Being charged for receiving overseas delivery

JustAnotherSaver

I can't find a more suitable section of the forum for this to go in to be honest & I'd just like to know why this happened.

I've not ordered many things from abroad in the past, only a handful. On each of those few times i paid for the item, the shipping & that was it. I never had to pay extra just to pick the item up.

So I was looking for an item but could only find it on an American site, so placed the order & paid the costly shipping.

Then i get a card today saying basically i need to pay £12.25 to customs just for me to pick this item up.

I've never heard of this before & never experienced it before. Why is this?
And is the only way to get out of it to refuse delivery (& have it sent back for refund)?

hollydays

Doesn't it mention anything in their terms and conditions?

sheramber

details of charges for importing goods.

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

Your previous orders may have been under the limit for charges or they mau have slipped hrough without being charged.

Ectophile

hollydays wrote: »

Doesn't it mention anything in their terms and conditions?

I expect that they will have some generic disclaimer such as "we aren't responsible for customs charges in your country". They won't be willing to handle all the different import charging regimes in every country they ship to.

hollydays

Which is fair enough.

teddysmum

Some foreign Ebay sellers send goods with an incorrect description or state that they are sending a gift and get away with it.


I knew someone, who ordered a very 'cheap' dog themed throw from a USA company,but when her friend ordered one , from the same place,she was lumbered with a large import duty bill which made her throw quite expensive.

Bobcrowther

Next thread from OP: can anyone tell me why the sky is blue? (or any other blindingly obvious issue that a quick Google could solve)

Backbiter

My daughter ordered a T-shirt for me from the US, and I had a card through the door saying I needed to pay about £11 to collect it from the local depot. A small amount of this was tax/ import duty ( the package said the value was about $25, which was just above the limit so duty was payable), but around £8 was a post office admin/ handling charge. This seemed excessive and I assumed it was a post-privatisation piece of profiteering, but when I googled it, I found the charge predated the sell-off.

unforeseen

Backbiter wrote: »

around £8 was a post office admin/ handling charge. This seemed excessive and I assumed it was a post-privatisation piece of profiteering, but when I googled it, I found the charge predated the sell-off.

But they still have the same work to do post sell-off e.g. fill in customs paperwork etc. So if it is still £8 after so many years thgen it is good value for money. All firms in this line charge a handling/admin fee if they have to collect import tax and/or VAT on behalf of HMRC

It is a subject that has been done to death on here

aqua111

Bobcrowther wrote: »

Next thread from OP: can anyone tell me why the sky is blue? (or any other blindingly obvious issue that a quick Google could solve)

If all queries could be answered by Google, there would be little need for this Forum.

JustAnotherSaver

The value is over £15 is what's done it i suppose.

Thanks for the replies, the majority of you at least.

I'd fired off a quick email to the seller while i was at work to see what was going on but they said it is down to customs, which looking at it is fair enough.

It was a bit on the dear side to begin with, but just about ok. But now it's pretty expensive, especially considering to refuse it & return i'll have to pay return shipping & god knows what that will be.

Lesson learned i suppose.



Oh & a little off topic ... i don't vote