RM £8 Customs Charge on £10 order

Baggieboy_2

No probs. Just have to wait till September to use the damn thing!

Allergictobureaucracy

I've just been charged 43p VAT plus £8 handling charge on a £38 parcel of books - contacted the seller, who thinks the charge is because there was a 99p box of notecards in the parcel in addition to the 8 books that I ordered. I shall challenge it on principle - if HMRC maintain that it is a just charge, at least I shall have made it uneconomic for them to levy it, and if they do refund it, I shall auction the cheque on eBay.
I have decided to give up VAT for Lent - I shall print off a list of the things that incur VAT, and avoid buying them. Homemade sweets, icecream and clothes, here we come! Seriously, I'm not just being anarchistic - VAT is a regressive tax which is harder on the poor than the rich, and, if others do likewise, maybe we'll get the Government to come up with a fairer way to raise the money that they need.

custardy

Allergictobureaucracy wrote: »

I've just been charged 43p VAT plus £8 handling charge on a £38 parcel of books - contacted the seller, who thinks the charge is because there was a 99p box of notecards in the parcel in addition to the 8 books that I ordered. I shall challenge it on principle - if HMRC maintain that it is a just charge, at least I shall have made it uneconomic for them to levy it, and if they do refund it, I shall auction the cheque on eBay.
I have decided to give up VAT for Lent - I shall print off a list of the things that incur VAT, and avoid buying them. Homemade sweets, icecream and clothes, here we come! Seriously, I'm not just being anarchistic - VAT is a regressive tax which is harder on the poor than the rich, and, if others do likewise, maybe we'll get the Government to come up with a fairer way to raise the money that they need.

Religious fanatic.........

ranulf

aldredd wrote: »

I know the £8 customs fee is an oft-queried fee, but I'm not even sure I should be paying it.

In total, I've been asked to pay £13.95 on an order than cost $15.85 (about £10) - of which $5 was the item & $10 was shipping.
...

Not only that, but whilst you can challenge the fee / customs charge, you have to pay the fee first.

The process stinks :mad:

I know you've already contacted the seller and discovered the reason, but there is another alternative to paying...

If you don't collect the item, Royal Mail are obliged to return the item to the sender. It'll cost you extra time in getting the item, and it's not clear if the seller will get their $10 shipping back, but certainly it's a way out if the customs fee is excessive compared to the VAT levied.

I've only done that once when RM decided they wanted to charge me the £8 handling charge on a DVD that was only owing about £2 of VAT. In fact, it was below the threshold on the value I paid, but they opened it and decided they'd assess it on the UK price and suddenly it was slightly over the threshold and I was eligible for the tiny VAT fee and an excessive handling fee. By which point, the item would have been more expensive than the UK high street price.

Fortunately, the seller was happy to wait until the item was returned by Royal Mail and then refund me the purchase price.

custardy

ranulf wrote: »

I know you've already contacted the seller and discovered the reason, but there is another alternative to paying...

If you don't collect the item, Royal Mail are obliged to return the item to the sender. It'll cost you extra time in getting the item, and it's not clear if the seller will get their $10 shipping back, but certainly it's a way out if the customs fee is excessive compared to the VAT levied.

I've only done that once when RM decided they wanted to charge me the £8 handling charge on a DVD that was only owing about £2 of VAT. In fact, it was below the threshold on the value I paid, but they opened it and HMRC decided they'd assess it on the UK price and suddenly it was slightly over the threshold and I was eligible for the tiny VAT fee and an excessive handling fee. By which point, the item would have been more expensive than the UK high street price.

Fortunately, the seller was happy to wait until the item was returned by Royal Mail and then refund me the purchase price.

Just edited that so you get an idea how it actually works.