Stop daylight robbery - customs and duty etc.

35 Posts
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
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
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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
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!!!
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.
Thank you Honey Bear
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!
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.
Thank you Honey Bear
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.
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.
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.
Thank you Honey Bear