Advice on Fedex duty charges

Vikitor

Hello all. At the moment I am having an issue with Fedex trying to charge me £15.51 (£5.51 duty, £10 admin fee) on a package that was sent to me back in November.

The problem I have with this is two fold. Firstly the package was unsolicited mail - it was a 'thank you' gift from a company I have done some work with online (paid blogging campaigns). It's not an item I asked for, ordered or was even aware was coming. Had I been asked or told at any stage there would be a charge if I accepted it I would not have done so, I'd have told them to keep it!

The second problem is that I only just found out they were chasing me for this money last week. The package was sent to my old address (my parents house) as I moved away in August last year. I got the actual package when I visited them in early December but didn't get the three letters demanding payment until they visited us last week - the most recent letter stating I had 5 days left to pay up before they take the next step and start legal proceedings.

I sent them an email via the form on their website right away (Jan 30th) saying I had only just got the letters and that I was refusing to pay the money they wanted as the mail was unsolicited. The automated message after submitting said that they try to respond within 14 days and that the invoice would now be put on hold until the query had been dealt with.

But today received another letter (dated Feb 1st) saying they were about to start legal proceedings and take me to court.

So I guess my questions are - do I have right and reason to refuse to pay seeing as this was not an item I 'asked' for and will they give me some leeway since all the correspondence was sent to an old address. Or should I just pay up now and avoid risking it going further and incurring even more fees?

vuvuzela

I suspect they won't care about any of your reasons, as valid as they may be to a normal human. Their point of view - they delivered a packet to the address on it and it was subject to duty which they pre-paid and now want to claim back from the addressee.
I would certainly though complain to the company who sent it, stressing you are out of pocket due to them and see what they say...

Freddie_Snowbits

Yawn, Yawn, Yawn. I could say the customs man wins, but that would give the game away.

Sorry, but if you import, you have to do the following.

1 If this is a gift, ensure your giver marks the trinkets correctly.

2 Ignorance of the HM duties is no defence

3 We have loads of these in this parish

Vikitor

As stated, I didn't import any thing, it was an unsolicited package sent to an old address.

I didn't order it. I didn't ask for it. I didn't know it was coming.

paddyrg

Vikitor wrote: »

I didn't order it. I didn't ask for it. I didn't know it was coming.

Unlucky. Hassle the sender, they really should have been more thoughtful.

Freddie_Snowbits

Vikitor wrote: »

As stated, I didn't import any thing, it was an unsolicited package sent to an old address.

I didn't order it. I didn't ask for it. I didn't know it was coming.

OK so it is not a gift, but a bribe, then you should had refused delivery

Vikitor

Not sure what you are getting at or mean by the 'bribe' comment, but again...I didn't accept the delivery, it was sent to my previous address. Had I known a package I didn't want was coming from America and I might be liable to pay taxes on it I could have perhaps warned my parents to refuse it, but again...I didn't order it, I didn't ask for it, I didn't know it was coming.

Regardless thanks for the replies, I've taken my query elsewhere and got some less snarky and actually helpful responses there.