Fed-Ex admin charge, pay up or do one

[MickC]

caziques said:

FedEx need to up their game - imposing a charge after the event is not very clever.

I wouldn't pay either - threats of "debt collectors" are blackmail.

At the very least make sure FedEx incur a lot of time on this matter. I would write to them saying the debt is denied - and please provide evidence where you were informed about the 12.50 amount - perhaps they have some.

No wonder scams work so well, "it was only a few pounds..."

Do that but don't expect FedEx to deliver anything to you in future. They could also presumably go after the auction site or whoever did have a contract with them to deliver, at which point don't expect the auction site to accept your business again either. Your call, but is it worth it for 12.50?

Yes if the admin fee WAS 100 or 1000 or whatever you might have a point, but for 12.50?

[Griffith4ever]

egor110 said:

It amused me people think they can get something abroad with no fees.

We quite often add customs , carriage , admin fee plus our mark up onto the final customer it's just all costed into the final price you see .

The OP was aware he'd have to pay VAT and duty, but he wasn't told / made aware that Fedex would charge £12.50 on top of the carriage he thought he was paying for their "handling/admin".

I just don't see how that's "amusing" in any way.

Not everyone orders items from overseas frequently. I sell a lot of my product abroad and make sure my website and sales order emails all make it very clear there will be a local courier admin fee on top of what I charge. Clearly the OP's seller didn't, and hence the OP was surprised.

[essayer]

The sender nominated OP to pay the fees, and FedEx are doing that.

[Slowboathome]

ShredderXLE said:

Ive absolutely no issue with paying the tax to HMRC.

I had not been provided with any terms or conditions of the carriage as it was the seller who selected and arranged the courier. It wasnt something I had any say in or involvement in.

What if they had decided to make the admin charge £1000? As the purchaser I had no prior knowledge of their admin fee or any option to say I had accepted their terms and was happy to pay the charges - they delivered the package then invoiced me after. I could have paid HMRC directly myself as an alternative.

None of their emails or correspondance to me had anything with words to the effect of "by accepting delivery of the package you agree to pay our... " etc or even a link to their terms and conditions of delivering the item. And the seller didnt send anything over for my prior agreement.

It just feels a bit off that any company can send soneone a bill for any amount they choose without any prior agreement to accepting the terms of paying it. At least the shyster parking firms have to a small notice board with their terms on it.

Completely agree with this.

[bitchstewie]

Presume if you don't want to pay the fee you can ask Fedex to collect the goods.

[eccles]

Griffith4ever said:

egor110 said:

It amused me people think they can get something abroad with no fees.

We quite often add customs , carriage , admin fee plus our mark up onto the final customer it's just all costed into the final price you see .

The OP was aware he'd have to pay VAT and duty, but he wasn't told / made aware that Fedex would charge £12.50 on top of the carriage he thought he was paying for their "handling/admin".

I just don't see how that's "amusing" in any way.

Not everyone orders items from overseas frequently. I sell a lot of my product abroad and make sure my website and sales order emails all make it very clear there will be a local courier admin fee on top of what I charge. Clearly the OP's seller didn't, and hence the OP was surprised.

I can guarantee if he's buying from Japan (like he's done many times before) the auction site and proxy service will say the same thing, about they are not responsible for import duties or fees. I guarantee that the OP will have paid handling fees before so I really don't see why he kicking up such a fuss over this one.

[egor110]

bhstewie said:

Presume if you don't want to pay the fee you can ask Fedex to collect the goods.

Then you get into the grey area where they pick it up and the original company won't pay to get it back into Japan so then the o/p ends up being billed for the whole lot yet has nothing .

[bitchstewie]

egor110 said:

Then you get into the grey area where they pick it up and the original company won't pay to get it back into Japan so then the o/p ends up being billed for the whole lot yet has nothing .

I know

But if you don't want to pay their fees presumably you're happy not to have the goods delivered either.

[ShredderXLE]

MickC said:

caziques said:

FedEx need to up their game - imposing a charge after the event is not very clever.

I wouldn't pay either - threats of "debt collectors" are blackmail.

At the very least make sure FedEx incur a lot of time on this matter. I would write to them saying the debt is denied - and please provide evidence where you were informed about the 12.50 amount - perhaps they have some.

No wonder scams work so well, "it was only a few pounds..."

Do that but don't expect FedEx to deliver anything to you in future. They could also presumably go after the auction site or whoever did have a contract with them to deliver, at which point don't expect the auction site to accept your business again either. Your call, but is it worth it for 12.50?

Yes if the admin fee WAS 100 or 1000 or whatever you might have a point, but for 12.50?

The sum of £12.50 isnt the real issue and is negligable compared to the value of the goods themselves - its the point about me not having any contract or agreed terms for a fee payment in place personally with Fed-Ex and them being able to threaten me with a debt collection agency. Can any company legally do this for any goods or services when the contract arrangements were made with a third party or are they just chancing their arm is what im interested to find out. It has a bit of a whiff of the dodgy private parking firms about it.

If I had arranged the shipping personally then I would have been provided with their specific terms and conditions before accepting them and paying it myself but nothing was provided in any direct correspondance to me, I paid for the item with an amount for postage and packing and the seller arranged to the rest. I suppose its muddied a bit further as using a proxy bidder you dont ever deal with the seller directly either.

I also totally get as mentioned above that there is a convenience factor in their business model that gets you the item quicker (even if its in a bin) so maybe they assume they are doing you a favour, albeit with a cost associated and I was more than happy with the auction proxy services in its ease of use and convenience so wouldnt want to lose the ability to use that service again in the future.

