Overseas visitor trouble claiming VAT refund

Verdana

My Japanese friend visited Manchester a month ago and bought a lot of goods from Selfridges. She asked about claiming VAT refund instore and was given a form and told by a staff member that there is no VAT refund counter at Manchester Airport, so she needed to send the form to the address of a VAT refund company. She did so and got a response from said company stating the form cannot be processed as it lacked a Customs stamp. My friend feels confused and ripped off. She either didn't know/wasn't told to goto a Customs counter at the airport, or she forgot. I'm trying to ascertain which it is but I don't know if that's relevant.

My question is can I obtain a stamp for her retrospectively and who do I ring/email? Are there any other ways for us to get her refund?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

pjclar02

Hello there

Unfortunately, you cannot get a retrospective stamp from Customs in order to recover the VAT through the refund company.

The Customs stamp is necessary as verification that the goods have left the country for a destination outside of the EU. Therefore, Customs would have checked that your friend was taking the items purchased out of the country.

There is no way to verify this retrospectively, so my view would be that the opportunity to recover the VAT is lost. I may be corrected by other experts on this forum though.

Sorry this is not the answer you were hoping for.

Best wishes

Paul