Being charged Duty charges (should I not be?)

walkman50

I ordered an item costing just £20 from the USA. Unfortunately, the sender had thrown in a free CD ROM and stated "$1200 free software..." Fed-Ex charged me hundreds of pounds in duty, and although I said I would obviously rather forfeit the item, they threatened court action and bailiffs to collect the money as they claimed to have been forced to pay HMRC automatically on my behalf! Biggest sting of my life! (Apart from fuel duty...)

rogermunns

I've had a similar experience. Just google Fedex or UPS unfair charges and see that these types of try ons are common, even normal.
I bought something while in Oz and elected to have it delivered to me in UK rather than trying to personally bring it back .
When UPS knocked at my door to deliver the didgeridoo they asked for an extra £30. I had checked the duty payable online and could see that they had added incorrect amounts. I paid them by cheque, got the item and an hour later stopped the cheque.
After checking again I sent them £13 or so and a covering letter and I never heard anything again.

Hintza

OP do your own calculation and include the rate of duty you have used and the tarric code (if it is wrong then they will soon correct you) and send them your calculations.

Present your evidence and get them to agree or refute it at least you will be getting a response.

As a matter of interest there was a guy who has just joined on the EBay forum who apparently was offering help in this sort of case (works for one of the couriers) might be worth PM them (was within the last 2 weeks or so.

ex.astris

What you need to remember is that you are not paying duty, you are almost certainly paying VAT, and this applies on all imports (and is also chargeable on shipping costs) above a certain figure.

Shipping bills often make it unclear, but on your transaction you will have to pay VAT regardless. The figure you have to pay is the figure FedEX had to pay HMRC to get your goods through customs, plus the admin fee. If the invoice was wrong, it's up the to the retailer to correct the mistake with FedEx so they can arrange a partial refund. From personal experience, I can tell you FedEx, as well as companies like DHL, will not be any help, as there's very little they can do.

This said, I've ignored the past two VAT bills from DHL that I've had, and I've never heard anything (one was months ago), so you're probably best not paying, and the worst that'll happen is you'll get a reminder if they're that bothered about it!

gohan2091

A little update, this is still not sorted. I received this email from FedEX today:

Thank you for your e-mail regarding the invoice above. This invoice are not
FedEx transport charges, they are HM Customs import Duty and Tax charges on the
goods you received from swansonvitamins.com in the USA.

I have checked the web site the goods were purchased from and it does state that
customs fees are not included in the Swanson shipping charges.

HM Customs levy Import charges on all goods from outside of the European Union
at the applicable rate of Duty and VAT, further information can be gain direct
from HM Customs on 0845 010 9000.

In respect of the shipper putting the incorrect value on the commercial invoice
we can submit an amendment to customs, with a letter of explanation from the
sender with an amended commercial invoice and this would attract a fee of
£30.00.

However on this occasion I have raised a good will credit for 6.80, but please
be aware of the correct procedure with customs amendment for future imports.

I hope this explains this query further and respectfully await your payment of
£37.06.

Regards

and this is my reply:

Hi,

Thanks for your efforts but I do not appreciate you charging me additional fees without my consent first. This is disrespectful as you are making the decisions for me. I would have appreciated it if you emailed me first stating there is a £30 charge to make amendments to an invoice. I appreciate the discounted charge of £6.80, however, this issue is still not cleared up.

I have spoken to HM Revenues and Customs and they said and I quote "Customs Duty will not be charged for goods with a value of less than £120" so I shouldn't had been charged the duty rate because my items were BELOW the value of £120, hence the duty charges should be removed based on the new, corrected value of my order which you now acknowledge. I should only be charged VAT and a possible admin charge from you, not duty.

I will state again what I mean so you can understand if I have not made myself clear. The value of $202 USD stated on the original invoice is incorrect, and the amount of $47 USD should be deducted from this amount. This brings the total of my order to BELOW £120, so I should not be charged a duty fee at all, only VAT and admin charges.

I can provide proof of all this if you would like. I hope we can sort this out and PLEASE, do not charge me more fees without first asking for my permission. I am going through all this trouble to reduce my charge because it's for the wrong amount, I do not want additional charges to be added.

I await your reply and thanks

Another reply from FedEX:

Please remember that FedEx can only submit to HM Customs the paperwork supplied by the sender and we will not be aware that they have made an error. If the error had not been made, then you would not have been charged Duty by HM customs.

It is also the sellers responsibility to make you aware that they do not include the HM customs charges, I understand that you may have paid local sales tax, but this is not UK import tax, which is not raised until the goods enter the UK.

I am happy to raise a further goodwill credit for the duty amount £15.96, however, please be aware that any goods sent from out side the EU will be subject to HM customs charges, based on the information provided at the time of shipping.

