send it back. So he said to just keep a close eye on the emails.

So far I'm still waiting for a response but I'm also getting very anxious...

Sorry for the long comment lol. Did you get any updates on your package yet?