Sad to hear you got ripped off. We went from Penang to Belawan, and only had to pay once, to mr. Lim. Everything worked as was planned.

We did pay some ´tea money´ to someone, who supposedly helped us with the customs and other stuff at Belawan (though it all went surprisingly smooth, not sure if we´d needed any extra help, but as you know, those jokers will help you anyway - and expect to be payed!!) but that was only a few euros. I suspect someone in Indo side wanted to get some extra from you.

We met a German biker in Penang, who was coming from Sumatra with his bike, and was generally happy with Cakra Shipping, or at least he didnt mention any rip-offs at Indonesian end.

Edit. I repeat, that I met several bikers in Indonesia, who had very serious trouble to clear their bikes into the country - at all - even though both of them had their papers just fine, including the carnet. One of them, upon hearing about our entry via Belawan, decided to try that route, even though for him it meant shipping his bike from East Java to Singapore, then riding back to Bali through Sumatra&Java, a detour of maybe 5000kms total. And I dont know, if he actually did that, but may give you an idea, how important it is to be aware of the points of entry, that are known to work. Belawan is one of them, while Surabaya harbour and Jakarta airport are not. If the customs say, that you cannot bring your bike into Indonesia, you may very well be looking at shipping it elsewhere, even if you have carnet. Bribing could be possible, but its not guaranteed: this one guy, for example, had lived over 10 years in Bali, and if he couldnt do it, the occasional tourist is even less likely.