Customs/Postal Charges

NeilF · 23 Mar 2012 at 13:35

I quite often get small value items sent from the US.

Today (for the first time ever) I had to pay a customs charge. It was £11.06 on an item worth $24!? (Approx £15.16) :eek:

Does this his anyone else think this is rather excessive!? That's over 70% of the value of the item?

arknor · 23 Mar 2012 at 13:36

was 11 the customs charge? i suspect £8 of it was the handling fee? which is nothing to do with customs

NeilF · 23 Mar 2012 at 13:43

arknor said:
was 11 the customs charge? i suspect £8 of it was the handling fee? which is nothing to do with customs

£8 handling fee
£3.06 VAT

Just can't fathom how this makes sense?

~Divine~Wind~ · 23 Mar 2012 at 14:00

Very Excessive

Got stung recently too on my modmic.
Cost was like $34 which I think puts it at just shy of £20
£8 "handling" fee and £4.20 something for VAT

The VAT I dont have a problem with but almost 50% of the item value purely for them handling a parcel... wouldn't they have handled it anyway as you know... its their job to deliver it?

anything I don't mind · 23 Mar 2012 at 14:02

I told you that they just make it up as they go along, i ordered some tshirts from the states a while back and they wanted £20. What for i asked. They said custom charges, i said i never requested that my goods be inspected and I had already paid for delivery. They said you don't have a choice. I asked for my item to see if they would give it too me as i was going to do a runner. But they refused to give me the item to inspect it until i gave them money.

Glaucus · 23 Mar 2012 at 14:02

NeilFawcett said:
£8 handling fee
£3.06 VAT

Just can't fathom how this makes sense?

You pay a massive charge for the courier to sort the charges put for you. Still easier and better than doing it yourself. Think how much you've got away with, just have to accept if it gets caught you'll have to pay a £8-15 handling fee.

NeilF · 23 Mar 2012 at 14:24

From what I can see, if an item is worth more than £15, then they charge you VAT and an £8 handling fee.

My item, is worth about £15.16, so that 16 pence means £11.06 of charges!?

Glaucus · 23 Mar 2012 at 14:32

Vat at 20% is your £3

And then handling fee for royal mail to do the paper work for you. If you did it yourself you could save that fee, but it's a load of hassle and of course it means you'll never get away with not paying it.

NeilF · 23 Mar 2012 at 14:37

Glaucus said:
Vat at 20% is your £3

And then handling fee for royal mail to do the paper work for you. If you did it yourself you could save that fee, but it's a load of hassle and of course it means you'll never get away with not paying it.

All because of about 16p...

If they'd just written $23.50 instead of $24 on the box, sorted!

arknor · 23 Mar 2012 at 14:44

Glaucus said:
Vat at 20% is your £3

And then handling fee for royal mail to do the paper work for you. If you did it yourself you could save that fee, but it's a load of hassle and of course it means you'll never get away with not paying it.

what happens if you wanted to do it yourself? will the courier give it back to customs?

its ridiuclous that you are forced to pay for a service you might not have wanted

NeilF · 23 Mar 2012 at 14:48

arknor said:
what happens if you wanted to do it yourself? will the courier give it back to customs?

its ridiuclous that you are forced to pay for a service you might not have wanted

And an £8 charge so they can collect £3.06 of VAT, because it's 16p too valuable.

arknor · 23 Mar 2012 at 14:56

i'd love to know what the actual process involves as i doubt its a lot, you could probably do it from home with a fax machine

Glaucus · 23 Mar 2012 at 14:59

NeilFawcett said:
And an £8 charge so they can collect £3.06 of VAT, because it's 16p too valuable.

Your still thinking in the wrong way. The £8 has nothing to do with HMRC collecting the money.

It's the fee the couirer charges you, for services rendered. Which is in the contract you agree to.
Your being charged b the courier for the courier to pay customs and then obtain the money off you.

arknor said:
what happens if you wanted to do it yourself? will the courier give it back to customs?

its ridiuclous that you are forced to pay for a service you might not have wanted

You can't, not in that way. You would have to pre pay it. Which means using a third party or setting up a company.

You aren't forced for a service you don't want.

madteamkiller · 23 Mar 2012 at 14:59

Did they warn you about the charge before they charged you?

Seems a bit unfair if they didn't.

NeilF · 23 Mar 2012 at 15:03

Glaucus said:
Your still thinking in the wrong way. The £8 has nothing to do with HMRC collecting the money.

It's the fee the couirer charges you, for services rendered. Which is in the contract you agree to.
Your being charged b the courier for the courier to pay customs and then obtain the money off you.

Don't follow? If the item had been worth $23.50 instead of $24, then it would have fallen below the £15 threshold, so it would have arrived to me at no additional cost...

As it instead broke the £15 limit, that extra 16 pence in value means I was charged an £8 handling fee by Royal Mail, and £3.06 goes to Queen and Country.

arknor · 23 Mar 2012 at 15:04

Glaucus said:
You can't, not in that way. You would have to pre pay it. Which means using a third party or setting up a company.

You aren't forced for a service you don't want.

why cant an individual do it? rainforest let you prepay if you order from one of there overseas websites which is nice

Don't follow? If the item had been worth $23.50 instead of $24, then it would have fallen below the £15 threshold, so it would have arrived to me at no additional cost...

As it instead broke the £15 limit, that extra 16 pence in value means I was charged an £8 handling fee by Royal Mail, and £3.06 goes to Queen and Country.

its item value+shipping costs

not just the item value

Glaucus · 23 Mar 2012 at 15:04

NeilFawcett said:
As it instead broke the £15 limit, that extra 16 pence in value means I was charged an £8 handling fee by Royal Mail, and £3.06 goes to Queen and Country.

and the issue?
Charges are common knowledge, now think how much money you have saved. All the times you should have been paying duty and haven't, as 99% of time packages go through without being checked.

arknor said:
why cant an individual do it? rainforest let you prepay if you order from one of there overseas websites which is nice

I don't know the ins and outs and I believe it's becuase you need to be registered with hMRC, doing it through amazon is doing it through a third party.

And why would you want to pay it anyway, 99^=% of the time you don't get stung, so it's cheaper paying the £8 once in a blue moon, rather than paying duty on every shipment.

NeilF · 23 Mar 2012 at 15:05

madteamkiller said:
Did they warn you about the charge before they charged you?

Seems a bit unfair if they didn't.

Yes. You pay the additional change and get it. If you don't pay then I assume it's returned to sender - But God knows who covers that cost and you could be out of pocket and still not have the item?

NeilF · 23 Mar 2012 at 15:08

Glaucus said:
and the issue?
Charges are common knowledge, now think how much money you have saved. All the times you should have been paying duty and haven't, as 99% of time packages go through without being checked.

I wasn't aware:-
a) It was applicable to items as cheap as £15.
b) I didn't realise an extra 1 pence in value (eg: £15.01) would mean a charge of well over 70% the value of the item!??! :confused:

Bonkers!

arknor · 23 Mar 2012 at 15:09

Glaucus said:
and the issue?
I don't know the ins and outs and I believe it's becuase you need to be registered with hMRC, doing it through amazon is doing it through a third party.

And why would you want to pay it anyway, 99^=% of the time you don't get stung, so it's cheaper paying the £8 once in a blue moon, rather than paying duty on every shipment.

why not prepay? if itas a small item like a tshirt
for the op it would have been £3.16
not 3.16 + 8

Customs/Postal Charges

Can't type for toffee