Stop daylight robbery - customs and duty etc.

Mumraaa

Valli wrote: »

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.

Yes that too...It's all a game and if you don't know the rules you get taken. I was also just unlucky enough get the full payments as I saw the parcel initially got charged and passed then was assessed/recharged. I also talked an importer who says it always depends on who checks some officers let's stuff through others wack top dollar everything. I'm just hoping the thing does not break or is broken when it arrives...gulp. unfortunately s Korea it's the only country in the world making this specific item...anyway I've said my piece...

mamabuddah

I purchased an item from China, there were multiple sellers of the same item (all came from same factory probably) I went for the seller with good feedback and quoted the item as £128 plus £121 postage, others were advertising at £230 to £250 with free postage ( I suppose it makes it sound like a better deal although you really should factor in the postage) I ended up paying a total of about £40 (Parcel Farce admin fee and vat charges etc)...so shop carefully and as others say....get the postage charge shown seperately.

pogofish

Why don't people just do their own import paperwork - it reduces any duty to a nice predictable/easy to calculate sum and entirely avoids any "clearence fees" and the like.

stoatwblr

Seriously: Just don't.

You pay top dollar for postage and they WILL ensure you pay top dollar for handling fees + VAT + Duty (and your items are subject to the vagueries of Royal Mail - there's a 50/50- chance a video monitor will arrive with a smashed screen in my experience. They even managed to completely shatter a laptop once.)

There is NO duty applicable to a LCD video monitor, so if you've been charged 14% then you have grounds for complaint.

https://www.gov.uk/trade-tariff/commodities/8528593100

Fedex and UPS may seem more expensive, but the goods arrive quickly, undamaged, tracked the entire trip and their handling fees are low (Fedex is slightly lower than UPS, but $orkplace has a UPS account for such things, so work stuff goes that way).

After various rounds of experience with imports I won't ship using anything else. It's just not worth the hassle and risk.

stoatwblr

pogofish wrote: »

Why don't people just do their own import paperwork - it reduces any duty to a nice predictable/easy to calculate sum and entirely avoids any "clearence fees" and the like.

It can be quite hard to do this on individual imports from an overseas seller - and I've had one case where the shipper claimed that handling fees had been covered, only to find that my wife's suitcase full of clothing had a €500 charge attached at the amsterdam end (no, it wasn't new clothing, she was moving household stuff between countries)

PasturesNew

This is the whole point of being in Europe - making it easier to move/buy/sell goods across a distinct set of countries - and to specific standards, etc.

Buy outside of Europe and that's what you get .... it's always been like that.

pogofish

stoatwblr wrote: »

It can be quite hard to do this on individual imports from an overseas seller - and I've had one case where the shipper claimed that handling fees had been covered, only to find that my wife's suitcase full of clothing had a €500 charge attached at the amsterdam end (no, it wasn't new clothing, she was moving household stuff between countries)

No its not - so long as the shipper puts the correct form of words on the packaging/paperwork, the issue of handling fees never comes into it.

Enterprise_1701C

Do not try to make this a Europe debate, it has nothing to do with Europe as the item was bought from Korea. We all know Europe would do anything to wreck England and the debate should go elsewhere.

zaax

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!!!

Here is the TARIC - good luck
http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/customs/customs_duties/tariff_aspects/customs_tariff/index_en.htm

The duty rate is 2.7%
Yes you were done by the carrier - ask for the Customs entry number as evidence of duty paid