Any advice? Should I just ignore this bill?

gohan2091

FedEX have now agreed to reduce my fee from £44 to £21 based on the new information I have given them. Thanks all

zax47

"Please remember that FedEx can only submit to HM Customs the paperwork supplied by the sender and we will not be aware that they have made an error. If the error had not been made, then you would not have been charged Duty by HM customs."

Isn't that what I said in post #18? FedEx can only make their calculations based in the information provided by the sender - if that's wrong then that isn't FedEx's fault or their problem. As they said previously, they can send an amendment form (along with a corrected invoice which your seller would have to supply) to HMRC to request that it be corrected but this procedure itself attracts a £30 fee - which YOU have to pay - so isn't worth it in your case.

At the end of the day, it's your sellers fault for providing the wrong information on the invoice! You should be whingeing at them seeing as it's all their bloody fault anyway!!

Whatever your opinion, FedEx didn't do anything wrong in all this - they have no choice but to use the information provided by the seller, they aren't pyschic. Be grateful you got anything knocked off the fee.

Oh, and where did they say they had charged you extra fees?

"this would attract a fee of £30.00." - you really got the wrong end of that stick didn't you.

"I do not appreciate you charging me additional fees without my consent first. This is disrespectful as you are making the decisions for me. I would have appreciated it if you emailed me first stating there is a £30 charge to make amendments to an invoice." Erm....... isn't that exactly what they were doing?? Maybe you should have read it a bit better before going off on one in your reply as it just made you look silly really, IMO (of course).

From the outset you cast FedEx as the villain in all this, when really it's the people you bought from. Don't you think you owe them an apology, I bet you didn't even say 'thank you' did you?

gohan2091

zax47 wrote: »

"Please remember that FedEx can only submit to HM Customs the paperwork supplied by the sender and we will not be aware that they have made an error. If the error had not been made, then you would not have been charged Duty by HM customs."

Isn't that what I said in post #18? FedEx can only make their calculations based in the information provided by the sender - if that's wrong then that isn't FedEx's fault or their problem. As they said previously, they can send an amendment form (along with a corrected invoice which your seller would have to supply) to HMRC to request that it be corrected but this procedure itself attracts a £30 fee - which YOU have to pay - so isn't worth it in your case.

At the end of the day, it's your sellers fault for providing the wrong information on the invoice! You should be whingeing at them seeing as it's all their bloody fault anyway!!

Whatever your opinion, FedEx didn't do anything wrong in all this - they have no choice but to use the information provided by the seller, they aren't pyschic. Be grateful you got anything knocked off the fee.

Yes, I know FedEX are not to blame, but they issued me the invoice, and it says any problems, to contact them so that is what I did. Here is what FedEX told me a few days ago:

We can not have the Vat amended, this is why I raised a good will credit for £6.80, which is greater than the incorrect amount of VAT.

In respect of the shipper putting the incorrect value on the commercial invoice we can submit an amendment to customs, with a letter of explanation from the sender with an amended commercial invoice and this would attract a fee of £30.00.

However on this occasion I have raised a good will credit for 6.80, but please be aware of the correct procedure with customs amendment for future imports.

I hope this explains this query further and respectfully await your payment of £37.06.

They are ignoring the £30 fee and including it in the £6.80 admin charge. This is the last message to me:

Please make a payment of £21.10 using the invoice, and this will clear the balance.

You can call Customer Service on 08456 07 08 09 who can take a credit card payment.

Regards

I know it is the retailers fault but they said they were under federal law to enclose the ORIGINAL invoice. I do find it odd that FedEX have not asked me to provide any evidence for the adjusted invoice. All I should do now is pay the £21.10 to FedEX and it's all sorted. I have thanked FedEX and am grateful for their help.

house2home

i have received a similar invoice from Fedex a week after i received a gift of a pair of jeans from the USA from my mum (and some medications for my sister). i am annoyed because i did not agree to pay anything when accepting the package, and moreover, it was not a purchase i made. i rang them up and they said that had the sender specified it was a gift, i wouldn't have been charged. but its too late now apparently. 7 pounds for customs, and 10 pounds for fedex admin charges.

i am very tempted to ignore this unfair charge. 17 quid is more than the jeans are worth!! i wasn't even expecting the package. it was a total suprise. i wouldnt mind paying the customs, but i think 17 is extortionate given the value of the goods (and that my mum already spent 80 dollars to send them here!).

if i ignore this letter, what will happen? (note: they completely misspelled my name on the delivery address if that makes any difference)

Hintza

They might come looking for it. Personally I might just leave it until they get serious then write to them telling them what you have told us.

Next time get your mum to post USPS to save this hassle.