Royal Mail's £8 customs handling charge - any way to avoid? Is it legal?

steampowered

It can't possibly be feasible for RM to ask whether or not you want them to handle the import fee for every parcel they import into the UK. Just think of the logistics and problems that would be involved in that.

The fee seems reasonable to me. Having to clear things through customs does involve a fair amount of admin especially when you have parcels being inspected and so on.

If you don't want to pay the fee, presumably you can use a different shipment company that doesn't use RM? Although you'd then have that company's fee which is likely greater.

eskimo26

Last time i bought from America there was a £15 threshold where duty isn't charged but that includes shipping, if it's a couple small items just break up the order.

Nilrem

eskimo26 wrote: »

Last time i bought from America there was a £15 threshold where duty isn't charged but that includes shipping, if it's a couple small items just break up the order.

Aye, if possible it's often better to pay an extra pound or so to break the order up than risk the fee.

The customs limit is £15 before charges are possible, not including postage costs, but to confuse things once the goods are worth enough that a charge is possible the shipping fees are also taken into account.

So £14.99 goods + £3 shipping is not going to get hit by charges, but £15.99 and £2 shipping could get hit and the charge would be based on £17.99 (the most annoying hit I got was for something that worked out at about £15.05 when it entered the country).

zaax

Royalmail don't actually pay HMRC a penny until you pay them.
Their "fee" is actually illegal as under the Postal Services Act they "must not interfere, withhold, interupt or delay the queens post".
This happens a lot over on the Airsoft forums.
Go to the sorting office and mention the Postal Services Act, Non-contract, etc and it it surprisingly easy not to pay their "fee.
They rely on the fact that A. You don't know any better and B. You accept their "contract".
10mins with Google and you do know better and both parties MUST agree for a contract to be in place.
If they didn't ask you if you wanted them to pay it on your behalf then they cannot under standard contract law infer that a contract exists for them to charge you for a service which you did not request....
Just make sure any package in future is either "Gift" below a certain value mind.... a "Commercial Sample" or it's face value INCLUDING POSTAGE (if airmail/express) is below the threshold and that way there will be no charge anyway.

custardy

zaax wrote: »

Royalmail don't actually pay HMRC a penny until you pay them.
Their "fee" is actually illegal as under the Postal Services Act they "must not interfere, withhold, interupt or delay the queens post".
This happens a lot over on the Airsoft forums.
Go to the sorting office and mention the Postal Services Act, Non-contract, etc and it it surprisingly easy not to pay their "fee.
They rely on the fact that A. You don't know any better and B. You accept their "contract".
10mins with Google and you do know better and both parties MUST agree for a contract to be in place.
If they didn't ask you if you wanted them to pay it on your behalf then they cannot under standard contract law infer that a contract exists for them to charge you for a service which you did not request....
Just make sure any package in future is either "Gift" below a certain value mind.... a "Commercial Sample" or it's face value INCLUDING POSTAGE (if airmail/express) is below the threshold and that way there will be no charge anyway.

If you are going to quote the PSA,at least make sure its up to date.

royalmailcustomscharge

@ custardy - your comment is really annoying, instead of trying to sound condescending just say what the current legislation is - if you know anything about it - you're not helping anyone with such posts.

custardy

royalmailcustomscharge wrote: »

@ custardy - your comment is really annoying, instead of trying to sound condescending just say what the current legislation is - if you know anything about it - you're not helping anyone with such posts.

I know lots. However it has been covered to death for years
Same whining,same story,same apathy.

Hintza

zaax wrote: »

Just make sure any package in future is either "Gift" below a certain value mind.... a "Commercial Sample" or it's face value INCLUDING POSTAGE (if airmail/express) is below the threshold and that way there will be no charge anyway.

Explain to me what happens when your £1,000 item doesn't arrive or is damaged in transit and you want to put in a claim when the declared value is £15?

royalmailcustomscharge

custardy yet another pointless post that does not answer any of the questions

boo_star

Hintza wrote: »

Explain to me what happens when your £1,000 item doesn't arrive or is damaged in transit and you want to put in a claim when the declared value is £15?

It would be the sellers problem, not yours.