paying additonal postage on an internet order

batvink

Hi,

An item has been ordered from CDwow, with free shipping. The item was valued at about £50. When it arrived (from Hong Kong), an additional £15.75 was requested from the Royal Mail International (£8 handling fee and £7.75 VAT) before the package would be released.

Where do I stand in regard to claiming this back from CD Wow? I do not think either of the 2 options they have given are fair:

1. Be refunded in credit for their store
2. Return the package at my expense.

I feel I should be refunded to my credit card for the additional postage, but can I legally demand this?

Thanks in advance for you help.

neilmcl

How was it ordered? Did you, for example, go onto their Hong Kong site and order from there or was it ordered via the UK site?

kalaika

The charge isn't additional postage. It's import VAT, which is very different.

From HMRC's website:
"Goods imported to the UK from outside the EU are subject to Import VAT, unless they are brought in as part of your duty free allowances"

Have a look at this for more information:
"Buying from abroad on the Internet - what to look out for"

I don't think you can force them to pay it as it's you that has ordered the goods from abroad (although this may depend on whether you knew about it or not and the details of the sales contract that was formed between you). However, at the very least I would have thought that they should have made it clear when you ordered that you could have additional import duties to pay.

On the face of it, I would say that they may have already offered you more than they needed to and your best bet would be to accept the store credit (assuming you want to keep it and don't want to take option 2).