Shipping charges rip off

[deadmau5]

I recently bought a soundcard off ebay, it cost £28.99, with 'free' delivery. I bought it 2 weeks ago, and today got a card through the door saying they can't deliver it until I have paid £26.50 customs charges! How can they charge such an extortionate amount? I'm going to try and get a refund from the seller because if I paid the charges I'd be paying well over the value of the product.

Can anyone tell me how they work out the customs charges, and if there are any ways to get it reduced (I know this is very unlikely)?

[paddyhasneeds]

Depends how it was sent.

It's based on the declared value plus shipping, which has duty and VAT added to it plus a collection fee which is (I think) around a fiver if it's delivered by Royal Mail and perhaps £10-15 if it's Fedex/DHL/some courier.

Not wanting to sound a smartarse but it's hardly the sellers fault if he's shipped it and you were aware it was being sent from overseas, but you weren't aware of the potential charges.

[AndrewW-G]

Give the couriers a call and find out if part of the charges is actually the fee levied by them for paying it for you! they may give you a discount if you make a fuss, not that I've ever done that

[Simpo Two]

deadmau5 said:

I recently bought a soundcard off ebay, it cost £28.99, with 'free' delivery. I bought it 2 weeks ago, and today got a card through the door saying they can't deliver it until I have paid £26.50 customs charges! How can they charge such an extortionate amount? I'm going to try and get a refund from the seller because if I paid the charges I'd be paying well over the value of the product.

Can anyone tell me how they work out the customs charges, and if there are any ways to get it reduced (I know this is very unlikely)?

You ran the risk of importing from outside the EU, and HM Customs & Revenue got you. It's nothing to so with the sender, the costs are levied by the State (VAT and Import Duty) and the courier (Handling Fee). You were just unlucky - but Winky Mcfknut needs every penny he can get.

I suppose that if you refuse to pay, the goods will eventually be sent back and then the seller could refund you - but it's not their fault it happened.

[bodhi808]

I got stung on something coming from Hong Kong one time. I paid the shipping costs, but the post agent in the UK turned out to be parcel farce, who, get this, live in the same building as the UK customs!
So, parcel farce saw that my package which was marked as a gift had a value of £100ish. Anything with a value over £35 is fair game to them and an opportunity to make a killing, so they of course make the very difficult *read £15 worth* walk into the next room to present the package to the customs guys. They also like to point out that the charges cover their efforts to fill out the paper work, unwrap the parcel (customs guys must have no arms) and then re-wrap the parcel and then wear another micron off their soles by walking back with your parcel to thei lair. I should point out that my parcel didn't actually get opened or re-wrapped, but yet I had to pay for it. So, they pay my customs charges which every other carrier have so far managed to circumvent and pass the inflated charges onto me with a huge smile waiting for the big thankyou for their efforts.
Investigating UK law, it transpires that they are not legally allowed to withhold something which is your property by virtue of a lien (a debt). Anyhow, regardless of pointing this out to them and also enquiring about the OTT charges, they insist that they are operating within the law and if you don't want to pay the charges, they are happy to send your parcel back to the sender.
Twunts of the highest order!

Edited by bodhi808 on Thursday 3rd September 19:09

[tubbystu]

paddyhasneeds said:

Depends how it was sent.

It's based on the declared value plus shipping, which has duty and VAT added to it plus a collection fee which is (I think) around a fiver if it's delivered by Royal Mail and perhaps £10-15 if it's Fedex/DHL/some courier.

Not wanting to sound a smartarse but it's hardly the sellers fault if he's shipped it and you were aware it was being sent from overseas, but you weren't aware of the potential charges.

Royal Mail fee is £8 IIRC.

The only route to a reduction would be if you can prove the wrong tariff has been used - which will be almost impossible.

Importing from outside EU is a cash cow for all agencies involved and a real lucky dip if you get caught or not. It is a federal crime in the US to wrongly declare contents or value so many shippers will now no longer use the "gift" ruse.

Some you win, some you lose. Its live and learn, sorry.

[Nickyboy]

I just received a parcel form the US which cost me $105 plus shipping and only had to pay £17 duty on it which included the £8 for Royal Fail. I'd say they filled something in wrong.

The charges are based on the declared value plus shipping charges, the fact you got shipping for free is irrelevent, you still have to pay any charges relating to the value

Edited by Nickyboy on Thursday 3rd September 19:30

[Neil_H]

deadmau5 said:

I recently bought a soundcard off ebay, it cost £28.99, with 'free' delivery. I bought it 2 weeks ago, and today got a card through the door saying they can't deliver it until I have paid £26.50 customs charges! How can they charge such an extortionate amount? I'm going to try and get a refund from the seller because if I paid the charges I'd be paying well over the value of the product.

Can anyone tell me how they work out the customs charges, and if there are any ways to get it reduced (I know this is very unlikely)?

Good luck with that. It's the Government you should be blaming, not the seller.

The cost is VAT and import duty, plus any fees the shipping agent charge (Parcelforce Worldwide are especially bad for this).

[esselte]

Nickyboy said:

I just received a parcel form the US which cost me $105 plus shipping and only had to pay £17 duty on it which included the £8 for Royal Fail. I'd say they filled something in wrong.

The charges are based on the declared value plus shipping charges, the fact you got shipping for free is irrelevent, you still have to pay any charges relating to the value

Edited by Nickyboy on Thursday 3rd September 19:30

I think the amount of duty depends on which category your goods fall into...

[davido140]

esselte said:

Nickyboy said:

I just received a parcel form the US which cost me $105 plus shipping and only had to pay £17 duty on it which included the £8 for Royal Fail. I'd say they filled something in wrong.

