Parcelforce 'Clearance fee'

Received a ransom note from Parcelfarce a couple of days ago £23.74 VAT and £13.50 rip off clearance fee for unsolicited services, sent from the Depot Manager of North West London Depot (Yvonne Cookhorn)

I called the depot using the number on the saynoto0870 website to ask why Parcelfarce were breaking the law by intentionally delaying my mail and was asked to call the Managing Directors team on a rip off 0870 number. Parcelfarce numpty refused to give out a regular phone number as getting customers to use 0870 numbers is all part of the plan to rip us off. Anyhow the number to call is 01908 687000. The numpty at Parcelfarce HQ believes the the Postal Services Act 2000 does not apply to Royal Mail and Parcelfarce et al, therefore they are not breaking the law. He also stated that the parcel is not my property until the ransom charges are paid. He did say however that they would deliver my package and then invoice me for the fees as per DHL etc, I don't expect that will happen though.

I then contacted Postwatch and got this reply:

Dear Mr XXXX

Thank you for your e-mail of XX April 2008.

Postal items arriving into the UK from outside the European Union worth over
£18 (£36 if a gift), or required for anti smuggling must be presented to
customs and may be subject to Value Added Tax (VAT) and import duty. This
charge is paid to HM Customs and Excise by the delivery company in the UK
on behalf of customers and operators reclaim this from the recipient when
they collect the item.

Where import duty or VAT is payable, the recipient is also subject to a
customs clearance fee imposed by individual postal operators. According to
Royal Mail, this fee covers the cost of collecting; administering; handling; and
processing the duties due, and may go towards lost revenue. Postal
Operators should only request a customs clearance fee when HM Custom
and Excise officials stop an item.

Royal Mail Group's (RMG - including Parcelforce) clearance fees are set at a
fixed level (regardless of the goods' value or duties raised). For Parcelforce,
the fee is £8 (non-guaranteed items) and £13.50 (express services). Royal
Mail's fee is set at £8.

There is no dispute regarding the operator's ability to retain a parcel until the
customs fee is paid, however, there appears to be a case for saying that a
postal operator may be acting illegally if it retains an item in order
to claim its clearance fee.

The relevant provisions of the Postal Services Act (section 103-105) are the
responsibility of BERR (the Department for Business Enterprise and
Regulatory Reform) and neither Postwatch nor Postcomm (the Regulator) has
any enforcement powers. BERR state that the issue is one for the courts to
decide. Postwatch therefore advice that, under such circumstances,
customers seek legal advice.

Royal Mail claims that it makes a loss of about £1.5m per annum on items
that it fails to collect custom charges on. To prevent further losses, it has
recently secured the necessary investment to be able to track imports from
port of entry to Office of Exchange, and items with customs charges from
Office of Exchange to delivery and is hopeful that this will reduce revenue
loss.

Postwatch anticipates that once a robust audit trail is in place, and there is
evidence that the percentage of items that skip through customs charges has
reduced, we would be able to put forward a case for Royal Mail to reduce its
clearance fee.

Postwatch observes that the main concern customers have is not being aware
of possible additional charges at the time of purchase. We feel that customers
should be confident when placing orders that the price they have been quoted
is the price they will pay and that there are no hidden charges. We urge postal
operators to work with online retailers and other posting customers to make all
likely charges clear before purchases are made.

Many online retailers now include information on customs clearance fees on
their websites. Postwatch urges that customers always read these details
carefully before placing orders to prevent unexpected charges.

Information on customs clearance charges is available on RMG's website;
more information can also be obtained at

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.p
ortal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageVAT_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_0000
14&propertyType=document

Postwatch is an independent organisation set up under the Postal Services
Act 2000, to represent the interests of users of postal services. We do this by
taking up individual complaints when the consumer has already raised the
case with the Licensed Postal Operator and is dissatisfied with the result.

If you wish to contact Postwatch in future by mail, any correspondence should
be address to FREEPOST POSTWATCH (no stamps or additional address
details are required on the front of the envelope). Please make sure you
include a return address on the back of your envelope.

Yours sincerely

Parcelfarce will continue to fleece its' customers until there is a test case in the courts like the illegal bank charges case. There is a class action taking place against UPS in the States

http://www.poynerbaxter.com/UPS/Statement%20of%20Claim.pdf

Surprised Martin is not on the case here as he detests all things rip off.

I have no problem with paying the duty+VAT but am against these ransom demands and blatant profiteering. Not so long ago ParcelFarce would bring the parcel to your door and I would write a cheque and give it to the driver. These days Parcelfarce can't trust its' drivers with money and so customers have to suffer delays because the company is so inept.

So what will happen to my consignment? If I have to go and pick it up on Saturday, Parcelfarce will be billed at the same rate they charge for the same service ie £12, and if they fail to hand over my package without paying the ransom fee, I will simply cancel the cheque and pay the VAT after deducting my fees.

ericakramer wrote: »

Last week Royal Mail left a card requesting a £12.02 customs charge on a delivery. I wasn’t too surprised, as I had ordered an expensive item from the US that exceeded the £18 allowance. On arriving at the sorting office with the correct money to collect my package I found that it was not the item I was expecting but another one that had been delayed for 2 weeks as a result of being held up in Customs/Royal Mail with a significantly lower value - £22.99. I questioned this with the Royal Mail employee & she just stated that it was customs charge. I asked to look at the breakdown of charges realising that VAT on £22.99 would be approx £4. Then I discovered the £8 ‘Royal Mail international handling fee’. I announced that I was happy to pay the VAT element but refused to pay Royal Mail their fee. I decided to take the admin fee matter up with Royal Mail and to decline the package on principle.

Surely this £8 charge cannot be fair or justified by Royal Mail? Is there any way that a proportion can be reclaimed? I have since checked the Royal mail site & it mentions the £8 flat fee for items incurring customs charges however this does not make it fair or just. I have no objection to paying the VAT charge but £8 is extortionate for an admin fee & Royal Mail are holding the vast majority of internet shoppers to ransom to line their own pockets. Is there any ay of dealing with Custms & Excise directly to avoid paying this hefty admin fee?

nope,rm is presently in the process of looking at customs fee's with postcomm to see what the true costs/losses involved are
a new tracking system has been implemented to allow them to monitor the packages and costs involved

Hello Benny Hill, true to form ParcelFarce failed to send me an invoice for my parcel so I collected it myself from Park Royal, paid the duty and VAT and told them to bill me for the £13.50 ransom charge, which they so far have not done and that was a month ago. Glad you found it hilarious but charging £13.50 to pay £23 tax is no laughing matter, I've paid £100's to Parcelfarce drivers over the years but am no longer prepared to pay them to intentionally delay my mail with their ridiculous 'you can't receive your package until you pay our rip off charges' policy.

you really need to speak to customs,as they decide the item has duty due
its doesnt,but you need to prove this to customs

I just searched for posts on this issue having been charged £8 by RM to collect £2.14 in VAT. I bought a secondhand vintage ceramic item for c.£44 from Canada which, unusually, had the correct VAT rate of 5% applied. Had the item been liable to 17.5% VAT the collection figure would have been about the same level as the tax, however, in these circumstances it was 4x the tax!

It seems really unfair to be charged such a large collection fee, when there doesn't appear to be an alternative.