Fedex advancement fee....should i pay?

hiohaa

ordered something from america.
Cost, $131.9.
via exchange rate of 1.5562, i got a VAT invoice from fedex of £17.01.

All well and good.
But then they've stuck on another £12 'advancement fee'.

Extract from website:
Advancement Fee Duties, taxes and other charges might be due when importing a shipment. FedEx may advance these fees as assessed by Customs on behalf of the payer. A fee will be based on the advanced amount.

Advancement Fee
2.5% of advanced Duty/Tax with a minimum of ￡12 which ever is greater

So here's my issue.
- i was aware that i would have had to pay duty/tax when i made the purchase. I was not aware and was not informed by the vendor that there would be an additional fee that Fedex would charge, for simply paying for the taxes on my behalf before delivering to me.
Does this put me in any position to fight this fee?

Or... do all delivery companies have to pay on behalf of the consumer before delivering, by law, because customs demand it immediately?

The issue i have is i have a much larger item coming from the US soon, using the above exchange rate, i'll be paying tax of £243 AND an advancement fee of £12!!!

£12 fees. For fedex to simply send a 2 second electronic transaction to customs in advance. This is absolute nonsense.

I would be happy for Fedex to hold the goods, inform me that they are in the country and that I need to pay customs to release the goods, before they deliver. Why can't I just do that?

wealdroam

hiohaa wrote: »

I would be happy for Fedex to hold the goods, inform me that they are in the country and that I need to pay customs to release the goods, before they deliver. Why can't I just do that?

You can.

Read HMRC's website about self clearance.

Be quick though... you need to put the process in place in advance.

visidigi

If you want to do it yourself then you should instruct your shipper to mark the shipment as such.

you clearly have absolutely no idea what this involves by concluding, incorrectly that the process is 'simply' a two second electronic process.

The fee is a fixed basis, or percentage of the value of above the threshold.

All couriers and post services into the UK charge a clearance fee.

If goods were cheaper to buy abroad and import, clear and sell don't you think everyone would do it!?!

bris

It's not just paying customs though, it's clearing them too which takes time. They have a service that greatly increases the time to clearance because the have customs officers on hand. This service is cheap and quick.


You can do it yourself, you need to inform the shipper that you will clear your own customs, this will hold up delivery until you get the paperwork done, good luck with that.


It's a cheap service that gets the goods to you much quicker than you can, or shouldn't they get a fee for doing this for you?

sjbrun

Ive imported large orders where ive done the paper work myself, depending on the order and whats in it, it can get checked deeper by customs. All the time its at customs or the port im charged a daily fee.

For a small order it would be much cheaper and easier to just pay the fee espicially if you dont know what you are doing.