Custom Charges on lost camera being returned

[Sk00p]

We left our camera in Florida in August and tracked it down to the Villa, we've had it over 5 years and took it with us, it was at the time a £150 point and shoot thing. The people that manage the villa have sent it back to us but now it's been clobbered in Customs.

Looking at the tracking it's now waiting at the delivery depot until customs charges are paid.

Letter stating the charges has yet to arrive, anyone had similar? How much are we talking, website suggests about £12 maybe. Already cost nearly 60 to get it sent back, to be honest the pictures were the important bit but the cost of sending back wasn't much different as the senders insisted on a tracked delivery

Seems somewhat unfair to get charged customs fees for something we took with us, is there scope to get them cancelled or will I just have to suck it up..

[CrunkleFloop]

Here's what I think you should do.

Tell them to keep the camera and just send the SD card to you in the post because you want to retrieve all the precious donkey porn photos from it.

Customs will then send the camera to the Police who will find (hopefully) no donkey porn photos on the camera and they will then contact you asking why you were wasting police time. Simply explain you went to a "Donkey Prom" whilst on holiday and that it was simply an autocorrect error, very sorry yadda yadda.

Police can then send you the camera which has now bypassed customs....

What could possibly go wrong?

[Cold]

You'll have to pay it and claim it back using:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-cus...

[Roofless Toothless]

If you can find a receipt that proves you bought it in this country, then surely you can demonstrate that all relevant duties have been paid. Or, once again, am I proving to simple to survive in this world ...

[Sk00p]

Cold said:

You'll have to pay it and claim it back using:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-cus...

Cheers, will look into that then once I finally get hold of it

[Mr Pointy]

£12 sounds like just the handling fee charged by whoever is shipping it in & you won't get around that. VAT would be £30 on a £150 camera which would indicate a total charge of around £42-£46 (although you might be able to get the VAT back).

[227bhp]

Next time you lose it be specific with the sender on how to fill the paperwork in.

[jshell]

Mr Pointy said:

£12 sounds like just the handling fee charged by whoever is shipping it in & you won't get around that. VAT would be £30 on a £150 camera which would indicate a total charge of around £42-£46 (although you might be able to get the VAT back).

Agree. You'll have to pay the handling fee and then reclaim the VAT. I've had to do this, but was fizzing mad at having to pay the handling!!

[bobtail4x4]

think of the £12 as a numptie charge for leaving it.

[Sk00p]

bobtail4x4 said:

think of the £12 as a numptie charge for leaving it.

Thanks for that


No idea what the charges are yet until we get a letter about, once we have it I'll see if it's worth the hassle of making a claim.

[Sk00p]

227bhp said:

Next time you lose it be specific with the sender on how to fill the paperwork in.

Agreed, didn't even occur to me at the time.