Bill from FedEx?
- Thread starter Craig1981
- Start date
Err, just ignore them. It has happened to me once. Got a card for a parcel in the post from overseas. Went, paid and collected it. Then a couple of weeks later I get this similar invoice for some charges.
Chucked it in the bin, never heard from them again.
You never agreed to them handling anything on your behalf, you have received your parcel. You don't owe them anything.
Not really. Lots of other courier companies insist of the charges paid first before delivery. They ring us up and ask for payment over the phone via card. No payment = no delivery.
It's good that some companies will pay on your behalf and collect later.
Because it was merchandise ordered from their Blizzcon presale. It was only available through the US store.
I take it they dont impose these charges on all parcels? I got something else from the states a little while before the Blizzard stuff and never got any customs charge for that package.
Pot luck sometimes and depends on the courier. If under £18 then there is no charge.
I used to order laods of dvd stuff from the states in the early days before streaming and you used to get them cheaper and sometimes on dvd before they were even at the cinema over here. Sometimes I would get hit for the duty and vat, other times I would get no charge. I always bought assuming I would get charged so it was a bonus when I didn't.
It used to bug me though that quite often the charge the courier made for collecting the fees was way more than the vat and duty combined.
they do apply a handling fee but then i guess you have to think they werent getting paid for the initial delivery (especially say parcelforce who seem to pick up US international mail) so they have to get back fuel and other delivery costs some how?
Which may be irrelevant as the OP (or myself when it happened to me) had not chosen to use them, therefore never agreed to their T&Cs. Accepting a delivery from them does not mean you agree to retrospective charges that are not explicitly described upfront at the time of delivery.
only if it cost more than £18
However the retailer you bought them from will almost certainly have something similar to the following in their T&C
"If you are outside of (country of retailer), additional charges may be required by customs, by using our service you agree to them".
You agree to the T&C of the retailer, who will almost always warn in their T&C that additional fees may be payable if you're importing to a different country.
For example
Blizzard store FAQ said:
Valve store said:
Not a leg to stand on.
It tends to depend on the company, as the couriers with express services tend to delivery then invoice you, whilst ones where people haven't paid for the speedy service will hold the package.
IIRC from memory I've had
UPS - pay at door (used to be cash or cheque, but i think it's now card).
RM/PF card through door which you either ring up a number to pay, or pop down to the delivery office to pay as you pick the package up.
Fed-Ex and DHL - deliver first, bill later.
btqw if you can order the stuff from china instead you will 90% of the time never get any charges and most china based online sellers will put a false value you on the package lol.
some even let you decide at the checkout what value should be printed, takes usually 2-3 weeks to get stuff from china though.
some even let you decide at the checkout what value should be printed, takes usually 2-3 weeks to get stuff from china though.
You absolute .......
If everybody did that, then Fedex would withdraw that service and hold your parcels to ransom like parcelforce does.
Soldato
- Joined
- 4 Apr 2003
- Posts
- 8,105
Or, more likely is that they would just start chasing up and using debt collection agencies. They would probably need a re-working of their whole delivery side operation if they were to withhold packages which would be less cost-effective or efficient than appointing a dca.
I have imported from the states and china / japan and never yet been hit with duty. My time will come
. However, any post from the states has been opened whether it is sent EMS or Recorded. Never had anything opened coming from china even with big and heavy packages. I will only have things shipped EMS.When I used to collect Transformers (Toys), I would often order on Friday and the occasions when I ordered from a UK seller and Hong Kong Seller, the HK seller would have it to me by monday (via EMS) and I would usually be waiting until Wed from the UK shops.
I suspect if enough people refused to pay they'd just hold for personal customers (business customers will likely get enough that being blacklisted by a courier will cause issues).
Remember personal customers don't make up the bulk of international shipping that attracts customs for the couriers, so they'd probably either simply change the delivery method, or require more of the retailers to charge the vat/duty in advance (it can be done, but most foreign retailers don't as it's an added level of complexity).
Or they'd simply "blacklist" people who'd refused to pay when billed later and have the system flag them for prepayment whenever a package entered the system.
Remember personal customers don't make up the bulk of international shipping that attracts customs for the couriers, so they'd probably either simply change the delivery method, or require more of the retailers to charge the vat/duty in advance (it can be done, but most foreign retailers don't as it's an added level of complexity).
Or they'd simply "blacklist" people who'd refused to pay when billed later and have the system flag them for prepayment whenever a package entered the system.
Just goes to show the attitude of some people, take what they can and give nothing back.
If fedex have been kind enough to pay the import duties for you, then you should pay them back, which im sure op will. If every did as some people have in this thread, everyone would be ripping everyone else off.
If fedex have been kind enough to pay the import duties for you, then you should pay them back, which im sure op will. If every did as some people have in this thread, everyone would be ripping everyone else off.
Fedex were a mixed bag for me when i sent a present to a friend in the states, turns out you need a lot of paperwork to send things over there.
Long story cut short, they lost the documents to accompany the gift so had to redo them and email it to the US customs office but that was fine. What i found good was that you could get fedex to charge the sender (me) with the import charges, so my friend didnt have to pay to receive their own present. Was a quick and easy delivery in the end, just the paperwork was a nightmare
Long story cut short, they lost the documents to accompany the gift so had to redo them and email it to the US customs office but that was fine. What i found good was that you could get fedex to charge the sender (me) with the import charges, so my friend didnt have to pay to receive their own present. Was a quick and easy delivery in the end, just the paperwork was a nightmare