The charges are based on the declared value plus shipping charges, the fact you got shipping for free is irrelevent, you still have to pay any charges relating to the value

Edited by Nickyboy on Thursday 3rd September 19:30

I think the amount of duty depends on which category your goods fall into...

or what direction the wind is blowing, the mood of the customs officer and of course, whatever they feel like making up on the day.

[deadmau5]

Yes I was naive thinking there would be no charges, but the charges are almost the cost of the package!
The seller makes no reference to customs charges even though they say they'll ship to anywhere. Technically I can claim I didn't receive the item and get money back through paypal, and the seller will get the item returned to them if I don't pay the charge. If the seller had made it clear that customs charges would have to be paid I wouldn't have bought from him.

[esselte]

deadmau5 said:

Yes I was naive thinking there would be no charges, but the charges are almost the cost of the package!
The seller makes no reference to customs charges even though they say they'll ship to anywhere. Technically I can claim I didn't receive the item and get money back through paypal, and the seller will get the item returned to them if I don't pay the charge. If the seller had made it clear that customs charges would have to be paid I wouldn't have bought from him.

Really you should have checked yourself.....the sender can't be expected to sort out the customs variables for any country he may post to...you'll know for next time...

[paddyhasneeds]

deadmau5 said:

Technically I can claim I didn't receive the item and get money back through paypal, and the seller will get the item returned to them if I don't pay the charge.

Nice to see people still do the decent thing when they're at fault due to not doing their homework.

FFS you purchased an item. It's your responsibility to be aware of any customs fees, not that of the guy selling it to you.

[gadzookz]

deadmau5 said:

Yes I was naive thinking there would be no charges, but the charges are almost the cost of the package!
The seller makes no reference to customs charges even though they say they'll ship to anywhere. Technically I can claim I didn't receive the item and get money back through paypal, and the seller will get the item returned to them if I don't pay the charge. If the seller had made it clear that customs charges would have to be paid I wouldn't have bought from him.

Oh feck off! By your reasoning, if I responded to an internet advert by an Afghan poppy merchant, who sells a perfectly legitimate product in his homeland. I then chose the cheapest P&P Afghan Airmail option, rather than appoint my own courier.

The HMRC open the package and find £1,000,000 street value of finest grade Herion - I should tell them that the Afghan peasant should have known about all the worldwide customs tarrifs and laws for every country in the world? I am utterly blameless of course. The Afghan should have told me its illegal to import Heroin into the EU, and its all his fault. He can serve my 14 year sentence. And I demand my ebay and paypal fees back too.

Edited by gadzookz on Thursday 3rd September 20:32

[gadzookz]

deadmau5 said:

I recently bought a soundcard off ebay, it cost £28.99, with 'free' delivery. I bought it 2 weeks ago, and today got a card through the door saying they can't deliver it until I have paid £26.50 customs charges! How can they charge such an extortionate amount? I'm going to try and get a refund from the seller because if I paid the charges I'd be paying well over the value of the product.

Can anyone tell me how they work out the customs charges, and if there are any ways to get it reduced (I know this is very unlikely)?

Look, you can't blame the seller for this, unless they wrote something ridiculous as its customs value. In my extensive experience of importing goods from Hong Kong I never had to pay duty even on pretty high value items, so long as it went through the regular postal system (EMS in the case of HK).

The only times I ever had to pay extortionate duty fees etc, is when buying goods from the USA via FedEx or UPS -- where they make a packet by "doing the customs admin for you" and charging £20 + VAT for this, and of course getting the duty rates wrong as well.

Also, Parcelfarce stung me for the £8 "handling fee" + duty + VAT once, but the sts kept the goods for over a month before the numskulls could work out what that fee was. Another USA thing. I think its political, everything from HK gets through no problem.

Anyway the low value of your item means you would only get such a ridiculous fee if it was couriered by FedEx or UPS expedited delivery, where the charge is more than the item is worth. Regular post you should pay 0% duty for computer parts, and 15% VAT, last time i checked.

[deadmau5]

I went to pick the item up this morning. The seller had put stated value at $99, so there was £18 VAT and £8 handling charge. If he's selling the item at Buy it now at £28.99, why does he put the value on the postage so high? Do I have any comeback to recoup some of the VAT from the seller or do I just have to take it on the chin?

[Roop]

deadmau5 said:

I went to pick the item up this morning. The seller had put stated value at $99, so there was £18 VAT and £8 handling charge. If he's selling the item at Buy it now at £28.99, why does he put the value on the postage so high? Do I have any comeback to recoup some of the VAT from the seller or do I just have to take it on the chin?

This happened to me. Item I bought on eBay that cost me £14 was accidentally marked as £140 thus I overpaid duty. I proved to HMRC what I paid with my PayPal receipt and they refunded me. Took about a month or so for the money to come through but all it took was a 5 minute phone call and an email copy of my receipts.

[Nickyboy]

deadmau5 said:

I went to pick the item up this morning. The seller had put stated value at $99, so there was £18 VAT and £8 handling charge. If he's selling the item at Buy it now at £28.99, why does he put the value on the postage so high? Do I have any comeback to recoup some of the VAT from the seller or do I just have to take it on the chin?

By the sounds of it he's put the true value and not the actual value that you paid

[deadmau5]

Well I have no idea where he got the 'true' value from. Even on Amazon.com, the RRP is $79.99. I might try Roop's method.

[Viper_Larry]

Was the item from the US or HK? He may have put value at $99HK which is actually very cheap!