[egor110]

ShredderXLE said:

The sum of £12.50 isnt the real issue and is negligable compared to the value of the goods themselves - its the point about me not having any contract or agreed terms for a fee payment in place personally with Fed-Ex and them being able to threaten me with a debt collection agency. Can any company legally do this for any goods or services when the contract arrangements were made with a third party or are they just chancing their arm is what im interested to find out. It has a bit of a whiff of the dodgy private parking firms about it.

If I had arranged the shipping personally then I would have been provided with their specific terms and conditions before accepting them and paying it myself but nothing was provided in any direct correspondance to me, I paid for the item with an amount for postage and packing and the seller arranged to the rest. I suppose its muddied a bit further as using a proxy bidder you dont ever deal with the seller directly either.

I also totally get as mentioned above that there is a convenience factor in their business model that gets you the item quicker (even if its in a bin) so maybe they assume they are doing you a favour, albeit with a cost associated and I was more than happy with the auction proxy services in its ease of use and convenience so wouldnt want to lose the ability to use that service again in the future.

So contact Fedex and tell them your not paying so come pick it up ( you won't )

Go back to the original company and tell them as you paid the carriage to them and they took on a 3rd party to actually ship the item they should pay the admin fee.

Fedex are totally doing you a favour by delivering it then claiming the admin fee vs them receiving the item then billing you waiting payment then delivering it , in the old days your stuff would be held in for you to pay any duty before it was even released to the delivery company so the fact the delivery companies pay your fees to get the parcel thru customs and out to you quicker is a massive benefit to the customer.

[ShredderXLE]

eccles said:

I can guarantee if he's buying from Japan (like he's done many times before) the auction site and proxy service will say the same thing, about they are not responsible for import duties or fees. I guarantee that the OP will have paid handling fees before so I really don't see why he kicking up such a fuss over this one.

Have ordered a few bits from Japan over the last couple of years, but this is the first time Ive used a proxy site as a lot of the Japanese auction sites dont generally allow overseas bidders to bid directly. Ive bought lots of items from abroad from Europe and the US though - either via ebay, amazon or direct from the seller and some Ive been given notice and had to pay upfront before delivery, others nothing - this may have been included in the total sale and shipping price or arranged to be paid the seller if that is an option they have? But whether Japan, US and even Europe now shouldnt be any different now right?

[ShredderXLE]

egor110 said:

So contact Fedex and tell them your not paying so come pick it up ( you won't )

Go back to the original company and tell them as you paid the carriage to them and they took on a 3rd party to actually ship the item they should pay the admin fee.

Fedex are totally doing you a favour by delivering it then claiming the admin fee vs them receiving the item then billing you waiting payment then delivering it , in the old days your stuff would be held in for you to pay any duty before it was even released to the delivery company so the fact the delivery companies pay your fees to get the parcel thru customs and out to you quicker is a massive benefit to the customer.

Of course I wont. Why on earth would I tell them to come and pick up the parts? They're parts I wanted.

[Its Just Adz]

fatjon said:

You're absolutely right. £12 today, £20 next month, £120 next year. The reason companies do this is because of the real melts on this thread who just cough up a random fee for a contract they never agreed to.
Tell them to stick it where the sun doesn’t shine. If they sue they will lose.

I'm with you. People saying "it's only £12" must just love giving money away. Probably feel the same way about tv license.
I wouldn't pay it, not a chance.

[bitchstewie]

ShredderXLE said:

Of course I wont. Why on earth would I tell them to come and pick up the parts? They're parts I wanted.

You seem to want the stuff you've paid for without wanting to pay Fedex for the service they've provided.

Seems fair to let Fedex pick up the goods and once it's all been sorted out who pays the admin fee you get the stuff you ordered.

[InitialDave]

Its Just Adz said:

I'm with you. People saying "it's only £12" must just love giving money away. Probably feel the same way about tv license.
I wouldn't pay it, not a chance.

But you'd have to pay the £12ish if it were a different courier, too.
The difference is, you'd have a delay in getting your item, as they wouldn't send it out for the final leg until you paid, or you may even have to go down to the depot yourself to pick it up.

The convenience factor of FedEx delivering the parcel first then sorting the money out afterwards is a definite benefit, and it's not actually costing you any more. In fact, it's costing you less. Hell, even if you're on minimum wage, if they said they'd waive the fee if you collected it, it only needs to be a short distance to the depot before the time and petrol to do so wipes that out.

I do understand there's an irritation factor in that they should have told you, but if you clamp down on that initial reaction and think about it, it's not worth the petulance over it.

[ShredderXLE]

bhstewie said:

You seem to want the stuff you've paid for without wanting to pay Fedex for the service they've provided.

Seems fair to let Fedex pick up the goods and once it's all been sorted out who pays the admin fee you get the stuff you ordered.

Maybe I should have replaced the word Fed-Ex with Joe Bloggs Ltd and the fee as £XXX as it seems to be muddying the answer to the question I was looking for.

[bitchstewie]

I think your opening post sets out the question and the answer you were hoping for.

I just don't think the thread has gone quite the way you wanted it to so now you're trying to claim it was always about the principle.

[ShredderXLE]

bhstewie said:

I think your opening post sets out the question and the answer you were hoping for.

I just don't think the thread has gone quite the way you wanted it to so now you're trying to claim it was always about the principle.

This is the question in my original post, no?

"If they want to me to pay the additional fees should there have been somewhere in this process where I personally and formally agreed to it before they hand over my parcel"

[bitchstewie]

ShredderXLE said:

I went online and promptly paid the VAT part of their invoice but not their admin fee - I have since received a letter from them stating that I have to pay up or its forwarded onto a debt collection agency.

Sorry but it seems pretty clear what your original intention was.

[ShredderXLE]

bhstewie said:

Sorry but it seems pretty clear what your original intention was.

Absolutely, and that is what the context of my question is and why I asked it.