Do I have to pay this charge? PLEASE HELP

poshnosh

I'm not sure if I am posting in the right forum here.....so apologies if its the wrong one

I ordered some health products from the USA about 3 weeks ago. I have been saving up for these for about 6 months now. I waited for my parcel but received nothing.....then this am I received a letter from Parcel Force saying they are holding my items in a depot and I have incurred further charges from HM Revenue & Customs. The charges are:

£20.57 = V.A.T
£13.50 = Parcelforce Clearance Fee
TOTAL = £34.07 :eek:

I was totally outraged.

I was totally not expecting this! My concerns are do I have to pay these charges? I certainly didn't expect parclforce (third parties) to get involved, and i did not ask them to hold my parcel for me.

I would have expected royal mail to hold it for me, as i already paid p&p charges.

Any help on this matter would be appreciated. Thank You

cyberbob

Yes you do any items over £19 imported are liable for tax (there are some exceptions). Parcelforce have processed this so they charge for this service.

So if you want the items you bought you will have to pay this

lincroft1710

This happened to us with similar items from US. Parcels were labelled "Food Supplement" and previous parcels cleared without VAT/Parcelforce charge. If you want parcel you will have to pay up. I cannot remember but I think the senders put a label saying "Value does not exceed $x".

dmg24

lincroft1710 wrote: »

This happened to us with similar items from US. Parcels were labelled "Food Supplement" and previous parcels cleared without VAT/Parcelforce sharge. If you want parcel you will have to pay up. I cannot remember but I think the senders put a label saying "Value does not exceed $x" but can't remember.

It goes without saying that it should only be labelled 'Food supplement' if the package actually contains said items!

wuckfit

poshnosh wrote: »

I'm not sure if I am posting in the right forum here.....so apologies if its the wrong one

I ordered some health products from the USA about 3 weeks ago. I have been saving up for these for about 6 months now. I waited for my parcel but received nothing.....then this am I received a letter from Parcel Force saying they are holding my items in a depot and I have incurred further charges from HM Revenue & Customs. The charges are:

£20.57 = V.A.T
£13.50 = Parcelforce Clearance Fee
TOTAL = £34.07 :eek:

I was totally outraged.

I was totally not expecting this! My concerns are do I have to pay these charges? I certainly didn't expect parclforce (third parties) to get involved, and i did not ask them to hold my parcel for me.

I would have expected royal mail to hold it for me, as i already paid p&p charges.

Any help on this matter would be appreciated. Thank You

This is the part of the reason that goods in the US look cheaper than in the UK, unfortunately. When goods are imported over a certain value, first HMRC level a variable import duty, then add VAT at 17.5% . in practice this means roughly a hike of 25%, as a rule of thumb.
Addtionally, as far as the US is concerned, the UK is a very tiny market compared to the domestic US market. For this reason many manufacturers don't have an export price. they sell to the UK importer for the same price that they'd sell to the US retailers. the UK distributor will want to make his margin on what he imports too. this means that stuff in the UK is almost double the price.
to recap. first the government takes a cut, then there's an extra link in the chain which adds cost on.
Without the UK distributor, all the shops would have to source the goods themselves which is a logistical nightmare.

custardy

poshnosh wrote: »

I'm not sure if I am posting in the right forum here.....so apologies if its the wrong one

I ordered some health products from the USA about 3 weeks ago. I have been saving up for these for about 6 months now. I waited for my parcel but received nothing.....then this am I received a letter from Parcel Force saying they are holding my items in a depot and I have incurred further charges from HM Revenue & Customs. The charges are:

£20.57 = V.A.T
£13.50 = Parcelforce Clearance Fee
TOTAL = £34.07 :eek:

I was totally outraged.

I was totally not expecting this! My concerns are do I have to pay these charges? I certainly didn't expect parclforce (third parties) to get involved, and i did not ask them to hold my parcel for me.

I would have expected royal mail to hold it for me, as i already paid p&p charges.

Any help on this matter would be appreciated. Thank You

postage & customs charges are two seperate things
i dont get wjat you mean by RM 'holding' your item
the sender has used a priority service and thats why if goes via PF

lincroft1710

It goes without saying that it should only be labelled 'Food supplement' if the package actually contains said items!

The items were food supplements.

kalaika

I know this doesn't help the OP for this item, but for future purchases it's a good idea for anyone buying abroad on the internet to have a read of the following to see if they may be liable for import duties or taxes:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/post/internet.htm

soolin

I buy alot from the US and i factor in the costs of tax and duty just in case. Most of the time my stuff arrives without extra charges, but sometimes it doesn't and i have to pay, it is just one of those things. I suppose we tend to assume everyone knows that non EU goods attract a charge?

I'm waiting on two items at the moment, so fingers crossed.