Stop daylight robbery - customs and duty etc. 29 May 2014 at 4:50PM edited 29 May 2014 at 6:05PM in Campaigns corner 19 replies 6.9K views

Mumraaa

I just bought a monitor from south Korea through ebay and the price was £198 with free delivery I thought wow as it was an amazing monitor and then bought it thinking thats it. I then realised even though there was no mention of it I probably would pay some VAT etc. and I thought ok I guess thats fair.

The bill for this £198 object came today : £105 !!! My jaw dropped I have found out recently that most people have paid between £0 and £50 for exactly the same object no one has even got to my dizzy hieghts of £105!! It makes me sick that they can take an object like this which has already had its postage paid for may i say and slap over 55 percent extra on top of it!! Jesus daylight robbery!

Anyway it just needs to be sorted out its so bad! I want to type more but I have to go - just wanted to throw it out there!

ps I was speaking to one guy from canada just now and he paid $20 :O

Well at least I'll sleep well tonight knowing I paid for one light bulb : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10717234/Police-spend-100-to-change-a-light-bulb.html

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Mumraaa wrote: »

I just bought a monitor from south Korea through ebay and the price was £198 with free delivery I thought wow as it was an amazing monitor and then bought it thinking thats it. I then realised even though there was no mention of it I probably would pay some VAT etc. and I thought ok I guess thats fair.

The bill for this £198 object came today : £105 !!! My jaw dropped I have found out recently that most people have paid between £0 and £50 for exactly the same object no one has even got to my dizzy hieghts of £105!! It makes me sick that they can take an object like this which has already had its postage paid for may i say and slap over 55 percent extra on top of it!! Jesus daylight robbery!

Anyway it just needs to be sorted out its so bad! I want to type more but I have to go - just wanted to throw it out there!

ps I was speaking to one guy from canada just now and he paid $20 :O

Well at least I'll sleep well tonight knowing I paid for one light bulb : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10717234/Police-spend-100-to-change-a-light-bulb.html

BoP will now interpret for the understanding amongst us.

OP trawled the net and found a cheap Korean monitor for his electronic gadget. He bought it cheap and got the thing imported by a courier. HM Revenue and Customs checked said package on arrival in the UK and slapped a customs charge on this. OP is upset.

Today's lesson. Always check what others costs are involved should you find a cheap alternative on some foreign website.

The cost of a light bulb is irrelevant.

Mumraaa

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth wrote: »

BoP will now interpret for the understanding amongst us.

OP trawled the net and found a cheap Korean monitor for his electronic gadget. He bought it cheap and got the thing imported by a courier. HM Revenue and Customs checked said package on arrival in the UK and slapped a customs charge on this. OP is upset.

Today's lesson. Always check what others costs are involved should you find a cheap alternative on some foreign website.

The cost of a light bulb is irrelevant.

I did check I spoke to many people in forums about it none had payed more than £50 in fact 3 pages nothing for the exact same item in the UK only one had to pay £50 and he thought was unlucky. Seems it's a lottery...ebay is a uk website.
It's ridiculous charging 20 percent of the delivery cost which actually was stated as free and was paid by the Korean and possibly over estimated. And then to get hit with duty from a country we have a free trade agreement with. 14 percent then vat on that 14 percent yeek! Spoke to a guy from Canada he paid £11 (only pretty much ten times less)! What a beautiful system we have!
Translation of bops post: nonsense :T . Today's lesson don't read bops posts.

notanewuser

Mumraaa wrote: »

I did check I spoke to many people in forums about it none had payed more than £50 in fact 3 pages nothing for the exact same item in the UK only one had to pay £50 and he thought was unlucky. Seems it's a lottery...ebay is a uk website.
It's ridiculous charging 20 percent of the delivery cost which actually was stated as free and was paid by the Korean and possibly over estimated. And then to get hit with duty from a country we have a free trade agreement with. 14 percent then vat on that 14 percent yeek! Spoke to a guy from Canada he paid £11 (only pretty much ten times less)! What a beautiful system we have!
Translation of bops post: nonsense :T . Today's lesson don't read bops posts.

20% is the VAT payable on imported goods. There is no separate agreement re goods from Korea (or anywhere else outside the EU).

eBay is registered in Luxembourg, not the UK!!!

