Parcelforce 'Clearance fee'

lovinituk

How_many_cowboys wrote: »

So I have to pay someone £8 to make a bank transfer, which I guess is done in bulk, guess they get a invoice with say 1000 payments on a day, 1 payment combined £8000 for clicking on send ain't to bad going really is it. Then I have to go and collect it like I said earlier., talk about half a job.

We're going round in circles a bit here! The £8 is not just for a bank transfer. Go and have a look at exactly what you have to do to clear your own deliveries through customs and then tell us if you still think all they do is a bank transfer!

And you don't have to go and get your parcel from the depot - you can pay the fees over the phone and then PF will deliver it to you the following day. Although I realise this is not always suitable if you need the delivery urgently.

How_many_cowboys

lovinituk wrote: »

We're going round in circles a bit here! The £8 is not just for a bank transfer. Go and have a look at exactly what you have to do to clear your own deliveries through customs and then tell us if you still think all they do is a bank transfer!

And you don't have to go and get your parcel from the depot - you can pay the fees over the phone and then PF will deliver it to you the following day. Although I realise this is not always suitable if you need the delivery urgently.

So its like the good old bait and switch sales technique, we'll charge x amount, get people to use our service and then once we have their package we can add fees to it for our own profit and they can't do sweet FA about it because they're British and they never complain about anything,they just bit their upper lip and move on.

lovinituk

How_many_cowboys wrote: »

So its like the good old bait and switch sales technique, we'll charge x amount, get people to use our service and then once we have their package we can add fees to it for our own profit and they can't do sweet FA about it because they're British and they never complain about anything,they just bit their upper lip and move on.

OK, you're not listening to anything that's being said so I suggest the best course of action for you is to never order anything from overseas and then none of these evil courier companies will ever be able to rip you off again! Simples!

custardy

How_many_cowboys wrote: »

If HMRC contacted me themselves, then I would of sorted it out, I know now that I could of notified them in advance to dodge the fees before Parcel force held my package for ransom.

exactly
you chose the express method for a fee

How_many_cowboys

If anyone is interested this is PF defence.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/845/2new.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/694/1newx.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/849/3new.jpg/

baby_frogmella

I order goods from USA on a regular basis and up until now have never paid the £8/£13 Parcelforce clearance fee....i make a quick call to the Parcelforce directors office and i get asked to pay the fee and they refund it immediately. However last week when i tried to do the same thing, they said the new Postal Act 2011 came into effect from Oct 2011 which states that postal companies cannot release items until all fees have been paid and that i had to pay the fee which they say is non-negotiable:mad:

From now on, i'm going to ask the sender to mark 'goods to be Customs cleared by the importer' on the parcel and declare the goods myself. Sure, its going to take slightly longer but i'm not going to give cowboys such as Parcelforce one more penny in these 'clearance' fees. Full details here:
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1082224979&type=RESOURCES

speed098

so custardy

as an ex postie how do you justify the charge on the postage rate for items?
After all VAT/TAX has already been paid on this cost in the country that the parcel was sent from. Or do you think VAT/TAX should be charged multiple times for a single service? So can we now get in touch with say USPS and say hey we want a refund of your state tax on postage paid as RM have more legal right to charge it than?

You have also stated that how would the parcel get to the person it is addressed to well the UPU have this within the acts ( this is why you only need to put stamps from country of origion on the parcel not stamps for every country it goes through).

If say the UK in total send 100 tons of mail to the USA and the USA send the same no payments would change hands but if the UK sent 20 tons more the USA would pay an internationaly agreed fee for that weight not per parcel/item.

The simple fact is the handling fee is excessive for the automated service provided, the fact of the delays for most beyond the agreed delivery times for service selected, and the blatent BLACKMAILING by the RM/PF of pay this or else attitude.
Also for most the only real option is to go and collect and pay at time of collection this is understandable after all who wants to give card details to a company with the attitude that RM/PF have of pay up or else!
RM/PF as well as UKBA and the Gov are legally obliged to observe the UPU standards but tipical of our Gov and big company's they ignore the law to suit themselves.
The allowances set for being duty exempt are rediculously low over here.

What RM/PF are doing is no different than what clampers do pay up or you don't get it be it a car with clampers or your goods with RM/PF.
Everyone hates clampers yet I think most would agree with that if you park were you should not you can be charged it is all down to the way it is done which decides if it is legal or illegal or should be made illegal and the way PF/RM operate then if not it def should be illegal, no company should be demanding money and withholding goods which they do not own ( if your car is repaired at a garage and then held till you pay remember they have put parts which they own into it unlike the RM/PF who are gathering money for the Gov and by default assume you agree to this).

So to sum up :-

1. RM/PF already get paid for delivering the item under UPU agreement/act.
2. Tax/VAT has already been paid for this postal service in the country it was sent from.
3. Items are being held in a way that is iddentical to blackmail.
4. you state about charge being fair as they collect the revenue due the UKBA. NO! it is for the UKBA to pay RM/PF for doing thier job not joe public just as if you pay via paypoint etc a % of the money you pay goes to the paypoint location another probably to the paypoint company yet a £5 phone top up does not get you £4.50 it gets you £5 yes the charges may be passed on hidden in call cost rates but that is not what RM/PF are doing they are ADDING to the cost so you would have to pay £5.50 for that same top up or more accuratly with RM/PF charges anything upto 40% more.

