Parcelforce 'Clearance fee'

clinkerman

After following the information here and on another forum (the vw parts one listed early in this thread) I just thought I would let you know what just happened to me.

Ordered some parts from USA and a invoice for
£13.46 VAT & £8 Clearance Fee arrived.
(Parcelfarce Rotherham Depot)

I sent a cheque for the £13.46 VAT

When the cheque had had time to arrive I called them and they confirmed receipt and agreed to deliver the parcel.
It just arrived today and I've also had an invoice for the £8 fee which I have yet to pay

Result - thanks guys!:)

custardy

clinkerman wrote: »

After following the information here and on another forum (the vw parts one listed early in this thread) I just thought I would let you know what just happened to me.

Ordered some parts from USA and a invoice for
£13.46 VAT & £8 Clearance Fee arrived.
(Parcelfarce Rotherham Depot)

I sent a cheque for the £13.46 VAT

When the cheque had had time to arrive I called them and they confirmed receipt and agreed to deliver the parcel.
It just arrived today and I've also had an invoice for the £8 fee which I have yet to pay

Result - thanks guys!:)

i assume from now on you will arrange your own clearance to avoid this?

johnheritage

I've also had an invoice for the £8 fee which I have yet to pay

Are they still chasing you for that?

---

Dear John,

Thank you for your email.

When goods enter the UK from outside the EU they are presented to the UK Border Agency by the carrier for Customs clearance. The import Customs charges are raised by the UK Border Agency staff and the goods are then passed back to the carrier for the import Customs charges to be paid by the carrier on behalf of their customer. The carrier then arranges for delivery the goods, which in Parcelforceżs case, this is only done when the import Customs charges have been paid to them by the customer.

Paying a handling fee to Royal Mail

If customs charges are payable upon importation Royal Mail charge a handling fee to cover the costs for operating the postal customs depot, handling the package for customs examination, and, if required, opening, repacking and resealing the package if, for example information is missing from the declaration. Royal Mail fees are itemised separately on the charge label and collected at the same time as customs charges. Because they are completely separate from any customs charges any queries about them should be raised with Royal Mail or Parcelforce Worldwide as appropriate.

Declaring the goods yourself

As the importer you can carry out your own customs procedures.
If you want to do this you will need to ensure the sender clearly marks the packet 'goods to be customs cleared by importer'.
You will then be sent a declaration to complete and return to the appropriate customs postal office.
They will calculate any import charges and write to advise you of your tax liability.
When you have paid this and the funds have been cleared, your goods will be released for delivery.
However, as a manual procedure there could be a considerable delay to the receipt of your goods.
You can obtain copies of the import declaration form and further information from our National Advice Service (NAS) on Tel 0845 010 9000.
This information is available from our web site by using the following links;

Import & export, which is under the heading businesses & corporations;
Businesslink ż International Trade,
Practical advice for business, where on the left hand margin is a heading
International trade;
Under the heading Practicalities of importing & exporting is Practical importing;
Importing & exporting by post;
Under the heading subjects covered in this guide is How to declare goods when importing by post;
Half way done this page is Declaring the goods yourself.

I must emphasise that the advice given is based on the information you supplied. If the nature of the transaction changes in technical detail, or the relevant details provided were incomplete or incorrect, we will not be bound by this ruling.

Yours sincerely,

HM Revenue & Customs
Customs, International Trade & Excise

---

This package is coming from the US, so I'll have a look at the label and see if that's an option on the official US customs sticker. I'd say that's a fair answer.

I do not like the idea that it is immediately assumed Parcel Force should pay it for me. When ordering this packet, there was absolutely no mention of Parcel Force being the end carrier. The parcel was being tracked and, even if it wasn't, it wouldn't have been hard for them to send me the letter before paying the charges themselves.

If anything, that would reduce the possible debt they would put themselves at risk to.

Also notice that if you copy and paste "goods to be customs cleared by importer" into google, WITH the quotes (meaning, search for this precisely), neither HMRC nor Parcel Force come up. In fact, one of the first in the list is my reply to this thread. Neither is the phrase used in HM RC's own guide and the option is not even discussed in Parcel Force's. Not exactly clearly available information.

custardy

johnheritage wrote: »

I do not like the idea that it is immediately assumed Parcel Force should pay it for me. When ordering this packet, there was absolutely no mention of Parcel Force being the end carrier. The parcel was being tracked and, even if it wasn't, it wouldn't have been hard for them to send me the letter before paying the charges themselves.