Crackers!!!

Mumraaa

notanewuser wrote: »

20% is the VAT payable on imported goods. There is no separate agreement re goods from Korea (or anywhere else outside the EU).

eBay is registered in Luxembourg, not the UK!!!

Crackers!!![/QUOTE
It oh it's bops wife...
Yes I know it's 20 re read the post...http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/countries/south-korea/ Ok it's the eu must admit that was second hand info...not even worth explaining the rest don't forget to tuck bop into bed

Valli

Mumraaa wrote: »

I did check I spoke to many people in forums about it none had payed more than £50 in fact 3 pages nothing for the exact same item in the UK only one had to pay £50 and he thought was unlucky. Seems it's a lottery...ebay is a uk website.
It's ridiculous charging 20 percent of the delivery cost which actually was stated as free and was paid by the Korean and possibly over estimated. And then to get hit with duty from a country we have a free trade agreement with. 14 percent then vat on that 14 percent yeek! Spoke to a guy from Canada he paid £11 (only pretty much ten times less)! What a beautiful system we have!
Translation of bops post: nonsense :T . Today's lesson don't read bops posts.

Reading, on forums, what other people have paid is not checking; it's all anecdotal.

Duty must be paid on goods brought into the UK (over and above duty free limits) whether you physically bring them in or have them couriered in. This would have been a better place to check - rather than asking people on other forums (and in other countries!) what they were charged!

But kudos to the OP for coming up with an interesting slant to accuse other posters of collusion! Makes a change from the 'you all work for the company I'm complaining about' stance.

Mumraaa

Valli wrote: »

Reading, on forums, what other people have paid is not checking; it's all anecdotal.

Duty must be paid on goods brought into the UK (over and above duty free limits) whether you physically bring them in or have them couriered in. This would have been a better place to check - rather than asking people on other forums (and in other countries!) what they were charged!

But kudos to the OP for coming up with an interesting slant to accuse other posters of collusion! Makes a change from the 'you all work for the company I'm complaining about' stance.

He he yes I know...and yes I know all the replies I get will be daily mail readers or workers from the places we complain about .
Anyway I'm not here for help just shouting .

Anyone doing this type of thing in the future: contact seller ask them to state the item worth less than it is and don't add the postage. If the system is bonkers play the game!

Valli

Thing is, Mumraa, the import duty is not payable by the sender but by the buyer (who is the importer) so it's important that, if you are buying goods from abroad, you to factor the costs of duty in.

And, while I know you aren't here for help (it's the wrong part of the forum for that) it might help other people if they stumble across this thread. it's an issue that's come up before - and will again, I'm sure.

Mumraaa

Valli wrote: »

Thing is, Mumraa, the import duty is not payable by the sender but by the buyer (who is the importer) so it's important that, if you are buying goods from abroad, you to factor the costs of duty in.

And, while I know you aren't here for help (it's the wrong part of the forum for that) it might help other people if they stumble across this thread. it's an issue that's come up before - and will again, I'm sure.

Yes the bonkers part is most people buying the same item have not paid anywhere near what i did i seem be first one to be charged fully out of many so reality does seem to be different to the rules I'm afraid and the hmrc site won't tell you this. Funny thing is even the guy I spoke to from customs was a bit shocked at the amount! And to say the postage is part of the value of an item is insult to injury as the poster had basically paid it for the transport and adding vat on duty is bad. Then you get slapped with a£13.50 admin fee from parcel force so the £50 postage the sender paid seems to have evaporated at customs even though they charged vat on it :O .
It should be vat on the item value only duty after and possibly the admin fee but not the postage actually paid. But I'm unsure if that. Canada does a flat rate of 5 percent I just paid over 55 percent effectively ...bonkers.

notanewuser

Why are you comparing our customs with Canada?

If they didn't charge duty on the postage, it would be even cheaper to buy from abroad. We might as well stop making anything in the UK because everybody would just buy and import everything from outside.

Valli

I can see why you are cross; had you paid less for the item plus the postage then you would probably have paid less duty. The way to go would have been to get the sellet to invoice for the cost of goods and postage separately.

IMO ebay have caused this issue; now they charge 10% of the total transaction there is no financial advantage, for a seller, of separating cost of goods and cost of postage.