Dispute customs charges on second hand goods

RoboCod

RoboCod

RoboCod

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Hi,

I purchased an item from the US on eBay. It cost me £42. New they cost £150. I've since received a card through the door stating I must now pay customs charges of £21 + £8 admin fee! There's some confusing and conflicting advice but AFAIK I have to submit a dispute with border force or RM? I don't even want the item anymore anyway since it is not needed.

Has anyone any joy on disputing and have advice? Would it be easier to log a complaint through Paypal? The charge is half the price of the item! May they have used the rrp new price to calculate it instead?

Cheers
 
I'm not sure why customs want £21 (50%) of a £42 item? Normally customs is charged at the 20% VAT rate which would be around £8. Unfortunately, the +£8 "admin" fee would still apply with that particular courier. Not all couriers levy that fee though. If you went through eBay's Global Shipping Programme (which you should have really done tbh), then it would be just the 20% VAT amount. Just make sure that next time you buy from abroad that it's on eBay's Global Shipping Programme.
 
There will be a handling fee, and then an element of VAT and possibly duty. You can't say it's normally just VAT because many items also carry duty.

EDIT
Just seen the cost of your item, so ignore that!
 
If they don't believe the declared value then then can base it on a price they can find IIRC.
 
It's calculated based on the total cost (including post, packaging and insurance) so they've probably charged the correct amount?

edit: no, i'm wrong. that still doesnt add up
 
This is eBay, you have cast iron buyer protection. If you dont even want it any more then just ignore it, and get your money back as it was never delivered. (Perhaps worth responding to the duty demand stating that the parcel is not of interest and that you will not require delivery?).
 
RoboCod said:
Would it be easier to log a complaint through Paypal?
Click to expand...
Paypal doesn't cover you against being charged import taxes, you're expected to know they exist when you order from abroad. If your not big on morals you could always break it then file a paypal dispute as it's broken.


RoboCod said:
The charge is half the price of the item!
Click to expand...
I would hazard a guess that the £21 is tax on the retail price of ~£150. Either they didn't believe the declared value or the seller put the new value on it.

It would make sense they might be suspicious when the declared value is less than 1/3 the RRP as for all they know you could have got a mate to buy a new item and post it to you as "used" to get it cheaper than in the UK with less tax.
 
Import tax is charged at the value of the items if they think they have been mis-declared. Its done for a good reason otherwise whats the point if anyone can just declare the value of an item as 20p on a £1000 item. If you prove what you paid for it you should be fine and only have to pay the correct rate.
 
fez said:
Import tax is charged at the value of the items if they think they have been mis-declared. Its done for a good reason otherwise whats the point if anyone can just declare the value of an item as 20p on a £1000 item. If you prove what you paid for it you should be fine and only have to pay the correct rate.
Click to expand...

It looks like that's the case. It also looks like I have to pay the charge first and then claim back after.
 
fez said:
Import tax is charged at the value of the items if they think they have been mis-declared. Its done for a good reason otherwise whats the point if anyone can just declare the value of an item as 20p on a £1000 item. If you prove what you paid for it you should be fine and only have to pay the correct rate.
Click to expand...

Of course if thier 1000 item goes missing theyd only get 20p from the insurnace then though :p

So under valuing for customs does raise other risks
 
I think T-shirts from the USA are on the list of goods with the 25% additional charge that came in a couple weeks back, as part of the whole "trade war" ******** that's going on. Not sure if your package came through customs after that started, but maybe?

edit - just seen that I misread, someone else was talking about a t-shirt, so not sure what you've brought in, but there's a bunch of stuff on the list of things with the extra 25%
 
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