asos and vat refund

tatiana25

I'm from Russia. I bought some items from asos.com. In their 'terms and conditions' is said Terms of Sale -> Pricing and Availability -> All prices are inclusive of VAT. But when I ask them to refund my vat they say 'I can confirm that technically International customers have not been paying VAT as our prices 'do not include VAT or sales taxes outside of the EU'.
The process (vat refund for international customers)previously has been operated in goodwill and unfortunately you have been caught up in the implemented changes, expecting the refund.I can appreciate this is not the response you were hoping for, but as advised, with immediate effect from 00:00 on 16/08/2010, our VAT refund policy has been amended and you will no longer be able to receive a refund regardless of when the order was made'
But international customers pay the same price per item as UK customers.
If their explanation about goodwill and everything else is right that means either of the following thnigs:
1. asos GB or EU customer are paying extra 17% VAT so item bought by international customer will cost for him/her less that leads to "straight message to audience" GB AND EU CUSTOMERS ARE PAYING MORE
or
2. asos GB or EU customer are paying the same amount but it is VAT inclusive that leads to "straight message to audience" GB AND EU CUSTOMERS ARE PAYING LESS
THIS TRADER LIES TO ITS CUSTOMERS!!!
and international shoppers don't know what to do with this situation.

DVardysShadow

tatiana25 wrote: »

2. asos GB or EU customer are paying the same amount but it is VAT inclusive that leads to "straight message to audience" GB AND EU CUSTOMERS ARE PAYING LESS
THIS TRADER LIES TO ITS CUSTOMERS!!!
and international shoppers don't know what to do with this situation.

Ehh? You are paying a VAT inclusive price, the same as EU consumers do. It is nonsense to say that EU customers are paying less.

wealdroam

tatiana25 wrote: »

...international shoppers don't know what to do with this situation.

That does appear to be true.

JasonLVC

Technically, a sale from the UK to an individual outside of the EU (ie, like Russia) is outside the scope of UK VAT, that means it is VAT free.

Technically, the seller should not charge the customer VAT if the customer is outside the EU and most websites are sophisticated enough to do this by looking at where the item is being posted to and also via the credit card used, which will pin down where the card holder lives.

If ASOS are not refunding non-EU customers, then all this means is that an item costing £100.00 on the website is :-

For UK/EU customers = £100 x 7 / 47 = £14.89 VAT so ASOS get to keep £85.11 and pay £14.89 over to UK taxman.

For non-EU customers = £100.00 so ASOS get to keep £100 and pay nothing over the the UK taxman.

In reality, if the customer wants a specific product and it is still cheaper than buying in your own country, then it is still a bargain/good deal.