Unfair customs charge by royal mail Advice needed

usignuolo

I think you are right when you say it is VAT - the items come to £51.90 plus there is £16.45 shipping charge - ironically I paid extra to have it shipped express (it is only a couple of plastic bottles) but the Royal Mail/and or Customs have been sitting on it for the last 6 weeks. it cannot be duty as it is not discounted and does not even approach the £120 threshold so it would seem it is the VAT. The Royal Mail card just says it is a customs charge with a tick.

I assume it is because it has come in a box with a label on saying it is a health product. Probably stopped to see if it was drugs.I only bought the herbal products from the uSA because they are not available in the UK.

Last week I bought some software online and downloaded it, from the USA and I also ordered a copy of the source on a CD disk at the same time. The disk was sent by post at .98 cents in a cardboard folder and arrived, clearly marked CD software, 4 days later. Without being stopped. It was worth well over the £120 threshold so I suppose it is swings and roundabouts.

ormus

generally, i reckon youve got a 1% chance of paying any duties/taxes.
ive imported loads of stuff over the yrs, and only been stopped/caught once.

usignuolo

BTW I have just realised that of course I paid in dollars so the actual cost was 51.90 us dollars and 16.45 us dollars postage making a total of 68.35 us dollars in total. This comes to around 42 pounds. So VAT should only be around £6.30 - the rest must be a handling charge by Royal Mail? Or has it been wrongly calculated as the value in pounds not dollars?

custardy

usignuolo wrote: »

BTW I have just realised that of course I paid in dollars so the actual cost was 51.90 us dollars and 16.45 us dollars postage making a total of 68.35 us dollars in total. This comes to around 42 pounds. So VAT should only be around £6.30 - the rest must be a handling charge by Royal Mail? Or has it been wrongly calculated as the value in pounds not dollars?

ormus wrote: »

theres the customs duty to pay. then the vat, if applicable.

and the standard PO charge of 9 quid.
(admin fee).

£8
so you can work out from there

ormus

aye 8 quid then.

thought it was 9 quid, from memory

soolin

I paid more than £9 handling charge on my last parcel delivered by RM. I'm sure I paid over £10 which was annoying as the other charges were only about £3, and the item was only £30 in total.

custardy

soolin wrote: »

I paid more than £9 handling charge on my last parcel delivered by RM. I'm sure I paid over £10 which was annoying as the other charges were only about £3, and the item was only £30 in total.

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?catId=400044&mediaId=400362

tis £8,only PF charge more for priority items
sure it wasnt fee+customs+VAT?

keystone

If the value was in $ not £ and the VAT is therefore approx £6.30 and the RM standard handling fee is £ 8.00 that makes £ 14.30 so you've STILL proffed somewhere to the tune of £ 2.00! :T

Just pay the £ 12.29 methinks.;)

Cheers

dzug1

Exchange rate discrepancies could make a small difference as well

mazza111

and as stated in other posts, that £8 gives a fully trackable package. So not much more than you would pay for special delivery.