Royal Mail international

lonseddo_2

I ordered a piece of jewelley for my son for christmas from a site in America. I received a card asking me to pick the parcel up from the depot but firstly had to pay £11.83p customs and excise charges. The item i purchased was $42 (approx £29) plus $20 (approx £14) shipping and handling fee's. Last year i purchased a piece of jewellery from the same site and didn't incurr any of these charges I don't understand it. The lady in the depot said maybe i could claim them back but what is my argument. thanks

MABLE

RM only collect the fee requested by customs. You will need to phone customs. Phone RM and they can provide you with their number.

clutterydrawer

Definitely a customs question....if you have the packing from the parcel the number should be on there if I remember correctly, good luck.

peachyprice

You were just lucky to get away with it last time.

Alfie_E

If the value of the item (not including postage) had been £18 or below last year, it would have been exempt from all customs charges. If it was above £18, as peachyprice said, you were ‘lucky’. It’s not uncommon for things to slip through customs. As the importer, you still have a duty to ensure the correct import charges are paid. However, unless you’re a business importer and it’s a big mistake, you’re not going to bother.

£11.83 looks plausible. The VAT on $42 plus Royal Mail’s £8 administration fee would be around that amount. Customs could have included the postage and handling cost of $20 in the VAT calculation, but I suspect they would have had no way to know this amount from what the shop put on the customs declaration.

As others have said, if you have any query over the amount, contact HM Revenue & Customs.

xdaisyx

how much was the item you bought last year?
bear in mind the exchange rate last christmas was very strong so something that cost you $42 last year would've been only £20 approx compared to £29 this year.

You could have just been lucky last year as not every item is requested by customs but to me, the amount you have quoted is correct and if you don't pay it then RM will just return it to sender

custardy

xdaisyx wrote: »

how much was the item you bought last year?
bear in mind the exchange rate last christmas was very strong so something that cost you $42 last year would've been only £20 approx compared to £29 this year.

You could have just been lucky last year as not every item is requested by customs but to me, the amount you have quoted is correct and if you don't pay it then RM will just return it to sender

well technicaly it goes back to customs at mount pleasant
then they return the item after refunding RM

lonseddo_2

Thanks very much for all your help. Obviously the charges i've had to pay are all correct and required and yes the item of jewellery i bought last year was cheaper than the one i've bought this year. I obviously just didn't think about incurring charges as i generally don't purchase from abroad. But thanks to everyone anyway for your prompt helpful replies and i wish you all a very happy Christmas. Thanks again