If anything, that would reduce the possible debt they would put themselves at risk to.

Also notice that if you copy and paste "goods to be customs cleared by importer" into google, WITH the quotes (meaning, search for this precisely), neither HMRC nor Parcel Force come up. In fact, one of the first in the list is my reply to this thread. Neither is the phrase used in HM RC's own guide and the option is not even discussed in Parcel Force's. Not exactly clearly available information.

so all items due customs would be held at customs until it was found out what was happening with them?

RevK

To be honest I still cannot see why arranging for customs clearance is not just one of the many things that have to be done to get the item from A to B and so part of the price charged to the sender. This is even more so when the courier like Fed Ex is the end to end provider of the service. Whether duty is to be paid or not - everything has to be offered to customs to check and indeed onr of the quotes here from RM it says that is what the fee is for - so why only charged when duty does apply?

I just ordered something from a .com web site and paid in euros for it. I did not realise it was going to be shipped from Japan. Going back to the site now it is in fact pretty obvious that it is being shipped from Japan and I simply did not notice. I was not even looking for the cheapest price - it was a novelty item someone had sent me a link to and I though I would buy them.

As a result the subsequent invoice from Fed Ex, weeks after the delivery, including their £10 admin fee, is a tad surprising.

I'll try and find the legislation covering couriers like Fed Ex, as *I* have no contract with them for delivery or admin of fees, how dare they charge me an admin fee for something I did not ask them to do.

I completely agree that when you buy something you should know the total costs of what you are buying, wherever you buy it from.

I did wonder what would happen if the web site did not mention it was being shipped from Japan. Where would I stand if I did not even know that I was importing from outside the EU? Charging me in euros did rather fool me.

custardy

RevK wrote: »

To be honest I still cannot see why arranging for customs clearance is not just one of the many things that have to be done to get the item from A to B and so part of the price charged to the sender. This is even more so when the courier like Fed Ex is the end to end provider of the service. Whether duty is to be paid or not - everything has to be offered to customs to check and indeed onr of the quotes here from RM it says that is what the fee is for - so why only charged when duty does apply?

I just ordered something from a .com web site and paid in euros for it. I did not realise it was going to be shipped from Japan. Going back to the site now it is in fact pretty obvious that it is being shipped from Japan and I simply did not notice. I was not even looking for the cheapest price - it was a novelty item someone had sent me a link to and I though I would buy them.

As a result the subsequent invoice from Fed Ex, weeks after the delivery, including their £10 admin fee, is a tad surprising.

I'll try and find the legislation covering couriers like Fed Ex, as *I* have no contract with them for delivery or admin of fees, how dare they charge me an admin fee for something I did not ask them to do.

I completely agree that when you buy something you should know the total costs of what you are buying, wherever you buy it from.

I did wonder what would happen if the web site did not mention it was being shipped from Japan. Where would I stand if I did not even know that I was importing from outside the EU? Charging me in euros did rather fool me.

because they dont have to deal with customs
since you have made ono effort to sort your own clearance,why are you complaining about it being done for you?
you have a free option available to you

bunberry

Is there a way to clear packages through customs yourself after you've had the VAT + PF clearance fee invoice?

I get that carrier companies will charge a fee for doing anything, but £13.50 from PF for paying a charge on your behalf is just a rip off imo. I've had to pay this fee twice, and both times it's been more than the VAT itself. If PF's clearance fee was more resonable, like DHL's for example, I wouldn't have an objection.

custardy

bunberry wrote: »

Is there a way to clear packages through customs yourself after you've had the VAT + PF clearance fee invoice?

I get that carrier companies will charge a fee for doing anything, but £13.50 from PF for paying a charge on your behalf is just a rip off imo. I've had to pay this fee twice, and both times it's been more than the VAT itself. If PF's clearance fee was more resonable, like DHL's for example, I wouldn't have an objection.

well the clearance has been done,so its a bit late to then do it yourself

bunberry

So there's no way to clear packages through customs yourself if you don't know there's one in transit? The only time you get any notification is when there's a charge to pay, and by then the package has already been through customs.

custardy

bunberry wrote: »

So there's no way to clear packages through customs yourself if you don't know there's one in transit? The only time you get any notification is when there's a charge to pay, and by then the package has already been through customs.

well how exactly would you like the courier companies to know that you dont know?