Also one of your arguments of you would have to pay a seperate delivery company to deliver a parcel is flawed it ALREADY HAS BEEN PAID FOR !

custardy

speed098 wrote: »

so custardy

as an ex postie how do you justify the charge on the postage rate for items?
After all VAT/TAX has already been paid on this cost in the country that the parcel was sent from.

I read to here
this point shows you have no idea what you are talking about
go do some reading

vikingaero

speed098 wrote: »

so custardy

as an ex postie how do you justify the charge on the postage rate for items?
After all VAT/TAX has already been paid on this cost in the country that the parcel was sent from. Or do you think VAT/TAX should be charged multiple times for a single service? So can we now get in touch with say USPS and say hey we want a refund of your state tax on postage paid as RM have more legal right to charge it than?

You have also stated that how would the parcel get to the person it is addressed to well the UPU have this within the acts ( this is why you only need to put stamps from country of origion on the parcel not stamps for every country it goes through).

If say the UK in total send 100 tons of mail to the USA and the USA send the same no payments would change hands but if the UK sent 20 tons more the USA would pay an internationaly agreed fee for that weight not per parcel/item.

The simple fact is the handling fee is excessive for the automated service provided, the fact of the delays for most beyond the agreed delivery times for service selected, and the blatent BLACKMAILING by the RM/PF of pay this or else attitude.
Also for most the only real option is to go and collect and pay at time of collection this is understandable after all who wants to give card details to a company with the attitude that RM/PF have of pay up or else!
RM/PF as well as UKBA and the Gov are legally obliged to observe the UPU standards but tipical of our Gov and big company's they ignore the law to suit themselves.
The allowances set for being duty exempt are rediculously low over here.

What RM/PF are doing is no different than what clampers do pay up or you don't get it be it a car with clampers or your goods with RM/PF.
Everyone hates clampers yet I think most would agree with that if you park were you should not you can be charged it is all down to the way it is done which decides if it is legal or illegal or should be made illegal and the way PF/RM operate then if not it def should be illegal, no company should be demanding money and withholding goods which they do not own ( if your car is repaired at a garage and then held till you pay remember they have put parts which they own into it unlike the RM/PF who are gathering money for the Gov and by default assume you agree to this).

So to sum up :-

1. RM/PF already get paid for delivering the item under UPU agreement/act.
2. Tax/VAT has already been paid for this postal service in the country it was sent from.
3. Items are being held in a way that is iddentical to blackmail.
4. you state about charge being fair as they collect the revenue due the UKBA. NO! it is for the UKBA to pay RM/PF for doing thier job not joe public just as if you pay via paypoint etc a % of the money you pay goes to the paypoint location another probably to the paypoint company yet a £5 phone top up does not get you £4.50 it gets you £5 yes the charges may be passed on hidden in call cost rates but that is not what RM/PF are doing they are ADDING to the cost so you would have to pay £5.50 for that same top up or more accuratly with RM/PF charges anything upto 40% more.

Also one of your arguments of you would have to pay a seperate delivery company to deliver a parcel is flawed it ALREADY HAS BEEN PAID FOR !

The simplest way would be for the buyer to conform to HMRC values on imported goods by researching the levels of VAT and duty that may be charged. Then find out if RM/PF are involved and use an alternative carrier. What most people seem to want to do is to to skank a parcel through the system and avoid paying fees/VAT duty.

With all this crudola on various forums if I were RM/PF I would give you one opportunity to pay or not to pay and then kick the parcel back to the sender. End of.

speed098

Obviously you both don't care or understand try reading other forums and what is said by people a lot more knowledgable.

From other forums it now seems that if you dispute the clearance fee it may or may not be waived but it will at least be defered and maybe invoiced at a later date, if not waived in full.

Holding mail in liew of a payment of clearance fees is in breach of law as long as duty and Vat etc have been paid RM/PF if they wish these clearance fees either have to invoice you AFTER delivery or as it is not a criminal matter take civil action against you if you do not pay, which would be awkward as you have documentation from them of demanding this money or they will not deliver goods you own legal right to.

If RM/PF went back to a system were they sent you a letter asking for payment which could also be done at time of delivery then I have less issues but to demand it prior to delivery is not legal.

Some forums are actually now questioning the payment of the duty/VAT on your behalf as after all you have not entered nor has the original carrier or sender entered any written contract for this to be paid on your behalf and although I would never want to see these charges waved on a legal point of law maybe this is what needs to be done for more transparency.

If RM/PF demand this money ask for a seperate invoice after all if the charge and the way they are charging it is legal they will have no problem at all in doing so and clearly stating on the invoice "paid as demanded under ****** act of law proir to release of goods".