Parcelforce 'Clearance fee'

paddyrg

custardy wrote: »

surely the 'money saving' option is to do it yourself?

Absolutely it is. I encourage everyone to feels the fees are unreasonable to price up doing the import paperwork and clearance themselves. However, be aware it is likely to take over an hour, so £8 might not seem so unreasonable in the end.

Re the poster DHL charging 2% for domestic deliveries - it's a good deal I agree. However you'll often find DHL charge dramatically more in the first place, so to take advantage of lower clearing fees you pay a higher delivery fee. Swings and roundabouts.

Nilrem

paddyrg wrote: »

Re the poster DHL charging 2% for domestic deliveries - it's a good deal I agree. However you'll often find DHL charge dramatically more in the first place, so to take advantage of lower clearing fees you pay a higher delivery fee. Swings and roundabouts.

Aye I'd forgotten that, iirc last time I had some DVD's sent via DHL the extra cost was more than the difference in handling fees....(and was a guaranteed hit, whilst RM was a chance of getting hit).

AndyLGR

I want to know if the package has to be released by the postal company once the necessary vat charge/import duty has been paid? With the postal company billing the recipient for their fees afterwards?

Surely they can't hold it to ransom until you pay their fees too?

Has anyone any experience of this?

I can't believe that an item that cost only £28 which I knew would be subject to approx £5 import duty then gets an additional £13.50 clearance fee added on top of it.

custardy

AndyLGR wrote: »

This thread is getting a struggle on the last couple of pages.

I want to know if the package has to be released by the postal company once the necessary vat charge/import duty has been paid? With the postal company billing the recipient for their fees afterwards?

Has anyone any experience of this?

I can't believe that an item that cost only £28 which I knew would be subject to approx £5 import duty then gets an additional £13.50 clearance fee added on top of it.

You knew,yet didnt arrange clearance?
Who was doing it then?
No they dont have to until it is paid in full

AndyLGR

custardy wrote: »

You knew,yet didnt arrange clearance?
Who was doing it then?
No they dont have to until it is paid in full

I can't see where it says an extra fee may be levied in addition to the import duty when you check how much extra duty you have to pay before the package is delivered. Surely anyone else whould make that same assumption.

custardy

AndyLGR wrote: »

I can't see where it says an extra fee may be levied in addition to the import duty when you check how much extra duty you have to pay before the package is delivered. Surely anyone else whould make that same assumption.

Cant see where?

AndyLGR

When you check how much duty is due on an item it asks the full amount you paid and gives you the price you will have to pay in duty. It doesn't say on top of that there will also be an extra £13.50 payable to whoever, parcel force etc...

custardy

AndyLGR wrote: »

When you check how much duty is due on an item it asks the full amount you paid and gives you the price you will have to pay in duty. It doesn't say on top of that there will also be an extra £13.50 payable to whoever, parcel force etc...

check where?
its a pretty simple question

artbaron

I once won a US-based competition, but the downside came when I got a four figure bill for customs duty and assorted asshattery. A couple of years later I won again but this time I didn't receive any bill at all. Baffling.

mattyprice4004

AndyLGR wrote: »

I can't see where it says an extra fee may be levied in addition to the import duty when you check how much extra duty you have to pay before the package is delivered. Surely anyone else whould make that same assumption.

So you want them to do all the paperwork, process the payment and arrange for customs to hand the parcel back for free?

Nope, these things cost the company time and money. It's fair that you pay so the people importing smaller items under the limits don't subsidise your parcel costs.