£8 handling fees by PracelForce or I don't get my item. WTF?

JCBeastie · 20 Nov 2009 at 13:48

I had this just last week, not only did I have to pay the VAT and their handling fees but they forgot to send it to me on the date I selected. Eventually I had it sent it out on saturday for no further cost, but all in all it took 3 weeks to recieve my item (a baseball cap) via USPS Internatinal Priority and Parcelforce...

Disgraceful, I could have booked flights and picked it up in a day!

Raymond Lin · 20 Nov 2009 at 13:49

I forgot about DHL and Fedex but UPS charges a £20 "surcharge" for this too, I learned this 10 years ago when DVD just came out and I ordered Matrix and Blaire Witch Project (was still not out at the cinema here but released on DVD in the states).

So, this isn't news, it's old, VERY old.

Dave85 · 20 Nov 2009 at 15:05

When ordering car parts they would always add a silly fee on top its just legalised ransom lol

Mr Jones · 20 Nov 2009 at 19:29

AcidHell2 said:
Your refusing to pay the charges that are stated they can probably do what they want. I imagine (although not sure) that they can either keep it as part payment or maybe the law says they can't in which case they could legally send it back to original address and keep your money.

Trouble is, I'm not refusing to pay the VAT, I was expecting VAT since it's above £18 but handling fees are just stupid. Isn't there a way to pay the seller the VAT and have it already added onto the postage?

Biohazard · 20 Nov 2009 at 19:43

Its a remarkable amount of money to charge customers which in turn is almost cost free for them to settle with the relevent authorities.

Sucker up..

PhillyDee · 20 Nov 2009 at 20:10

It is illegal for them to hold your package to ransom. The charge they slap on top is technically illegal. C&E and VAT charges are not.

The Government looked into prosecuting them, but decided that it 'wasn't in the publics interest' (Back-handers most probably).

"andy" · 20 Nov 2009 at 20:42

PhillyDee said:
It is illegal for them to hold your package to ransom. The charge they slap on top is technically illegal. C&E and VAT charges are not.

The Government looked into prosecuting them, but decided that it 'wasn't in the publics interest' (Back-handers most probably).

well the other option is that RM dont post us our stuff from other countrys and customs ends up with a huge mountain of packets and parcels that people need to collect. i dont reckon that happening would help the government much

the fee you pay is essentially paying parcel force/royal mail (or anyone else) to go collect your item from customs for you

2bit · 20 Nov 2009 at 20:47

anticonscience said:
Is the B word allowed?

I'd star it out just in case.

What???

memyselfandi · 20 Nov 2009 at 23:29

neil3k said:
if you get the company to mark the value under $£50 i believe or get it marked as a gift

Normally the cut off is £18 for a normal parcel or £36 if marked as gift. It is a common, incorrect, assumption that marking an item as a gift will stop it getting charged at all.

Packages go get through uncharged sometimes but that will be (a) if the sender has lied about it's value (which then screws you if it goes missing as the value for insurance is wrong) or (b) it's just not had it's value checked.

Biohazard · 20 Nov 2009 at 23:35

PhillyDee said:
It is illegal for them to hold your package to ransom. The charge they slap on top is technically illegal. C&E and VAT charges are not.

The Government looked into prosecuting them, but decided that it 'wasn't in the publics interest' (Back-handers most probably).

Its not ransom, you enter into T&C with them. being sender or recipient.

T&C is they do the declaration and act as an agent if there is custom duty. Custom duty means they need to do a form. They get £ for this, I would charge far less

Rroff · 20 Nov 2009 at 23:40

Sucks but it happens... I ordered some clothing from the states awhile back and by the time I paid all the extra fees this end it cost me almost as much again as I paid originally

Glaucus · 20 Nov 2009 at 23:40

PhillyDee said:
It is illegal for them to hold your package to ransom. The charge they slap on top is technically illegal. C&E and VAT charges are not.

it's part of the contract, totally legal and clearly stated if you ask them or look at their charges. It costs them to do the relevant paper work and settle up with customs.
For big items most couriers charge like 2% of the duty payable as a handling fee.

MikeHunt79 · 20 Nov 2009 at 23:46

I've received over 10 packages from china last week, and none of them incurred any charges, is this because they are of a low value?

Glaucus · 20 Nov 2009 at 23:48

MikeHunt79 said:
I've received over 10 packages from china last week, and none of them incurred any charges, is this because they are of a low value?

yep, as said it's somethign like £18 is the limit. A lot of stuff of ebay is marked as gift and undervalued to avoid customs and it always seems to work.

MikeHunt79 · 21 Nov 2009 at 00:24

AcidHell2 said:
yep, as said it's somethign like £18 is the limit. A lot of stuff of ebay is marked as gift and undervalued to avoid customs and it always seems to work.

I must admit I never really look at the value on the customs declaration when I receive the item, but I will do next time... Most of the stuff has been around £20-£30 including delivery charges, so I guess they are probably under the limit.

I'll have to remember this when ordered high value items however, but is it true that if the country you are ordering from is in the EU then there are no charges regardless of the value or is this a myth?

Glaucus · 21 Nov 2009 at 00:28

MikeHunt79 said:
I'll have to remember this when ordered high value items however, but is it true that if the country you are ordering from is in the EU then there are no charges regardless of the value or is this a myth?

I think for a lot of stuff it is free, but not everything.

Just remember if the item is undervalued and is damaged lost. Then it will only be insured at that undervalued rate. Not a problem with ebay and paypal protection. But is a problem if you are sorting your own courier out or paying by other means.

Not the easiest thing to look at. But here is the tax rates if you can find the items
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/tariffFilter?r.s=a&export=false&r.lc=en

Darkmatters · 21 Nov 2009 at 00:30

The world is full of ba****ds trying to take your money off you!

Glaucus · 21 Nov 2009 at 00:32

Darkmatters said:
The world is full of ba****ds trying to take your money off you!

Or protect the economy. It sucks. But if their wasn't import duty why would you buy anything from England.

MikeHunt79 · 21 Nov 2009 at 00:55

AcidHell2 said:
I think for a lot of stuff it is free, but not everything.

Just remember if the item is undervalued and is damaged lost. Then it will only be insured at that undervalued rate. Not a problem with ebay and paypal protection. But is a problem if you are sorting your own courier out or paying by other means.

Not the easiest thing to look at. But here is the tax rates if you can find the items
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/tariffFilter?r.s=a&export=false&r.lc=en

Excellent info, thanks. I'm thinking about buying a few things from Italy and the Netherlands from a few online shops that aren't available anywhere else, so I'm going to check these things out before ordering...

Lopéz · 21 Nov 2009 at 07:56

I'd love to see people clearing their own stuff through customs on a package-by-package basis, that would be hilarious.

Trust me, paying the charge for a courier to use their deferment account is a very minor inconvenience. We have it pretty easy in this country, try getting something imported to Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, even the USA. Relatively speaking it's a nightmare.